• What do “Stars” Mean?
• What are Our Hotels Like?
  
• What do We Charge?
  
• What Do We Do For Our Fee?
  
• Cancellations, Refunds
  
• What Hotels Are Available in Each City?
  
  

What Do “Stars” Mean?
Stars are attributed by government organizations, based on objective criteria (average room size, 24-hour reception or not, number of rooms with private bath... that type of thing).

We use our own, more subjective ranking. For instance, using objective criteria, many road-side motels are 3* establishments, while the beautiful vine-covered 17th century inn by the babbling brook with the charming host is a 2*. We add in charm, cleanliness, street noise, the friendliness of our hosts... and thus upgrade some 2’s to 3’s (or 1’s to 2’s), and downgrade some 4’s to 3’s, or 3’s to 2’s.

So, don’t be surprised if you ask us for a “Blue Marble” 3*, and we put you in a government-proclaimed 2*. Before you get upset, compare it to the 3*’s you see around town, and ask yourself which you prefer.... Moreover, the nicest room in most 2*’s is preferable to the worst in most 3*’s.... This is where the star system shows its limitations.

So, ultimately, you are trusting our judgement. Read on to understand its foundation.


What Are Our Hotels Like?
Our hotels are most, if not all, of the following

• Convenient
  For a short visit of a big city (2 days or less, independently or before or after one of our trips), it’s best to be within walking distance of the railway station, assuming the neighborhood is adequately attractive. Though other neighborhoods may have greater intrinsic appeal, the area around the station always offers several advantages.
  
  • It saves a couple of hours upon arrival and departure.
    
  • It is always a city transport hub, which helps you get around town with greater ease, and saves further hours.
    
  • It concentrates services travellers need: tourist information, currency exchange, laundromats, late night eateries....

If your stay is four nights or more, we often do not recommend our own “recommended” big city hotels. For longer stays, the importance of the ambiance of the neighborhood around the hotel starts to outweigh the time-saving station advantages, and the time you spend researching the issue for yourself, to find the hotel that exactly fits your preferences, is more amply rewarded.

In smaller cities, most sites are within walking distance of a unified historic center, and transport is less of an issue. In this case, we allow the neighborhood to be of influence in our hotel choice.

In rural areas, the hotel itself takes on more importance. First, your funds tend to go farther, so getting a “pretty” place is less of a financial stretch. Second, the hotel will be more of a focus if the village which hosts it has only two other buildings, and a cow. Nor is it much of an imposition to walk to the town center from a peripheral hotel if the walk is only 5 minutes.

• Good value for money
  This is a localized criteria. In other words, it will produce a more expensive hotel in Amsterdam (or Oslo - yikes!) than in Madrid. But our hotels are always good value for money by local standards. We do not recommend, and try not to use for our trips, hotels that are not good value, even if we like them without regard to their cost. If you just want to put down your credit card and buy the best in town, you won’t need our help finding it....
  
  
• Idiosyncratic
  Our hotels are always locally owned and operated, with their attendant quirks (even when they are part of a franchise chain for marketing purposes). They often have some architectural charm, they often have non-standard rooms, they are rarely new.
  
  
• Other Things (Criteria We Use to Choose)
  Criteria that we prize in making our hotel selections include location, cleanliness, architecture (and charm, often related), courtesy, reliability.... Criteria that we prize less (but that you may value, and so this may lead you to prefer your own choice for an independent stay) include in-room TVs, room size, linguistic ability of the reception, room service, “modernity”.... Our hotels can be “well-worn.” But we prefer an antique rug, even if threadbare, to a "new" shag carpet, especially if it is orange.
  
  For independent stays, unless you tell us otherwise, we book rooms with shower or bath and WC in the room. In some cities, rooms with hall showers offer an economical alternative.
  
  

What Do We Charge to Book an Independent Stay?

• We charge the room rate the hotel charges, converted to your local currency at the “mid-market” exchange rate in effect when you order the room, plus 3% to cover the cost of the currency conversion. If you want to see the exchange rate, you can look it up on the same web site we use:
  http://www.xe.com/ucc/
  This is approximately what the room would cost you if you rented it locally and paid for it with your credit card, assuming your card-issuing bank does not charge a foreign exchange commission (most do).
  
  
• If the hotel does not commission travel agents (many small, family-run hotels do not), we add 6% to the total.
  
  
• Finally, we add a standard booking fee of $26 U.S. per booking, regardless of length of stay or number of rooms (this fee does not apply to our usual Paris hotels).
  
  
  

What Do We Do For Our Fee?

• We “site-inspect.” We have visited all of our recommended hotels, and up to 50 more in some cities, in order to select ours. This is why we do not offer hotels in all places. For instance, we have never found a hotel in Brussels that we like enough to recommend, even though one of us lived there for a year.
  
  We pick one or two hotels in each city, sometimes accompanied by “back-ups” (adequate alternatives, in case our first choice is full). The goal is simple: to allow you to book a less expensive hotel with confidence, in the knowledge that you will not wind up in a tawdry place full of odd rodents.
  
  
• We make the reservation “sure.” We pre-pay the room, or promise (in our name) that you will be there, and promise to pay for the room if you don’t show.
  
  Assuming that you behave honestly in your dealings with others (and we are sure that you do), this is very much in your interest. In most European countries, merchants are not guaranteed payment if they charge credit cards over the phone, since they need the original signature. They are thus reluctant to hold rooms for late arrivals, even when they have pretended to record your credit card number as a "guarantee." In busy times they often “lose” reservations of non-regular clients arriving at the end of the day.
  
  We are a regular client. You will find your room waiting for you, regardless of what happens to your train or plane (exception: some hotel receptions are closed overnight -- sound this issue out if you think you might arrive after 10p in a smaller city or town).
  
  
• We give you a written confirmation of your reservation and payment, in English, with the hotel’s signature or stamp. It can still happen that your reservation genuinely be lost, but when you produce a letter signed by the hotel, confirming that you had one, you become very definitely “their problem.”
  
  
• We may be able to provide you with detailed written instructions on reaching the hotel from the station, on foot or by public transport.
  
  
• We generally deal with our hotels in their native language. Which helps us smooth over potential problems if they arise, and ensures that you get the best possible reception.
  
  
• Finally, if you are a solo traveller, we can sometimes pair you with another solo from your trip, in a twin room. You save funds for other things, and have a companion with whom to explore. When traffic volume to your chosen destination is sufficient, we “guarantee” this option (indicated in your trip information). If we are unable to pair you with a roommate, we provide a single at our expense. When the option is not guaranteed, you may tell us your preference to share, but must be prepared to pay the single price if no roommate is available.
  
  

Cancellations, Refunds

Our booking fee is not refundable. A further $20 fee applies each time you alter or cancel the reservation through us. To avoid this charge, cancellations and changes may be made directly with the hotel (copied to us, as we still have to get your money back). In general, cancellations and changes should be made directly with the hotel if they are made outside of European business hours, and close to the reservation date.

Cancellations are effective only once confirmed by the hotel. Naturally, if the hotel then denies you cancelled, and refuses to refund your money to us, we cannot refund it to you....

Hotel cancellation penalties vary by hotel. Usually, a full refund is available until 2 or 3 days prior. But in high-traffic tourist destinations (think Italian cities), many withhold one night’s payment from the refund, even if the cancellation is made far in advance. In major cities, penalty-free cancellation is increasingly rare.


What Hotels Do We Offer in Each City

The chart below offers an overview.... “Neighborhood+” indicates that the neighborhood of the hotel is one of particular tourist interest. “No bath avail.” indicates that economical rooms are available, with hall bath (a plus in expensive cities).