How late is too late?

bwlv1

Evening All,

I am starting to look for a holiday for the family (2nd/3rd week August) and last year we booked about 6 weeks in advance and had a reasonable deal, this year we intend to leave it even later and are really open to going anywhere (abroad), we are prepared to leave it to a couple if not the day before to book but this is where I'm worried, in your experience will there always be something available that late? And are they heavily discounted or does the pricing strategy go the other way with travel agents etc knowing people are desperate to book so hold or increase the price.

Looking at departures in a few days time as a test run for July there are great deals available but this isn't during the school holidays so maybe someone can offer some advice here

Thanks

InsideInsurance

There will always be SOMETHING available, now if you want whats left is another question.

Pricing is not that simple that you can say it will always do X. It will depend on if its a package or not, schedule or charter flights, how much of the hotel allocations been booked or not.

If the package has undersold and everything is chartered then the price should continue to fall but may plateaux a little before departure date. If a package has oversold but the hotel etc still has space then the price may actually be higher than it was earlier as they've already sold all their preallocated rooms

torbrex

I know someone living near Edinburgh that walked into a travel agents in the city at 9am and was on a flight to Portugal from Newcastle at 3pm on a full board package tour, 10 nights for £40 each.

bwlv1

Thanks so much for the replies, I understand my question is a bit ambiguous and there is no set 'answer'.

I may look at booking around a week before just to ensure as has been said that there is somewhere that we want to go although we are very open minded to destination.

I would love to grab an absolute bargain like the person that you know torbrex!

duchy

A lot will depend how picky you are.
When I was a travel agent I'd get people come in and say - "want a late deal anytime next week- anywhere". So you'd suggest a package.. "Oh no can't be Monday - only got a week off so must be Saturday or Sunday......No don't wan't Spain....or Turkey....or Greece................Oh mustn't be a night flight............. so think about honestly how flexible you are-often when it comes to the crunch people aren't as unbothered as they think they are.

bwlv1

We have a range of 3 days when we can depart and we can go for up to 10 days so apart from that we're flexible, from your experience will local travel agents have any more packages/deals than what I would be able to find myself online?

richardw

Are there any late bargains leaving tomorrow and over the next few days that would suit you? If so are they really a 'good deal'?

bwlv1

richardw wrote: »

Are there any late bargains leaving tomorrow and over the next few days that would suit you? If so are they really a 'good deal'?

From just having a quick look on Thomas Cook alone there are some fantastic packages departing in the next few days that I would be more than happy with but I'm just not sure if this will be the case in August during the school holidays.

richardw

I'd look thoroughly now for that deal for 2nd week of August.

bwlv1

richardw wrote: »

I'd look thoroughly now for that deal for 2nd week of August.

I guess you feel there wont be many late deals available then? I'll keep looking

balletshoes

bwlv1 wrote: »

I guess you feel there wont be many late deals available then? I'll keep looking

i've been looking for my sister, who is coming out to Turkey for a week (departing around 5th august). The package she is interested in is still available to book, and its reduced in price by around £50 per person in the last week or so.

As most schools are on holiday from around 25th July on, I'd look at prices for then, now. Are those prices decent? If they are, it might be worth waiting until around 2-3 weeks before you travel, to book.