Schengen visa for all-inclusive tour without hotel details

Upvote:2

I would trust your tour operator on this: you're presumably not the first person on their tours who needs a Schengen visa.

The point of the accommodation requirement is to ensure that you have & can afford a place to stay. If you have a confirmed all-inclusive tour, with a shortlist of hotels that they will arrange for you to stay at, that fulfills the requirement nicely.

The worst case is that you apply, they process for a while, and then tell you you need more detail. By this time the tour operator should know exactly where you're going to stay, so you can submit that.

Upvote:3

So, here is the update on my situation - if anyone is in a similar situation.

I have spent the last 3 days talking to the tour operator and have finally managed to speak to a manager who is liaising with their accommodation bookings department for hotel confirmation. Last news I heard was that they managed to receive letters of confirmation for 5 out of the 6 hotels so they are just awaiting 1 more. They will also write a letter stating that travel will be provided for by the tour. Unfortunately, this is all over the phone and I have yet to receive any emails. Fingers crossed it arrives in the next few days.

I have spoken to a few people who have had no problems with Schengen visa because they made their own bookings (hotel and flight) and therefore received confirmation directly. Most of them have not paid for these bookings and did so purely for visa purposes and once in receipt of the visa, they made final and confirmed bookings.

I have now been told by a few people - though well meaning - that I should have just made my own online bookings (of hotels and flights) from free reservation sites that were for the same dates of the tour purely for visa purposes. Though this is in no way the right thing to do, it would have been much easier than chasing down tour operators and making numerous visits to the embassy. It is a shame that this is what some people have had to do purely because the embassy's inflexibility.

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