Holiday booking websites

DCFC79

I would do it DIY but having looked at flights they seem expensive but thats due to going in July.

typistretired

Try Holiday Hypermarket they are owned by Thomson but give you an extra discount on top of the Thomson website. You could chose your holiday on Thomson and then look for the same holiday on Holiday Hypermarket and see the difference.

DCFC79

typistretired wrote: »

Try Holiday Hypermarket they are owned by Thomson but give you an extra discount on top of the Thomson website. You could chose your holiday on Thomson and then look for the same holiday on Holiday Hypermarket and see the difference.

Thanks, just looking for a few hotels to do a few dummy final totals to see if doing it separate is any good.

typistretired

Thomson gave me nearly £600 in discounts and then when I booked the same holiday with Holiday Hypermarket I got all the discounts Thomson gave and an extra just over £83 off Holiday Hypermarket.

DCFC79

typistretired wrote: »

Thomson gave me nearly £600 in discounts and then when I booked the same holiday with Holiday Hypermarket I got all the discounts Thomson gave and an extra just over £83 off Holiday Hypermarket.

Thats pretty good, I take it you had to phone to get them discounts ?

Thanks

DanMc07_2

tamiami wrote: »

But if you do as recommended above you are still using different companies and have no ATOL protection. If you book with lowcostholidays then they are a bedbank who sell hotel rooms to the major travel agents. They have their own stock of hotels which are cheaper than booking direct, plus you can add a flight at cost price, i.e. Ryanair - and you have the whole holiday booked with one company which is easier if anything should go wrong with your plans, just one company to call and the main thing is it is Atol protected.

Should anything go wrong with your plans i wouldn't rely on Low Cost Holidays to help you out anytime soon. When we had all that trouble with companies going bust a few years back they were a nightmare. I payed over 1k to them and it took me over 9 months to get it back. Countless phone calls and emails ignored. In the end I had to threaten with court action and low and behold...within 24 hours of threatening with court action the money was back in my account... Go figure!! Absolute disgrace of a company whos customer services is laughable.

budgetflyer

EmmaParsons wrote: »

Obviously I am biased but my suggestions are Holidaynights.co.uk if you are just looking for a hotel or lastcheck.co.uk if you want flights,hotel and transfers etc.

As others have said, yes it is sometimes cheaper to book flights, hotel etc separately but not massively and then you do have to consider the time and effort spent to do that and whether or not it's worth it.

Trivago and sky scanner are just comparison sites and are only as good as the companies that input their deals or have a link to them. If an airline or company isn't featured on there then you may not be getting the best deal after all.

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Its worthwhile searching the whole market

I tend to search holidaynights, sunshine and quickrooms as well as using trivago and hotelscomparison.com.
All have been cheapest for one place or another. None are always cheapest

Spain_2013

Whenever I’ve discussed the situation informally with reputable hoteliers, both in Britain and abroad, they’ve told me that they use the online booking agent sites to shift their least desirable rooms and retain the best ones to sell privately to their own customers.

This I’ve found to be true, in practice.

Ultimately, it depends on what you want from a hotel room but, personally, I always contact the hotel directly and agree with them exactly what facilities and features the room will have. Then I get it confirmed by email.

Obviously, this is more important if you’re going to stay in it for a week than if you’re merely looking for a one-night stopover.

The fundamental difference is that you can negotiate with a hotelier but not with a computer at an online booking site.

The other point to bear in mind is that eliminating an online booking site (which is attempting to make a profit by inserting itself as a middle man in your transaction) gives you more scope for obtaining a discount by direct negotiation with the hotelier.

It’s sensible, nonetheless, to do an online check with a booking website before you contact the hotel, in order to get a general feel for the prices and facilities they are offering at what prices.

Don’t rule out travel agents, either. A good one makes its living by outperforming what an online booking service is quoting. They have their own established relationships with hoteliers.

HeadAboveWater

I'm stuck as to what to do for us.

We're planning on heading mid-July for 5 or 7 nights. No particular destination in mind other than Europe (that narrows it down, huh?! )

Because it's peak, I don't know if we're maybe better to leave it last minute in the hope of getting a good deal whenever we're not bothered about where we go.

Our other problem is the fact that we're NI. Even any good Groupon all-inc deals are flying from mainland...

Back to a bit more hunting around I think...