Travel companies offers come to late for some families.

RoseR wrote:I never know if its best to book early and take advantage of early bird bookings discount or wait until a last minute deal comes up? A couple of times I have booked late, got the holiday I wanted but seemed to have the smallest room in the hotel. When I have booked early I seem to get one of the better rooms. Dont know if it works like that or just coincidence.

To answer the latter point Rose, in general, not always, the hotelier makes their decision on different factors, one of which is they can identify last minute bookers. I have a number of Alpine hotelier friends. One of them, my age, but nevertheless, a bit of a lad, waits until he sees the guests, before he reaches for the room key.

So, if you are a couple of young ladies......

snowb4ndit wrote:I've booked early and I've booked last minute, it just depends when I've got the money. Never been in a position on a holiday where we have discussed how much we paid.

I must say that it's not only early, or last minute when you get deals. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed when browsing that there were packages to St Anton for £399 (various term time weeks throughout the season). This was exactly the same holiday I paid about £700 for a few years ago. A couple of hours later I decided to book it and when I went back to the website it had gone up to £769 and some weeks were sold out. :roll:

I've just looked again...all weeks left are now over £1000pp

Living in the outer reaches of the remnants of the Empire, availability of flights is far more important than cost. This is a lesser problem for Southerners.

For many years, my sister worked as a travel agent, and there wa a theory than prices would vary by the number of clicks you had made from your individual computer. I was beginning to believe this, since when I was fixed on a particular project, the price went up by the week. I tested this, and found it to be not true.

We have to accept that there are some well developed marketing programmes. Starting off with an expected sales pattern, then as the timescale develops, the programme modifies the price.

I tracked quite a few places out of interest, and the results varied. Have also backtracked. Could I now buy my holiday cheaper than when I booked. Have not been caught out, so far.

I reduce the price on our holiday cottages during the last fortnight if I don't have any bookings, which is generally out of season, or the shoulder weeks, as they call them.

If I'm feeling a bit desperate I reduce them by 20%, but otherwise only by 10%. I just need to cover the costs of the heating, electricity, free bottle of wine, cleaning materials etc. and the cost of doing the actual cleaning to make it worth my while.

Ally