I appear to have landed in a bit of a problem with regard to booking a 3 night stay in prague..
Basically, my brother and his Fiancee are getting married and as they couldn%26#39;t afford a honeymoon, I offered to get them 3 nights in Prague as a wedding gift.
Everything seemed to be fine, I did some research on this site and a few others, picked what I thought would be a good hotel and booked it all.
I%26#39;ve booked what I thought would be a good hotel, I wanted to make sure their stay would be charged to me, rather than the hotel asking them for payment during their stay, but I seem to be unable to arrange this.
I%26#39;ve sent the Hotel E-mails asking a few basic questions about their check-in and payment for the stay, but they went unanswered.
Finally, I called the hotel, but the person that answered didn%26#39;t speak a word of English and was of no help at all..
I know, this may not be such a surprise and I%26#39;m probably nieve/stupid for expecting otherwise, but if I can%26#39;t even communicate with them, what am I supposed to do?
I know I%26#39;m going to come across as ignorant for asking this (I cringe writing it), but I was just hoping to give my brother and his soon to be wife a memorable trip.
What should I do? I could just give my brother and his fiancee the money to take with them, but that seems to cheapen the gift. Plus, the hotel is booked with my card and I have no way of knowing if the hotel will want that card for check-in.
that aside, if the language barrier with the hotel(s) is that much of an issue, how can I possible think that their trip will be as stress free as I had hoped it to be?
Sorry for the long post, but I%26#39;m grasping here. It%26#39;s probably my own fault and I concede I%26#39;m probably a prat, but I%26#39;ve got to make sure this works out.
Thanks.
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Since you obviously haven%26#39;t paid for it yet then just cancel and rebook with a place that DOES speak your language and where you CAN pay ahead of time...or just order some Czech Currency from your local bank in the amount of the hotel and give it to your brother.
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there are few hotels around that will accept people not known to them to check out without paying before they leave and rely on the word of some other person who they have not met to pay their bill.
One solution would be to agree with the hotel to charge the cost of the room now and other items you know will be taken and you know the cost; e.g. cost of breakfast to be paid by you before the stay and for the cost of other incidentals to be settled by your brother locally when they check out.
by the way, you don%26#39;t say which hotel you are dealing with, so if you need an alternative, we can give you a similar choice
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Sorry, I should probably have been clearer in my original post.
The hotel I have booked is the Bila Kuzelka. It only has a couple of reviews on this site, but seems to score well on other sites as well (don%26#39;t know if I can mention rival sites)..
It looked to have a good location, nice decor and the reviews elsewhere indicated they spoke basic/conversational english.
The reason I had been trying to contact them was to arrage pre-payment for the stay and to check what my brother and his wife would need (details / proof) for them to check-in. Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, the hotel didn%26#39;t respond to my e-mails and the member of staff I spoke to on the phone, didn%26#39;t speak English.
I had hoped I had a good hotel arranged for them and the trip almost sorted, but if I can%26#39;t arrange pre-payment or communicate with the hotel it would either mean giving my brother and his wife the cash (not ideal) and hoping they have no problems checking in or communicating with the staff, or going back to step one and searching for something else which may be nice for them(?)..
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does your brother or his fiancee have a credit card and you can pay him before the credit card bill is due?
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Hi Nigma
If I was you I would cancel this hotel and contact Tomas at Travelcook.com, tell him exactly your requirements and I%26#39;m sure he%26#39;ll be able to sort the whole thing out.
If you can%26#39;t communicate with the hotel staff then your brother and his wife wont be able to either so any problems they have or changes they require will be difficult to deal with.
Tomas always replies to emails very quickly and I%26#39;ve used him for very different bookings several times.
Giving money or paying a credit card bill just isn%26#39;t as special, give Tomas a go I%26#39;m sure he%26#39;ll be able to sort you out.
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