I emailed Hostal Levante in Barcelona to try to make reservations. When they emailed back, all they said was that they needed credit card info. They did not say anything about their availability, or confirm anything. If I send them my info- will I get written, or emailed confirmation of a room, or will they just charge my credit card?

They will write you back and I believe that when I stayed there last year they may have even charged one night to the card but I don't remember for sure. Senility is setting in I think.

While I don't like this practice at all, it happened to me once too. In 2000 I reserved one night at a hostel in Madrid, gave them my CC number/info, but had to cancel a day or two before. When I called to cancel the reservation they told me they'd already charged my card and couldn't credit the account so they said I could stay the next time for free. I didn't like this solution, but wasn't going to fight with them about it while on vacation for $25. According to my credit card statement, they charged my card the moment I made the reservation, about 3 weeks in advance of the reservation date. I'm sure that if next year I tried to reserve at the same hostel and told them about the FREE night they owed me that they wouldn't remember the situation now three years later. Oh well.. it's not worth losing sleep over it.

Saludos, MadridMan

I just reserved a room at Hostal Levante, and it was pretty easy.

First, I just filled out that form on their website http://www.hostallevante.com/eng/reserves.htm
and they responded with an email saying that my dates I requested were open. They didn't even have my credit card info yet, so they didn't (and couldn't) charge my card until I asked them to book a room for me.

Perhaps you could send them an email asking if they have a room available for you?

Good luck!
Tim

ps. Great message board! It's been extremely helpful in my planning for this Spain trip.

A little basic HTML detective work shows that those reservation forms are being sent to:

reservas@hostallevante.com

Why not simply send them an email to that address and hope they'll reply personally. I'm sure the form they use helps them understand better the reservation requests so they don't have to bother with English or entertain the ramblings of some potential clients asking about nearby shopping, eating, nightlife, etcetera.

When I stayed there last October, I had a friend who speaks much better Spanish than I call them and reserve my room at Hostal Levante for me. They said they would (or could) not give me any confirmation notice, but they would charge my credit card for one night right away. Once they charged my card, I felt pretty confident that I would be OK. I printed out my credit card statement and had it handy just in case they messed up my reservation. Everything went smoothly though...