Non-motoring > booking a holiday direct Miscellaneous
Thread Author: wotspur Replies: 27
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 Mon 18 Apr 11 19:48 
 booking a holiday direct - wotspur
Has anyone booked a holiday direct with an hotel and then oprganised flights etc, if so how much has it saved if any and any pitfalls.
SWMBO wants to stay in a specific hotel in Paphos and its shed loads - i hoped to save a few ££'s without going to any sales convention they put on - cheers
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 Mon 18 Apr 11 19:56 
 booking a holiday direct - Zero
Yeah, booked direct with foreign hotels by using the web site, in both Europe, Australia and the States, and also by using the hotel bucket shops, trip advisor lastminute.com, etc etc. The bucket shops rarely come in that much cheaper to be honest if you are after a specific hotel, nor are they much cheaper for the chain hotels - where a loyalty account (I have with with Holiday Inn for example) gets you better rooms and prices.

Never had any problems any way its booked, I always confirm by email a few days before arrival.
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 Mon 18 Apr 11 19:58 
 booking a holiday direct - Falkirk Bairn
Done it a few times = flights booked, villa booked, insurance stc - savings around £200 each BUT if something goes wrong (Iceland Volcano, flight delays (not airline's fault)!!) you are on your own picking up the bills.

Son & DiL booked package 2 x Adult & 2 X Child - all inclusive to Spain in June/July via internet and large tour operator!

Friends booked same weeks, 2 adults and 2 x children - Flying Ryanair from Glasgow, rental property attached to same hotel and they were only £2-£300 less and still have to feed themsolves for 2 weeks.
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 Mon 18 Apr 11 20:01 
 booking a holiday direct - Zero
>> Done it a few times = flights booked, villa booked, insurance stc - savings around
>> £200 each BUT if something goes wrong (Iceland Volcano, flight delays (not airline's fault)!!) you
>> are on your own picking up the bills.

Not if you booked the flight in Europe with a european airline, although you may have to take Ryan Air to court!

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 Mon 18 Apr 11 20:04 
 booking a holiday direct - mikeyb
Done it loads now and its my preference to a package. I like to be in charge of my own destiny!

Have done it in europe many times, and a few years back did it in Antigua which was also easy to organise. Had plenty of BA miles so they covered the flights, then did a bit of research on the net and found a nice little family owned hotel. Hire car for pick up at the airport.

Not always cheaper though, although for us as we now have 5 children we dont fit the norm 2.4 for a package so for us low cost flights plus a villa often works out cheaper. Also having younger children it works out well for us to be able to put them to bed while having a few drinks by the pool in the evening - something we wouldnt be able to do in a hotel / complex.
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 Mon 18 Apr 11 20:06 
 booking a holiday direct - RattleandSmoke
I've only ever done it this way. Much prefer to book flights and hotels by myself. It is really good fun organising it too. I remember the first trip me and my mate did we went to library and studied maps to work the route.

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 Mon 18 Apr 11 20:17 
 booking a holiday direct - rtj70
I think the OPs problem is this is Greece and no direct budget flights from where you need to fly? Done budget book it yourself deals many a time. But if a Greek island it can be better doing a package IMO.
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 Mon 18 Apr 11 20:35 
 booking a holiday direct - sherlock47
>>Much prefer to book flights and hotels by myself. <<<

I thought that you would not fly!
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 Mon 18 Apr 11 20:16 
 booking a holiday direct - FocalPoint
Done it lots of times, but have never compared the cost with a package. Sometimes the holiday would have been something unavailable by package anyway - like the time we stayed in a specific rural villa on mainland Greece (on the Pelion peninsula), which was served by a (sort-of) local airport but with very limited flights.

If you do the direct booking thing, the first thing is to co-ordinate accommodation and flight/ferry. You don't want to have accommodation booked before you know how you'll get there. Then you may need car hire, or at least to organise transfers.

You really do need to do your homework first. Find out if the hotel has its own website and what accommodation costs. Remember that prices may be cheaper through sites like Booking.com, LastMinute.com or Venere.com.

Do the same for airlines - check the airline's own website and then use flightchecker.moneysavingexpert.com/ and the various links that this will throw up, like Kayak and Opodo. Use CheapFlights.co.uk too.

