Lodging: Schluchsee offers a wide variety of lodging venues with a corresponding price range. For hotels and bed-and-breakfast lodging per-person lodging costs can range from $50 upwards per person per night. Vacation apartments run $75 to $125 per night, depending on the size of the group. Breakfast is included with any hotel or bed-and-breakfast lodging, and in hotels half-board meal arrangements range from $15 to $20 extra per person per day. Please remember that exchange rate fluctuations may influence the final price you will be paying for lodging during the Feast. (Prices were based on a euro-dollar exchange rate of approximately $1.15 per euro.) In addition to the cost of your lodging, there is a "vacation tax" of 2.60 EUR for adults (age 16 and above) and 0.90 EUR for children (ages 6-15) per person per night that will be added to your bill. You can make your own housing arrangements by visiting the Black Forest tourism lodging website, which offers a Google English translation mode. (Be sure to enter "Schluchsee" as part of your search in the "Gastgeber suchen & buchen" field in the search box in the left column of the accommodations page.)

Cancellation fee: When you make your lodging reservation, you are agreeing to a legally binding rent contract with your lodging venue. This is standard practice in Germany (and also applies to other reservations like airline flights booked through travel agencies). German law provides that a lodging establishment be reimbursed for unrecovered losses suffered when a guest cancels his/her reservation on short notice and the lodging venue is unable to find a replacement for the guest. The lodging establishment is required to make a "good faith" effort to rent the room, and in most cases is successful in doing so. However, in those cases where the lodging establishment cannot rent the room, the guest may be obligated to pay up to 80% of the lodging expense. For this reason many Germans take out a "travel insurance policy" for a nominal fee which includes reimbursement for any expenses incurred when a guest has to cancel a reservation for unforeseen reasons. If this type of insurance is available to you, we strongly recommend that you make use of it. If you do have to cancel your reservation, please inform us as soon as possible.

Meals: For those international guests staying in a hotel or bed-and-breakfast lodging, breakfast is included in the price of your overnight. Depending upon your lodging venue, the breakfast will vary from a continental style breakfast to a modest breakfast buffet. In general there is no bottomless-cup in German restaurants, so please expect to pay extra for any coffee or tea that you order after your initial serving, which is included with breakfast. A half-board meal plan can be arranged upon arrival at your hotel and will include breakfast and one other meal (either lunch or dinner). Drinks consumed with half-board meals are not included in the price for the half-board arrangement.

Noon and evening meals are available at the Kurhaus Schluchsee restaurant (immediately adjacent to the hall where church services are held). These meals will be offered on a "pay-as-you-go" basis with no advance registration required. Reservations are recommended for the Holy Days.

Finances: Although major credits cards are becoming more widely accepted in Germany, most lodging establishments and restaurants in Schluchsee do not accept them. We will inform you whether your lodging venue does accept them. We recommend that you carry a modest amount of cash (in Euros) with you and have additional funds at your disposal in traveler's checks. Personal checks drawn against foreign bank accounts are not accepted for immediate payment in Germany. There are "money machines" available in Schluchsee at three locations for cash withdrawals using the major credit card systems.

On special request, we can provide you a receipt for U.S. income tax purposes for the Holy Day offerings. We can only issue a receipt for donations paid by check from a U.S. bank or given in cash (dollars or euros). When you register for the Feast, please indicate if you are interested in receiving more information about having your donation receipted.