Package holiday prices

TheSpectator

Pay it don't pay it - but somebody else will without really caring how much profit the company is making.

Look at concert gigs, people shelling out hundreds of pounds for 2 hours entertainment.

The boundary is where people won't pay the asking price and it seems that boundary hasn't been breached yet.

eskbanker

neilied said:

eskbanker said:

neilied said:

Does everyone just accept that things increase this much and the people at the top just throw the riches back in our faces showing the profits they make.

Like any other commercial business, their raison d'etre is to make profits?  If you don't want to book holidays with a profitable company, there'll still be loss-makers around if you want to accept the resultant risks....

But how much is a decent profit.

As above, there's no regulatory price control, so they're entitled to charge whatever they consider appropriate in a competitive free market, knowing that if it's too high then they'll lose bookings.

Their reported EBIT is circa €1.3bn, up from just below €1bn last year, which are obviously both substantial figures in isolation, but on a turnover of over €23bn it's far from an outrageous margin.

It's also worth factoring in their eye-watering losses of over €5bn across the two main Covid-afflicted years, in that, as above, the travel industry is still playing catch-up financially....

neilied said:
Hotels locally set up an association agreeing a room rate increase for when an event was in town. All agreeing a far inflated price but all the same across the big six hotels so there was no undercutting or competition. The local authorities came down heavily on them directly or by indirect means and the press trashed them.

Not surprised, that sounds like an anti-competitive cartel, whereas TUI's prices are being set lawfully!

neilied

sheramber said:

A lot has happened in the last  8 years causing prices to increase.

There has been a pandemic. an ongoing war contributing to  a cost of living increase.

Hotels are quite entitled to reside their prices.

Similarly , air fares and wages have increased in the last 8 years. 

Do you earn the same as you did 8 years ago?

Are your bills the same as they were ?8 years ago?

Yet the steepest increase has been since 2 years ago post Covid and over 250% things increase, my bills, cost of living but 250%? If you go by the attached graph then at most the increase from 2022 to date is 17% per year. 

HappyHarry

So, TUI made a profit of 1.3bn euros, and had 20.3m customers travel with them that year. That is an average profit of 64 euros per customer.

That doesn't sound totally unreasonable to me - certainly not something that should be considered "unacceptable".

Annual Report 2024

DullGreyGuy

neilied said:

Is £5k reasonable these days for a week in Europe? Does everyone just accept that things increase this much and the people at the top just throw the riches back in our faces showing the profits they make. 

It could be very cheap if you're flying private jet and renting a mansion. 

As already pointed out others are selling a flight and the same hotel for a lot less, if you can leave a little earlier then you save over £1,000 because the flights spike on the date you have proposed to leave on. There are plenty of tools out there that enable you to see how to get it cheaper with flexility, if you can't be flexible you take it or leave it. 

There are times when travel is much more expensive, go away over Xmas and return on new years day if you want to see how expensive it can get. For those that it would be costly to go away at any other time they'll decide if it represents value or not. 

neilied said:

eskbanker said:

neilied said:

Does everyone just accept that things increase this much and the people at the top just throw the riches back in our faces showing the profits they make.

Like any other commercial business, their raison d'etre is to make profits?  If you don't want to book holidays with a profitable company, there'll still be loss-makers around if you want to accept the resultant risks....

But how much is a decent profit. Hotels locally set up an association agreeing a room rate increase for when an event was in town. All agreeing a far inflated price but all the same across the big six hotels so there was no undercutting or competition.  

In most parts of the world that would breach competition law, unless such association has existed for 100+ years where they may then turn a blind eye. 

Not every business will compete on price, doing so is a race to the bottom. Some will want to attract the bargain hunters, others may want to market on having Michelin star restaurants, award winning bars or a private helipad and aim to attract the less price sensitive customers. 

neilied said:

sheramber said:

A lot has happened in the last  8 years causing prices to increase.

There has been a pandemic. an ongoing war contributing to  a cost of living increase.

Hotels are quite entitled to reside their prices.

Similarly , air fares and wages have increased in the last 8 years. 

Do you earn the same as you did 8 years ago?

Are your bills the same as they were ?8 years ago?

Yet the steepest increase has been since 2 years ago post Covid and over 250% things increase, my bills, cost of living but 250%? If you go by the attached graph then at most the increase from 2022 to date is 17% per year. 