The only pitfall I can think of is if there are problems after you've booked, getting compensation or your money back might be more complicated.
Last edited by: ChrisPeugeot on Mon 18 Apr 11 at 20:17
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 Mon 18 Apr 11 20:20 
 booking a holiday direct - rtj70
I agree that you need to know you can get there at an acceptable cost. If the accommodation can be reserved first and then book flights. Otherwise you'd have a problem or expense.
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 Mon 18 Apr 11 20:22 
 booking a holiday direct - Zero
Always book flights first, then hotel. You have less choice and availability for plane seats than hotel beds usually!
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 Mon 18 Apr 11 20:23 
 booking a holiday direct - CGNorwich
Like for like i.e booking the same hotel through a package or direct you are unlikely to save anything as the holiday company will have bought rooms at a heavily discounted rate. What booking direct does give you is flexibility to choose the hotel you want and the period you want.

I suppose the biggest advantage of booking with a travel company is if things go wrong when it is good to have someone to help. A few years back I had to curtail a holiday due to serious illness in the family and the rep did a great job on finding me early flights home with another company.

Having said that I normally book direct now just for the flexibility it gives
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 Mon 18 Apr 11 20:43 
 booking a holiday direct - rtj70
If you want to go to a destination served by a package deal - do that. If it's not possible to get there with a package then go independent.
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 Mon 18 Apr 11 21:03 
 booking a holiday direct - Perky Penguin
I am going to Madeira next month on a holiday that I could have booked for £800 with stupid o'clock flights and could have organised myself for £550 with better flights and the same hotel. Slight problem is that, SFAIK what I have booked does not have the overall proection of being in a "Package". The flights are covered by ATOL or something like that but the hotel is not - I have no protection if they go bust.

I rang a firm called Travel Counsellors and they have turned it into a package for me and charged me a total of £600 for flights, transfers by taxi and 7 nights B&B in a 3* hotel in the centre of Funchal. Good enough for me. The brochure offer was one flight a week with a 6am check in, the flights I have got are 7 days a week and timed around mid-day depart and arrive back
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 Mon 18 Apr 11 22:05 
 booking a holiday direct - Dulwich Estate
Done it many times - no problems to date.

The best deals we've had were in Florida in July / August. Yes, yes, a ridiculous time to go - but kids' holidays and Disney didn't tie up for Christmas or Easter for us for a couple of years.

That's low season so hotels are cheap. It's only the UK package companies that ramp up the costs and take the pi......

Flights were pricey though.
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 Mon 18 Apr 11 22:37 
 booking a holiday direct - henry k
I have always booked accomodation and flights myself over many decades.

I have only had a couple of problems during that time.
We booked a specific room at Ayers Rock but after attempting to give us another room we got sorted all to no avail. ( the view was of rain, rain, rain.) I have photos of a big grey rock with waterfalls running down it :-(
Many years ago, our worst happening was our room in a large American chain was cancelled, in spite of all the precautions we took. They claimed we cancelled it the same afternoon but we were half way across the pond en route. The hotel was full and we had to find another hotel ( with two young children) which was not amusing.

Things are obviously much better these days with so many websites to view the product and look at reviews. We still sometimes use the old fashioned phone. Talking to the establishment can often help decide the best choice of room etc.
We bookall sorts of things, specific tables at restaurants, side trips, private tours etc.
Thanks to SWMO we had some unusual rooms a couple of years ago, they were in an elephant house with lots of live elephants to watch etc.
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 Tue 19 Apr 11 07:56 
 booking a holiday direct - Bagpuss
Just booked a 2 week package holiday to Crete. I found a couple of hotels I liked from the Operators' websites and tried to book them myself online, thinking I could then use my air miles for the flights. I discovered the room rate alone would have been more than the entire package including flight and half board, so I booked the package.
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 Tue 19 Apr 11 09:09 
 booking a holiday direct - helicopter
I never go with a package holiday if I can avoid it but may use Thomas Cook or First Choice for the flights if they are cheaper.

Whereabouts you going in Crete Bagpuss?

Hope its the west rather than the east of the island.West is much nicer IMO.

We go there most years and fly into Chania with Monarch. Flights are already booked

We book our villa now direct with the owners on line and we do know that the rate we got for a six person villa for the two of us is 10% less than the website price and we do not even have to pay a deposit as they know us and treat us virtually as family.Sometimes I just phone them or chat to the owners daughter on Facebook...

We have been to Heraklion and the east of the island and were able to book beautiful apartments on line direct with the owners.

Car hire is also arranged on line.

We arranged a trip round the Deep South of US with friends a couple of years back and booked all hotels ourselves in Atlanta , Nashville , Memphis and New Orleans , car hire was discussed and arranged on advice from HJ website and flights were coordinated on line.

Trip advisor website is very helpful.

