You’ve probably noticed that sometimes wherever you look there are travel ads. That is not by chance – January and February, right after the Christmas break when families and friends get together, is the peak time for the travel industry – a great time to pocket a bargain.
In recent years however the travel industry has introduced another high season at the end of the summer (end of August and September) when people come back from their holidays and want to book the next one.
What type of holiday is best for you
First of all you need to decide what type of holiday you want. Obviously attending a family celebration or having kids in school age clearly limit your travel flexibility. On the other side, if you have no such constraints, you can freely choose the destination, length and type of holiday you want.
How prices are calculated
Travel companies have a set allocation of spaces they need to sell. Let’s take a specific flight as an example.
The flight operator will normally lower prices if they need to increase sales to fill the plane, and increase prices if they have sold a large number of seat.
Invariably some flights’ allocation (seats) will be sold more than others. For example cruises sell on average 70% of their cabins.
This means that travel companies change prices frequently (sometimes daily) and offer special prices and free upgrades and perks specifically aimed at filling their inventory at a given moment.
Tips to get the best travel deals
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- Newsletters – sign up before you want to book your holiday and you will get the best deals straight into your inbox. Don’t want to get your inbox filled up with these offer newsletter? Consider setting up a new email address only for deals and offers that you can check separately
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- Weekend sales – this is a great way for travel operators to sell specific allocations (seats, rooms, etc.) for specific destination or dates
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- Countdown counters – at the end of the high season most companies (travel operators, travel comparison websites, travel agencies) display a countdown until the end of a specific offer
- Shop around and always ask for a better deal!
Where to get the best travel deals
Travel comparison websites – most people these days start on comparison websites online such as Expedia or Trivago. These are online travel agents (OTA) who gather prices and offers from travel providers and show them in an easy format with useful filters.
The downside of this system is that all these comparison websites show roughly the same prices as they plug into the same price feeds that are pulled in automatically.
Flight, hotel and car packages – the best prices for these type of packages are found on travel comparison websites because of the deals and offers they are able to get from their partners (hotel, flight companies, rental car companies).
Direct with hotels, flight operators, etc. – let’s take British Airways as an example. BA sell both direct and with online & offline travel agents. If you book direct – be it online or over the phone – ask for special offers, free upgrades and other perks and deals. It is not unusual they cannot offer them unless you ask them. And it is equally true that you can ask them to match prices you have seen elsewhere.
Packaged and group holidays – most people don’t bother going into a travel agency any longer, but there are some very good deals to be had there as they can offer additional upgrades, perks or price matches not available otherwise. However be sure to shop around before you commit to their offer.
Do you have any tips to share on how to get a great deal on travel and holidays?
The image is from Yanko Tihov, a Bulgarian artist.
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