Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Hotel reservations in Le Havre electronic glitch…


Keep in mind, it took me years of wrong turns and stormy seas to find out what I offer to you when you continue reading this comforttravel@less$ blog—a how to enjoy your vacation no matter what goes wrong, count yourself lucky that you can take some time off from life's cares to get away from the sameness of same days on end.

After completing the booking logistics for my overnight in Frankfurt, I did have to decide on which hotel to book at my rest up destination, Le Havre. 
I kept in mind that I aimed to avoid uncertainty about what services I could expect, and I searched for French hotel chains—I chose Mercure Hotels—their brand is well known in France and other destination countries worldwide—this chain brand does guarantee certain service features that include a hotel room with amenities commensurate with the 4 star rating.  And from my online search, I determined that Mercure had a USA reservations number.

I was glad that I could make my inquiries person to person—I've found out from previous experience that the intricacies of booking online will make it harder to spot some factors that would discourage me from staying at a hotel. 
 
According to the online research I did, this hotel is within a block of the train station.  I knew that I would be arriving by train, and I could call to find out if I could obtain a better price for booking for 5 days—though first, I had to determine the going price for comparable hotels in Le Havre.  The best way to do this is to get on to the popular hotel booking sites—I used my search engine's inquiry for "Le Havre, France hotels"—and I checked each listing re the dates I needed, then I found that all of them had a comparable price. 

My next step, a call to the Mercure USA reservation center tollfree number.
And subsequently, I discovered that this call center was in the Philippines—the reservationist spoke English, but textbook, and not colloquial English.  As we spoke I had to repeat my booking dates, and I was wary of a possible language barrier.  I asked to be connected to the lead agent, she asked me to wait, and when she returned, she offered me a discounted price in American dollars at a $40 savings for each of 2 of the 5 days that I wanted, and $20 each discount for the other 3 days. 
Of course, I knew that the price would be converted into Euros when I paid my credit card company (the price on the other sites was also quoted in Dollars)—although I didn't check as to whether I could obtain a better price for a 5-day stay, I knew that I would be dealing with a middle man, not directly with the Mercure chain—see my next post for more about an electronic glitch experience.
 
*Check out my Authors Guild maintained website to find out all about my me, read another one of my blogs, find links to my other blogs, and the books that I have written, also a way to contact me with your comments.
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**I am a multitask writer, as I am also in the process of writing my latest fiction novel, Book II, PARIS WARP Jousting Devils And Dragons but this is a trilogy which explores the supernatural as it exists in tandem with the world as we know it.The trilogy starts with Book I, The Haunting And Paradise Taxi/print ISBN 9780615685434 print also available as E-book Nook Smashwords Edition ISBN 9780989053600 BarnesandNoble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-haunting-and-paradise-taxi-cynthia-lynn/1114061302?ean=2940044602069

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