Advice booking holidays online

Web site is beach.es. alpharooms.com. travelrepublic.co.uk. thomson.co.uk 1800hotels.ie hotels.com. There is an other english site called travelsupermarket.com where you get loads prices from different companies to compare. Good luck
 
oldnick said:
Very odd about Ryanairs Summer prices to many destinations,especially Spain.
The prices have all doubled in the last two days!
Nobody will pay eight months ahead the full amount of 300- 350 euros which is Ryanair's full price inc. bag and all fees for many dates in July to Spanish destinations.
Especially when Lingus is averaging 150-200 euros inclusive.

Expect very soon Ryanair's amazing "half-price summer sale" !
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Ryanair must be losing out to Aer Lingus on this one. I would imagine that most people who flew with Ryanair at the drop of a hat and had several holidays a year have made cutbacks for various reasons.
They are probably concentrating on one or two holidays now and will probably upgrade their accommodation etc accordingly. Hotels are offering good deals so I would imagine that they will try to match their hotel and flight rather than lose out. As a result I think that Aer Lingus will take some business from Ryanair now unless Ryanair introduce some special offers for the summer months.
 
I am gobsmacked at some of the prices of Aer Lingus to many hot-spots in peak season. Never seen them so low.

However, the fact is that almost nobody is booking them or anything else for next year. Irish airlines and tour operators have never ever had such a low percent of forward bookings.
Will this mean bargains later on ?
No idea -more likely the capacity on both the two Irish airlines and the tour operators will be slashed (actually the three main tour operators have already cut capacity by 50%). And there's no way both airlines will actually run the all the flights displayed.
 
Old nick - i meant to direct my query to you. As a travel agent can you come up with a better price for a family of 5 than the one I quoted above.
 
jasonr said:
Dewdrop - can I put you to the test?

I've always used travel agents when booking my family summer holiday but next year its about to change. I can get the following for these amounts -

Return tickets to Reus (staying 9 nights from 13 July - 22 July) €858.
Staying half board in Play Margarita hotel (family room) - €1244.
Cost of transfers €100 return.

Total cost for 9 nights in Salou amounts to €2,202 for a family of 5.

If you can beat that then I would gladly book with a travel agent.
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Well booked 8 days in Salou for family of 5 All inclusive in Salou in the first week of August.
Flights worked out at €735 and accommodation €1340. Transfers will cost about €100 so i will have all for €2,175 which isnt bad for peak time and all-inclusive staying in the Cye Holiday Aparthotel.
 
Is OteL.COM a legitimate site? Same question re Otels.com. Sister has booked on it last night but is panicking now. Slim
 
The Irish Times do a travel supplement on Saturdays. For the first few months they did a weekly comparison between a holiday booked as a package or booking it yourself (I think it was Conor Pope who did it). They featured lots of different types of holidays - Short City breaks / family sun holidays / cheap and cheerful / luxury etc etc. Sometimes DIY was cheaper, sometimes it wasn't. Also - the cheaper option sometimes was unsatisfactory for one reason or another - such as indirect flights, or flight schedule issues. Sometimes the price difference was tiny, sometimes it was huge.

Even if you choose to book with a travel agent or Tour Operator, it is worth doing a bit of research first to ensure you are happy with the price, and that it's not excessive compared to booking yourself. I have booked with Travel Agents and Tour Operators a good few times because it was cheaper then doing it myself (Florida, France, St. Lucia).
 
Ref my original post i did not go abroad last year. My question now is the travel agent quoted me a price for arranging air travel and accommodation which comes out much less than the price of a package holiday. I know the accommodation and that i will have to pay for the transfer from the airport...what are the advantages of going along with the travel agent or booking the flight/accommodation myself.
 
Dewdrop - you say that the travel agent can do this for the same price as doing it yourself and you ask why book with the travel agent.

This shows how badly we in the travel trade have told people that every penny spent with a travel agent on travel ex-Ireland is protected. For example, if the hotel goes bust ,or an overseas online provider goes bust then you may have a long wait getting your money back.

-If you have a complaint with the accommodation, with the airline , coach company whatever -then you can direct that complaint thru the local travel agent. Doesn't always work but it's better than trying to get compensation from an overseas hotel ( o.k. in your particular case you know the hotel, so a complaint may not arise )

- although not obligated, the travel agent usually helps in case you have an emergency. You've lost all your money, got arrested, shot etc !
Good agents can make phone calls and push things on your behalf inc.arranging money, alternative flights back etc

- if it is not dearer or more trouiblesome to book with the travel agent why not give them the business? It's a local shop employing presumedly a few people.

-some agents are rubbish but most surviving today do care about getting repeat business and if it costs nothing extra then do book with them

-Oldnick -retiring travel agent.
 
Thanks Old Nic. I do not know how much it would cost to do it myself as i am not very good at this! My query was whether the price quoted by the travel agent (about 400 euro less than the packaged price) for arranging the flight/accommodation would be much the same as if i got someone to do it for me. Really just curious. The travel agent seemed to contact another party to get the price rather than source it himself.
 
dewdrop. Why not give us the dates and location on this thread and see if any of us can do it any cheaper?
 
dewdrop- yes i did misread you-I thought you got a matching price. apologies

sorryslump- excellent idea.
 
two weeks in Rosamer Apts. Lanzorate. fly from cork sat 6th nov and return to corksat 2oth..2 adults self catering. Paackaged holiday was 1838 euro..flight and accomm arranged by travel agent was 1402. I am not really penny pinching but just interested..thanks.
 
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