It&rsquos midnight, and I&rsquom standing in the lobby of a small hotel I&rsquove booked in Jerusalem. There&rsquos no room at the inn, and it&rsquos all my fault. I&rsquove booked the right day, but the wrong month.

Even experienced travelers make mistakes. They confuse dates, forget to hit the &ldquopurchase&rdquo button, fail to read confirmations, confuse currencies.

Travel Troubleshooter columnist Christopher Elliott ( www.elliott.org ) fields thousands of traveler complaints each year, about 60 percent related to booking on the Internet.

Among the most common:

Paper tickets. Travelers assume tickets booked online are e-tickets, but some are still on paper. The flier arrives at the airport without the paper ticket and has no choice but to buy a new, more expensive ticket. (They then have to file a lost-ticket report and wait for a refund.)

Paper tickets didn&rsquot arrive.

Incorrect data. Travelers input the wrong dates or misspell their names when they book online.

Auto-filled data. Travelers register on sites that &ldquoauto-fill&rdquo their information, not remembering that the site has a maiden name stored on it or stores the names of other family members who use that computer.

Double booking. When the computer times out or the confirmation doesn&rsquot arrive in e-mail, travelers assume the booking didn&rsquot go through and rebook without first calling the airline.

No room at the inn: The hotel has no record of the booking. This sometimes happens, says Mr. Elliott, because a booking agency in some cases confirms with hotels via fax, and faxes can get lost.

So how can you be sure that your own online booking is successful? We asked Mr. Elliott, author Peter Greenberg (The Complete Travel Detective Bible: The Consummate Insider Tells You What You Need to Know in an Increasingly Complex World ) and our in-house experts, and came up with these tips for getting it right online.

Top tips

Call a human being first, says Mr. Greenberg. Airline and travel agents may find routings and fares that aren&rsquot loaded into the computer. The front-desk clerk at a hotel may know about vacancies that aren&rsquot listed online or with the 800-reservations number.

Check dates against a calendar before you book.

Double-check names on your booking, including spellings. Names should match your passport.

Read fine print carefully. Print it out for easier reading.

Check policies even on items you think you understand, such as room cancellation penalties at hotels and baggage allowances on airlines.

When booking overseas, double-check to see what currency the price is in.

If you don&rsquot see a confirmation page or get an e-mail confirmation, call before you rebook. Your reservation may have been completed, and if you book a second time, you&rsquore stuck.

Read your confirmation immediately. If there&rsquos a problem, you often can change it within the first 24 hours, but not later. &ldquoNinety percent of the errors could be spotted if people looked at the confirmations,&rdquo says Mr. Elliott.

Don&rsquot expect a Four Seasons-style experience for a Super 8 price. Realize that in most cases, the best hotel rooms go to travelers who are paying the hotel directly, either in person or via the Internet. Those paying a third party may not get the primo room location.

Consult user reviews, but take them with a grain of salt.

If you&rsquove booked a hotel through an online agency, follow up with a call or e-mail directly to the hotel to be sure it has your reservation (usually within 72 hours).

With complex itineraries and expensive trips, even tours that seem straightforward, consider using a travel agent.

If you&rsquore laying out significant money up front, consider travel insurance. Compare policies at www.insuremytrip.com . Call the company for advice before you buy.

Know your (online) travel agent

If you plan to book online, know whom you&rsquore dealing with.

Big online companies such as Travelocity, Orbitz, Expedia, Quikbook and Hotels.com occasionally have problems, but for the most part they&rsquore interested in maintaining positive customer relationships, and they&rsquoll still be in business tomorrow. The same goes for booking directly with the Web site of the airline or hotel.

Ask friends for recommendations.

Check the About Us link.

Use Google, Yahoo or another engine to search for blog entries or articles about the Web site.

Check whether the company is a member of American Society of Travel Agents , U.S. Tour Operators Association or the Chamber of Commerce where it&rsquos located. Membership isn&rsquot a guarantee, but it does show responsible behavior.

Check whether there are complaints against the company with the Better Business Bureau in its home community.