What is a Hotel Booking? Why do Embassies Ask for Flight Itinerary & Hotel Booking?

On the other hand, a hotel booking or reservation is done in most cases to approve an empty room kept for you until your arrival. You do not need to pay a full price in order to book that room, just a small amount of money in order to get a document from the hotel that confirms that you have a saved room in the hotel for specific dates.

The hotel booking confirmation document shall contain the following details:

·         Name and surname of person who booked the room

·         The address of the hotel

·         Contact details of the hotel as phone number, email and fax

·         The dates for which the room has been reserved

You will be charged with a small amount of money for booking the room. However, this is better than fully paying the room, despite that you do not know whether you will be granted with a visa for sure or not. In case you do not and you have paid your stay, you will lose all your money. Whereas, despite of the fact that there are hotels that offer reimbursement in case of cancellation without charging you anything, these hotels are 5 to 10 times more expensive than normally.

In many cases the embassies simply ask for a Travel Itinerary, which should consist of both, the Flight Itinerary (or the itinerary for other means of travel as applicable), the hotel booking  as well as a list of the places you willbe visiting and the dates when you will be visiting them.

Why do Embassies Ask for Flight Itinerary & Hotel Booking?

The visa embassies acknowledge the fact that it is not wise to purchase a flight ticket or pay a hotel stay before you get your visa. Even if you are suggested to get one, which you can avail “free cancellation”, don’t do so since flight tickets which you can cancel are at least 25% more expensive than non-cancellation flights. The case is same with hotel rooms, as explained above.

Even the European Union’s visa consulate advises those applying for a Schengen visa not to purchase real tickets but onlytravel itinerary and hotel booking instead. Despite of that, some others oblige the applicants to purchase and present their original air ticket when going to collect their visa, as the last condition.

You may ask yourself why embassies around the world are asking for such document, when it can be cancelled very easily. Well, the reasons are as following:

To prove you will not be overstaying

The main reason why these two requirements are so important for embassies around the world, is because this is just another way to make sure you will be going back to your home country upon the end of your visa validity. Because the flight itinerary shows the dates of your arrival and departure, and the hotel booking reconfirms them, this assures the embassy that you have no intention to remain in their country after the expiration of your visa. It also supports the reason of traveling that you have presented to the consular officers.

Deciding the length of the visa

The second reason is that it helps the consular officers decide on the length of you visa validity. Upon having the itinerary in their hand, they have it clear exactly how many days you need to remain in their country, thus they avoid limiting you to stay for less than you need or giving you a visa that exceeds your needs.

Deciding at what embassy you should apply

This is valid only for those applying for a Schengen Visa.A common Schengen visa rule says that the visitors that plan to go through two or more countries of the Schengen Zone must apply at the embassy of the country where they will be staying longer. Therefore, when you present the itinerary and the hotel booking, you actually prove that you are applying at the right embassy.