When's the most cost-effective time to book your break

pritchah

I'm booking a train journey and hotel stay. Intend to spend as little as possible. 

Pricewise, is it best to do it well in advance or leave it until the last minute?

marcia_

pritchah said:

I'm booking a train journey and hotel stay. Intend to spend as little as possible. 

Pricewise, is it best to do it well in advance or leave it until the last minute?

 Always book train tickets as far in advance as you can, they are then cheaper than booking last minute or on the day. 

p00hsticks

marcia_ said:

pritchah said:

I'm booking a train journey and hotel stay. Intend to spend as little as possible. 

Pricewise, is it best to do it well in advance or leave it until the last minute?

 Always book train tickets as far in advance as you can, they are then cheaper than booking last minute or on the day. 

Not quite true - the cheapest tickets are usually Advance ones for specific trains that tend to go on sale around 12 weeks before the date required, but can be much shorter timescales, especially at weekends when there are potentially engineering works.

It's been a while since I travelled by train, but when I did some of the train operators websites do / used to show calendars indicating if Advance tickets had been released yet. 

Mark_d

I don't think there's a timing that can guarantee you the cheapest prices.

For trains the cheapest advance tickets go on sale about 3 months before the date of travel.  For Eurostar this is 6 months.

For hotels I book as early as possible if I think the price looks reasonable.

For both trains and hotels you might occasionally get sales but also prices will rise due to cheap advance tickets selling-out, or the hotel getting booked up.

In my experience you generally (not always) better off by booking long in advance.  I've seen last-minute/flash sales that look heavily discounted but were actually costing more than I paid by booking early.

itsthelittlethings

Re: trains. Look at the difference between an advance single and a return. With an advance single you have to get exactly the trains you are booked on with no flexibility. Although it’s a bit more expensive even something like an off-peak return gives you much more flexibility of which trains to get and I’ve started considering them instead.

sheramber

Will the hotel have vacancies at the last minute?

DullGreyGuy

sheramber said:

Will the hotel have vacancies at the last minute?

Potentially but it will depend on how the sales have been overall... if they are badly under capacity they'll be dropping the price, if they are near capacity they'll be loading the price.  On the day/day before bookings tend to be highly loaded as they are typically distress purchases. 

helpmeplzz

I use TrainPal to book my train tickets - cheapest 12 weeks in advance and they're cheaper than on trianline. They also have some newbie vouchers when you download the app (but have a look online to see if you need a referral code)

Albermarle

It is difficult to predict hotel prices, as they are affected by supply and demand.

However most hotels seem to be cheapest on Sunday night.
If it is a business type hotel/Travel Inn located in an industrial/non tourist area, then they will sometimes have good deals for the weekend. Conversely a hotel by the seaside, will normally be more expensive for  Thursday/Friday/Saturday than earlier in the week.
Booking with no refund/no cancellation terms usually knocks 10 to 20% off the price.
Booking direct with the hotel is sometimes cheaper than through a booking site. Sometimes breakfast will be included for no cost for example.

joebob

Try trainsplit or split my ticket. For e.g   instead of buying one ticket from Leeds to London  you might buy a ticket to sheffield then to derby then london but your on the same train and it takes the same time. Have a look on the websites it does it all for you.