To book or not to book!

westglam

For the first time ever we have only ourselves to please re booking our next holiday. For our 2010 holiday we'd like to go away in late Sept, Oct or Nov, but when do we book. Gone are the days when we have to get in there early for a free child place or to get school/college holiday dates, so term time holidaying here we come.

The BIG question is do we:

• book now
• watch the web price and hope it goes down
• wait for a last minute deal

It's just going to be the 2 of us and we're pretty flexible on destination, Med, Caribbean, Asia, Mars - anywhere's good!!

I realise there's no cast iron gaurantee, but for those of you who look out for holiday bargains (in school/college term time) - please pass your wisdom on

Susie01

Hi, I booked my 2010 hol for me, husband and 9&5 year old 4 weeks ago with FC. Checked the same holiday and they are now offering it for 1150 (I paid 1550).I always book early to get a good deal (and gives me a chance to save) but usually with T.C. I feel ripped off by this crazy price decrease. I had been watching the price for about 4 weeks prior to booking and there was no crazy price fluctuation then. It's a bit like a lottery.LOL

Magnolia

We start watching the holidays about 3 months before we go and keep a close eye on the prices. Once they drop to a price I am prepared to pay I book

westglam

Thanks for the replies. Think I'll sit it out and wait

Suzie I sympathise, the same thing happened to us this year. We booked really early because one of our daughters wanted to get married overseas and we needed to secure several places, then the price went down by £350 PER PERSON. Horrible feeling!!!

clarence83_2

Almost every holiday I book really far in advance, and it has never gone down after I bought it- in some cases almost doubled, and some sold out entirely. It may be that I always go for a top rated hotel, and book via the cheap subsidiaries ie. Portland, etc.

I got a week in a fab hotel in the May bank hol school holidays, for £600 each all inclusive, to the dominican republic. Went up close to £1k each nearer the time.

Meadows

clarence83 wrote: »

Almost every holiday I book really far in advance, and it has never gone down after I bought it- in some cases almost doubled.

Did that a few years ago when we took our daughter and her partner to New York for 10 days, I kept watching the price for a while (months and months before we went) and it suddenly dropped £1000. I booked the holiday, and then not long after booking the price went back up again and stayed at the higher price.

I’ve booked for a holiday for next April a few weeks ago, because it is for a birthday and want to make sure I can get the dates.

Most of our holidays I book about 8 months in advance whether it is with Expedia or a travel company usually because it is some thing/place I want to do and want to make sure the dates are available.

Only once booked at the last minute and that was a couple of years ago when we sat one Sunday and booked to fly to New York the following Saturday as we had a week off work.

clarence83_2

Meadows wrote: »

Did that a few years ago when we took our daughter and her partner to New York for 10 days, I kept watching the price for a while (months and months before we went) and it suddenly dropped £1000. I booked the holiday, and then not long after booking the price went back up again and stayed at the higher price.

I’ve booked for a holiday for next April a few weeks ago, because it is for a birthday and want to make sure I can get the dates.

Most of our holidays I book about 8 months in advance whether it is with Expedia or a travel company usually because it is some thing/place I want to do and want to make sure the dates are available.

Only once booked at the last minute and that was a couple of years ago when we sat one Sunday and booked to fly to New York the following Saturday as we had a week off work.

The difference though with NYC, is that is a city break and not a package beach holiday, city breaks are usually based on scheduled rather than chartered flights and so on. City breaks are almost ALWAYS cheaper to book the flight and hotel independently. Package holidays (a week in Cuba for example) for well rated hotels need to be booked quite far in advance to get good deals, particularly long haul. You can usually get good last minute deals for short haul holidays to a self catering thing in Spain though, advance deals not always the cheapest for these.

Meadows

clarence83 wrote: »

The difference though with NYC, is that is a city break and not a package beach holiday, city breaks are usually based on scheduled rather than chartered flights and so on. City breaks are almost ALWAYS cheaper to book the flight and hotel independently. Package holidays (a week in Cuba for example) for well rated hotels need to be booked quite far in advance to get good deals, particularly long haul. You can usually get good last minute deals for short haul holidays to a self catering thing in Spain though, advance deals not always the cheapest for these.

It was certainly cheaper for me to book a holiday in Peru and a Cruise to Alaska in advance, saving on the price it would have paid if I booked closer to the date.

Incapuppy

clarence83 wrote: »

Package holidays (a week in Cuba for example) for well rated hotels need to be booked quite far in advance to get good deals, particularly long haul.

In the case of holidays using charter flights I have to disagree I'm afraid. There are plenty of good deals on long haul holidays to be had if you shop around from around 3 months prior and do not restrict yourself to one particular hotel or resort.

Philippa36

Once I book my flight/holiday/hotel etc. I stop looking - am I the only one who doesn't see the hike or drop in prices?

My tip is just don't look anymore once you've booked and paid a price you're willing to pay

I don't generally book more than a couple of months in advance.