Travel with Katie Butler: Tips for booking last-minute holidays
Katie Butler, Total Travel, writes: We continue to see an overwhelming demand for late bookings to travel in the school holidays and September.
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Hide AdHere are our top tips if you are looking for a last-minute holiday:
Be flexible – when booking a ‘late-deal’ it is important to understand that you may not get everything you want, and in your budget, without compromise.
Consider looking at alternative departure airports, especially if you are looking for a ‘free child place’. There may be more availability if you are able to travel from say East Midlands Airport, as oppose to Manchester Airport or Leeds Bradford Airport.
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Hide AdIn addition, you might find the flight times you prefer at a better price if you look to fly from a different airport.
You may have wanted a ten-night holiday, however, many destinations (especially at peak times) fly daily and you may be able to get a better deal on an 11 night or even nine night duration.
Consider new destinations – open your options to discovering a ‘new’ resort or even country that you have not been to before.
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Hide AdIf you have always travelled to Spain, perhaps consider a change to Greece, Turkey or even Egypt. As the saying goes “don’t knock it until you try it”.
When we are looking for last-minute holidays for our customers, the key question, aside from budget, we ask: “Is there anywhere you don’t want to travel to?” And Turkey is quite often the most common answer.
Going back to post-pandemic, when Turkey at one point was one of the only places you could travel to, I remember booking many customers who just wanted to get away to the sunshine and would not normally holiday in Turkey. Most returned absolutely loving it and re-booking for the following year.
Weigh-up the costs of self-catering versus all-inclusive.
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Hide AdGoing back to last week, and the results from the Post Office Family Holiday Report – weigh-up the cost of living at the holiday destination.
Whilst going all-inclusive is a great option, especially when travelling with children, the cost to upgrade to all-inclusive can be a huge jump from half-board and self-catering.
If you go all-inclusive, do you still tend to find yourself eating out in the resort? Likewise, breakdown the cost of upgrading to a higher board basis on a daily per person basis, and establish is it value to you?
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Hide AdNext week, our assistant manager, Leanne, will have returned from a fortnight in Turkey with Easyjet Holidays, and we look forward to catching up and finding all about her travels.
Without surprise, August once again remained the top selling date to depart on our new bookings, with late bookings (travelling within the next 12 weeks) accounting for a bumper 47 per cent of our new sales last week.
Top-selling destinations based on passenger numbers being Majorca, Turkey and Tenerife.