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 Tue 19 Apr 11 09:42 
 booking a holiday direct - Perky Penguin
I am a bit biased against Thomas Cook after a gross admin failure, on their part, notifying me of a 9 hour change to my flight times 14 days before I flew!. As regard the airline, they charge £30 to up your checked baggage allowance from 15kg to 20KG and their hand luggage allowance is a ludicrous 5kg in a bag 17 x 11 x 9 inches. If Easy Jet can let one on with hand luggage of the standard size and of any weight so long as one one get it into the locker unassisted why do TC have to be so awkward?
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 Tue 19 Apr 11 13:23 
 booking a holiday direct - CGNorwich
'I am a bit biased against Thomas Cook after a gross admin failure, on their part, notifying me of a 9 hour change to my flight times 14 days before I flew!. '


Doesn't seem that unreasonable to me. Suffered worse delays than that with no notice at all.

As regards the hand luggage surely all clearly stated when booking

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 Tue 19 Apr 11 13:48 
 booking a holiday direct - Zero
The flight change was probably only notified to them 14 days in advance.
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 Tue 19 Apr 11 10:11 
 booking a holiday direct - Bagpuss
>> Whereabouts you going in Crete Bagpuss?

Going to Sissi. Not been to that part of Crete before but had difficulty finding something fitting rather specific criteria. This included absolute non-flexibility on departure and return dates, villa right on the (sandy) beach as well as direct flight, as a lot of the flights from Munich to Greece include a stopover. The process was further complicated by my insistence on poring over the feedback and comments on various travel sites.

I'm not a big fan of fully catered package holidays, but it's been a difficult year for us and we fully intend to spend the entire 2 weeks vegetating on the beach during the day and drinking wine on the veranda in the evening.
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 Tue 19 Apr 11 11:09 
 booking a holiday direct - Mapmaker
If you book the foreign hotel with a credit card you have protection.

A last-minute discounted package can be great value; otherwise probably best avoided IMO. I've only ever done two package holidays, to go skiing. To book flights and a privately owned chalet now for next season is considerably cheaper than a TO package.

However, to book within five to ten days of departure, DIY flights will be far more expensive than the TO package - and if you can find one discounted 50% or more then it's bargain territory.

Going on a summer package holiday to a hotel full of Brits I'm afraid I'd rather shoot myself.
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 Tue 19 Apr 11 11:10 
 booking a holiday direct - helicopter
Sissi is quite a nice little place a bit off the beaten track with a nice harbour.

Only been there once , SWMBO and I had lunch in a taverna overlooking the harbour... Small fish and salad for 4 euros was superb, around 30 small fish grilled like whitebait , fresh and with a squeeze of lemon ...yummy.

Enjoy your trip Bagpuss . If you do feel like a bit of culture then the Minoan Palace at Malia is worth a visit...

www.explorecrete.com/archaeology/malia-palace-EN.html

The towns of Malia and Hersonnisos are to be avoided like the plague , they are the natural home of the Full English breakfast and the vomiting English tourist...
Last edited by: retpocileh on Tue 19 Apr 11 at 11:15
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 Tue 19 Apr 11 11:36 
 booking a holiday direct - Perky Penguin
I hope you enjoy it BP. On the beach with a book and a drink, the company of friends/family and some vino collapso while watching the sunset - job done!
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 Tue 19 Apr 11 12:12 
 booking a holiday direct - Bagpuss
Thanks for the link Helicopter. Pleased to hear we've managed to avoid inadvertently booking an english lagerlout type place.

Perky Penguin - yes you've summed up our expectations for this holiday!
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 Tue 19 Apr 11 13:38 
 booking a holiday direct - helicopter
If you do get the energy or the inclination , hire a car for a visit to the island of Spinalonga which was the last leper colony in Greece until 1957 would you believe , it has a Venetian fortress and an abandoned village .

A visit to the island is a good day out. Its about an hour or so drive from Sissi but worth it .

Mrs helicopter navigated us through some spectacular scenery to Elounda and thence on to Plaka where you get the ferry to the island. The entrance fee is additional to the ferry cost.

If you are interested in going , read the book 'The Island' by Victoria Hislop ( Private Eye editors wife) which is based around Spinalonga..

However I do know the feeling of just wanting to relax by the pool with a cold Mythos or glass of wine and a good book or MP3 player .... averting my gaze from the tanned young ladies clad only in dental floss and tattoos......

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 Tue 19 Apr 11 13:47 
 booking a holiday direct - Zero
Elounda itself is a nice place to stay. Nicolle arranged us a holiday there after she read the love story book based on Spinalonga.

Second the visit to the Temple.
Last edited by: Zero on Tue 19 Apr 11 at 13:49
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