Hotel availability abroad online...

R.O.S.S.I · 26 Jul 2016 at 20:16

Hi all, currently looking at booking some accomodation for myself and my gf for our wedding next year abroad and just wondering when hotels generally release their room allocations for each holiday year on sites such as Expedia, Hotels.com, Booking.com etc?

Currently looking for accomodation for August 2017 and there isn't much showing as available for 2017, however if I search for August 2016 there is a lot more choice. Not I fail to believe that all the hotels are booked up for next August so wondering when rooms are released to sites like the above as i'm assuming at some point more hotels will begin to show availability for next August.

Is it at the end of the season usually? Or start of the year? I thought it would be 12 months but i've searched for hotels for next May and there is still the same limited numbers.

Anyone any idea?

wildman · 26 Jul 2016 at 21:31

best thing i find is to just call the hotel directly and tell them what you are looking for. Experience has taught me that often what is visible on their websites is not reality. Also if they are a hotel that has a deal with a large operator like Thomas Cook, they reserve blocks of rooms up front so you don't really know what the true availability is.

Rotty · 27 Jul 2016 at 00:59

very much depends on where it is

I find in Asia you can book most places over a year ahead, US seems a lot shorter for lots of places

Cosimo · 27 Jul 2016 at 06:55

Make a shortlist of hotels and email/online contact to see what they can do for you. Most will have their own web sites and you will probably get some good deals.

Stealthploit · 27 Jul 2016 at 09:18

Where abroad are you looking at

R.O.S.S.I · 27 Jul 2016 at 09:24

Sorry I should have said. I know I can book directly with the hotels quite far in advance, however, I wanted to use Hotels.com as I have a considerable amount of Reward Nights already collected with them and this would be another sizable amount to add to it so ideally wanted to book with them.

Will be able to redeem them all when coming to book our honeymoon!

Also, looking at Ibiza. Messaged quite a few apartment places on Airbnb and OwnersDirect but for some stupid reason the prices it shows for next year when it calculates how much it will cost is based on their low season cost so everyone ive been in touch with has declined our booking!

R.O.S.S.I · 27 Jul 2016 at 09:28

Also, we did explore the First Choice/Thomas Cook route a while back but they only offer standard double rooms for the properties we liked whereas we were after a suite of some kind ideally or just something bigger than your average double room - which in hotels tends to be quite pokey no matter if its 5* or not.