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I am in UK planning to apply for Schengen visa via French Embassy. The application document requirements for the visa states that you are required to submit:

Proof of Hotel reservation confirmation required from the actual hotels throughout the whole itinerary showing the hotel's full contact details, proof of payment and applicant's name

However I am planning to get the hotel booking done from booking.com as it is convenient and has better offers. Will that be acceptable for visa submission? Is it ok to submit the confirmation from booking.com as long as it states my name and complete hotel details (name, location..)?

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    It might be worth mentioning your nationality or the passport you hold. If you are a UK citizen then you have the right to travel/live/work anywhere in the EU without a visa.
    – Rich
    Commented Mar 20, 2012 at 11:00

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It should be enough. Your confirmation from the on-line booking site would include all the required: it will note that the hotel confirmed the reservation, it will detail the required information about the hotel, and will also include a receipt showing proof of payment. It will also include your name on the reservation, and on the receipt.

The idea is to prevent people from coming in saying "I called the hotel and made the reservation". Showing a paid reservation from a known website would do the trick. Especially if the cancellation policy is restrictive (i.e.: no refunds, for example).

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  • Thanks for the reply. " will also include a receipt..", actually from a earlier reservation I know that they print all the hotel amount details etc. in the reservation confirmation but don't give anything separate as a receipt of payment.. is that ok
    – Pradeep
    Commented Mar 18, 2012 at 9:00
  • @Pradeep they don't give you a receipt at all??? AFAIK in Europe its illegal, they must give you some kind of receipt that should include the VAT paid.
    – littleadv
    Commented Mar 18, 2012 at 23:15
  • For prepaid bookings, the confirmation is the receipt. For bookings paid at the hotel, there has been no payment and thus no receipt either.
    – lambshaanxy
    Commented Mar 19, 2012 at 4:19
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    @jpatokal that kind of confirmation would probably not satisfy the embassy. The requirement is clearly to have a prepaid itinerary. I specifically mentioned that the reservation must be paid in my answer.
    – littleadv
    Commented Mar 19, 2012 at 4:55
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    @littleadv, 90% of hotel bookings I checked don't take the booking money beforehand so they do not give a receipt or VAT. In the email confirmation they send, they mentioned the total amount and the current amount charged as zero. (to be paid when checking in). So I ended up booking directly from a hotel (which still uses the secure booking .com payment framework) and got a confirmation email from the hotel directly. I submitted that and got my visa. Thanks for the suggestion to ensure that all the hotel details are there in the printout. It helped.
    – Pradeep
    Commented Mar 27, 2012 at 21:42
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An online booking confirmation (usually sent to your email after confirming your transaction with booking.com) is enough. I did this last year. Just be sure to send the details address + contact number of the hotel.

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