When we were in France last week we decided that it might be a good idea to stay nearer the airport on Friday night than where we’d been staying the rest of the week.  We had an 11 a.m. flight on Saturday morning so we would have had to leave Champtoce-sur-Loire at about 4 a.m. to make our flight in time.  I tried to get online and book a room near the hotel, but because the online access was so spotty at the chateau I kept getting knocked offline.  That’s when I looked at my original travel itinerary from Travelocity and noticed their 800 service number.

To make a long story short I called Travelocity’s customer service number using the calling card I’d purchased at the airport the day we landed in Paris, got a live operator, told him I needed a room near Charles de Gaulle on Friday night and how many people we needed to sleep. He couldn’t find a single room that would fit all five of us within an 80 mile radius of the airport, but he found a Holiday Inn Express with two rooms available about 5 km from the airport in Roissy.  He was also able to tell me that they were the cheapest rooms in the area and they cost me only slightly more than a single room in the DC area has cost me on my recent business trips.  He booked the rooms for me, gave me my confirmation number and we were done.  It took about ten minutes and cost me a grand total of $10.95 plus whatever their normal fee is on room reservations.

I’ve used Travelocity for years and have never had a problem, and in fact I’ve always been very pleased with their service.  This experience only solidified my positive feelings for their service and at $10.95 I feel like I just got service from the world’s least expensive travel agent.