How early is too early to book?

louby40

It really does depend on your circumstances. We have 4 children and always book a year (or more) in advance as we like to get free child places and budget. Holidays increase in price as they get closer to departure.

For example we have paid £5700 (in May 2012) for our all inclusive 2 week 4 star holiday to Turkey this year with First Choice 3 -17th Aug 2013. The exact same holiday is now £8900 if booked today!!!

Many people think we pay a lot for holidays - we do - but 3 of our kids are now teenagers! It's still only £67 a day pp....all meals/drinks/accommodation and flights inc. Where can you holiday for that in the UK and get 3 meals a day + snacks. Kids are entertained in the pool and with entertainment thrown in!

Money well spent for us.

Louise:beer:

jtr2803

14 months in advance would be too early for me personally. The only way I would ever book that early would be if I knew the hotel had maintained standards for an extended period of time, knew what prices had been for that time of year in the previous year (or two) and wanted a specific property for a very valid reason. Otherwise I would be too worried that within the time before my trip there could be changes in staff, management, target visitor and/or it could just go massively downhill - see this a lot with areas like Sharm where new hotels are being built and visitor numbers are high.

The furthest in advance we have booked so far was last July for this April. That was purely because we booked an island we had just returned from and were able to secure a very good price for certain dates. Generally speaking, we book around 7 months in advance but only once I've spent weeks researching and comparing :rotfl:

stephb34

gibson123 wrote: »

The best time IMHO is September or October, quiet times for travel agents and with them on commission you can probably get a reasonable price. Worse time Boxing day

September is busy in our area, the kids have gone back to school so parents have time to look for holidays, people without kids want a late deal, in the past few years the new edition brochures have come out so prices may have risen slightly. The only quieter time there maybe is the end of November and the beginning of December when most people are busy Christmas shopping and not thinking of holidays.

LadyL2013

jtr2803 wrote: »

14 months in advance would be too early for me personally. The only way I would ever book that early would be if I knew the hotel had maintained standards for an extended period of time, knew what prices had been for that time of year in the previous year (or two) and wanted a specific property for a very valid reason. Otherwise I would be too worried that within the time before my trip there could be changes in staff, management, target visitor and/or it could just go massively downhill - see this a lot with areas like Sharm where new hotels are being built and visitor numbers are high.

The furthest in advance we have booked so far was last July for this April. That was purely because we booked an island we had just returned from and were able to secure a very good price for certain dates. Generally speaking, we book around 7 months in advance but only once I've spent weeks researching and comparing :rotfl:

I want to book this hotel now because it has had some major overhauls done on it and is the best rated hotel in the area. It is currently rated 3 star but they are going for a re-rating soon and I don't see it getting anything lower than a 4 star. Plus there are only limited rooms left already.

leftandright

Hiya,

In my opinion it's never too early to book. I always book as soon as the holidays are released and have never regretted it. The key is to research, research, research your hotel and area with Trip advisor, Holiday watchdog etc. Apparently the golden rule is to book when you're happy with the price and never re-check the prices incase they have gone down.

I always re-check so don't take my own advice there LOL. This year my August holiday is currently £1400.00 more than I paid and even next years August holiday is now £540.00 more than I paid when I booked it in April.

Protaras is a very popular destination and sells out quickly, I lost a deal there a couple of years ago as I had to wait two days to book it. We still went to Protaras but the hotel we ended up in was naff compared to the one we could have had if I had booked straight away.