In La Higuera, Chile on Tuesday, July 2, 2019 there'll be a total solar eclipse. I thought I'd look for hotels on Expedia but it looks like the farthest out I can book is Feb 25, 2019.
timeanddate.com says that Feb 25, 2019 is 500 days away from today (October 13, 2017). I'm guessing that tomorrow Feb 26, 2019 will be available for booking but what if I wanted to book farther out than that?
OTAs (online travel agencies) like Expedia have contracted prices with hotels and most hotels only issue contract rates for a limited future time period. So OTAs limit future date bookings to whatever time period they have contract rates for. As different contracts have different time periods, not every hotel will be bookable during the window offered on the OTA's booking form, returning a no rooms available response.
Hotels may accept a direct booking request that far in advance, especially for a major event like an eclipse. The downside is that they may not guarantee a rate at this point in time, but merely pencil you in for that date. Then later when they decide how much they are going to gouge travelers, tell you the actual price. Deposits, how much and if refundable are entirely up to the hotel.
In at least this case, hotels in Madras, Oregon booked three years before the August 2017 eclipse, and many reservations made on third-party sites such as Expedia were cancelled. I think you are far better making a reservation directly with a hotel than through a third-party reseller, especially for such a special event.
It depends absolutely on the hotel. Small or family owned hotels might allow many years in the future, or only some months; bigger chains typically allow one year ahead. There is no given rule
