Just starting to book places (b&bs, budget hotels) for our summer trip and I've had two issues so far with bike storage - one says they can't store them, the other wants to charge us 7 euros/bike. I've never known anything like it - anyone had a similar experience?
I've not tried Italy yet, but I remember being charged something like €11 for a parking space in Germany. They didn't care if it was a car, a bike or a dozen bikes for the same price. I also remember one place in Flanders wanted to charge a similar amount for a garage, with a similar not-caring-how-many.
In my experience, hostels with hire bikes are most likely to include free secure bike-specific parking and chains are least likely to have proper parking but more likely to let you take the bike to the room. But you can never tell: the nice Apollo Hotel Breda had the best city hotel bike parking so far, in a covered bike shed out behind a locked gate with access controlled by reception.
Cycle parking really should be listed on accommodation websites if anywhere is serious about less damaging tourism. It's just started to appear lately on some booking.com listings under a "Sustainable" heading (because it would be too easy to list it under "Parking") but then you're using booking.com with all the controversies about it.