It's a duff price and it's particular to those dates. Go a few days earlier via a different agent and the price has actually gone down.

Nebulous2

neilied said:

Is £5k reasonable these days for a week in Europe? Does everyone just accept that things increase this much and the people at the top just throw the riches back in our faces showing the profits they make. Even worse now is my daughter’s school highly recommending no hols taken during the early school hols as they are setting revision for the school breaks. As for do I earn the same as 8 years ago. No but my increase has been a 35% increase on salary from then. Mortgage/rent has been almost a 100% increase (from renting to owning) and disposable income is lower than 8 years ago. 

Inflation creates 'demand destruction' As prices go up the demand reduces until supply and demand are in balance. I've been baffled by how much demand there is despite much increased prices. Main meals are double what they were pre-pandemic. Yet I often can't get a seat in a restaurant. Holiday costs have increased dramatically, yet many tourist destinations are close to or at record levels for visitors. 

There are a lot of people with money out there, prepared to spend it on holidays and food. 

You have several options:- 

1. Pay it
2. Stay at home
3. Go somewhere else which is cheaper
4. Put in the legwork to put together what you want yourself, one of the posters above has given you an idea of the prices available. 

We are in the same position. We had never had an all-inclusive holiday, and we hadn't had a package for many years. Coming out of the pandemic in 2021 we had a week of winter sun, all-inclusive for 2 people in Tenerife for around £1300. We couldn't believe how good it was, and went back for 10 days the following year at £2200. The next year we were quoted £2800 for the same package. 

We bought flights to Malta and booked an Airbnb instead. If anything that was an even better holiday, for less money. 

This year the same 10 day Tenerife package was over £3200. We decided we could do without it once more.... 

kinger101

There's lots of reasons behind this.  Inflation.  Oil prices.  Currency movements for both USD and EUR.  And I suspect wages will be much higher now in Greece given unemployment was exceptionally high back in 2016 in Greece.

You can't change it.  Your either pay the price, don't go or find a cheaper alternative.

My observations

It's a very expensive all inclusive hotel (about £3.500 or the price) which looks really nice but;

Options that are 60%-70% of the cost will probably 90% as good;

I've not done many package holidays but have never found justification for full board over half board price wise.  

Flying from Cardiff is costing you about £200-£250 per flight per person more.  And you're arriving at a bad time as most the day has gone by the time you've arrived.  Staying a Heathrow or Gatwick overnight and arriving at your destination around lunchtime might be a more civilized option.  

strawb_shortcake

But your screenshot is just momentary, holiday prices fluctuate all the time. I've been looking for next year and the first that came up was the one below, I've seen that hotel over £1kpp for the same time. 


We has a good deal last year £500pp for 10 days over school holidays. I wouldn't pay £5k for a week in Europe, but I don't have to as there are much cheaper acceptable holidays for a lot less.

I have a family member that's paying over £11k for 2 holidays with their young family next year so people clearly can afford to pay the going rates.

Hoenir

neilied said:

eskbanker said:

neilied said:

Does everyone just accept that things increase this much and the people at the top just throw the riches back in our faces showing the profits they make.

Like any other commercial business, their raison d'etre is to make profits?  If you don't want to book holidays with a profitable company, there'll still be loss-makers around if you want to accept the resultant risks....

But how much is a decent profit. Hotels locally set up an association agreeing a room rate increase for when an event was in town. All agreeing a far inflated price but all the same across the big six hotels so there was no undercutting or competition. The local authorities came down heavily on them directly or by indirect means and the press trashed them. The town lost several annual events. I also come from a hospitality business background and ethically I guess we always charged enough but never wanted to test the boundaries. 

How much did the European hospitality business lose during the Covid era?  Hoteliers weren't furloughed. Receiving a steady income. Was a total 100% cash hit loss. 

Worth remembering that the cost of employing someone in Greece is around half that of the UK.  If wages were at UK levels then holidays would be far more expensive still. 

TELLIT01

Holiday pricing varies dramatically dependent on many factors.  A couple of years ago we were looking for a week somewhere on the South coast of England.  If we had travelled either a week earlier, or a week later, the price almost doubled.  The week before was the Whit Bank Holiday and the week after was schools half term!