This is my third year of DIY holidays travelling as a family in peak school holiday time(I work in a school) from Newcastle/Leeds.

Travel agents prices come in no where near as cheap as DIY for us. I have booked for May half term and it cost £1500.00 AI incl flights and transfers, Direct holidays are offering the same thing with poor flight times for £3413.60. Our usual ten nights in July/August school holidays came in at £1100.00 for SC which was only around £100.00 more than last year.

Flights need to be booked as soon as released if possible and you do sometimes search for hours for the best deal but price wise is a huge difference IMO.

Great deal on Hotel EL Paso, Portaventura, Half Board for up to 4 people. I have just booked this Hotel on Thomsons Hotels for 4 adults 8 nights 16th-24th June. Half Board, Entry to Theme Park, Beach Club etc. £1228 for everyone also go through quidco for an extra 5% off. Got cheap flights with Ryanair the other day also £248 for all 4 including baggage taxes etc. On other accommodation sites this hotel is £2000 for 4. Great bargain not to be missed. Other dates same price or cheaper available. I have also checked if I booked this as a holiday through Thomsons it is £2548 and that is only for 7 nights not the 8 we have booked. Hope this helps someone.
Just checked and if anyone is only wanting 7 night the 2 other Hotels, Portaventura & Caribe are coming out about same price.

Rubbish, I'm not lying and I always do DIY in August schools holidays. I saved about £2k on Package prices last year to Egypt AI but that's because we are a family of 4 so when I DIY I can get 1 family room, where people like Thomsons will make you take 2 twins. This coupled with the perseverance/ability of the DIYer over searches for flights etc is where you can make savings. But like someone said if there is only 2 of you then maybe it's not as easy to save? But for a family of 4 it's hard not too!

Heres one for you.

Hotel RIVIERA Benalmadena.

Half board in September,on the hotels own web site Euros 1700 for 2,obviously without flights.

Portland Holidays same time £1250,with flights and transfers.

Needless to say I wont be doing DIY

A/

if there is only 2 of you then maybe it's not as easy to save? But for a family of 4 it's hard not too!

B/ Discount is usually better through a "bed" agency than the hotel direct.

Booked our July 2009 summer holiday in March. There's 8 of us going to Turkey. We have saved £200 per person by going DIY compared with the quote given from travel agent booking through First Choice ( for the exact same apartments) and for our money we are having a private minibus transfer included as opposed to a shared bus transfer offered by FC. Its best never to make assumptions that DIY is always cheaper, but make like for like comaprisons at the time and choose what offers you best value for money, in our case DIY saved us £1600 which goes towards our spending money, well worth a few hours on the internet researching prices and options available!

Thank you Kimi, I have been saying what you said for years. Wait for the prophets of doom (those in the travel industry) who will shove on a few posts advising what they perceive negative aspects of DIY.

Enjoy your spare couple of grand.

Heres one for you.

Hotel RIVIERA Benalmadena.

Half board in September,on the hotels own web site Euros 1700 for 2,obviously without flights.

Portland Holidays same time £1250,with flights and transfers.

Needless to say I wont be doing DIY

Rarely would a true DIY holidaymaker book with the hotel/apartment direct, exactly because of the example you've shown. An example of my own to show the point:

Las Arenas Hotel - Costa Del Sol - Direct they want 90 euro per night twin room b&b - I got it through a room consolidator for 55 Euro twin per night As for the travel agents they wanted as a total inc the flights etc. for 3 nights approx £280. I've done it for under £200 booking everything individualy, no hassle, just a little shopping around on the net AND I get cashback through a cashback site which equates to almost another £40 to me rather than them

Why would a genuine DIYer not book direct with a hotel?I thought cutting out the middle man would make things cheaper.The hotel Riviera was far dearer direct with the hotel and other room agencies than going through Portland.THere were cheaper options but we wanted this particular hotel.

I have booked direct with hotels in Alicante for the last 4 years and found it cheaper than room agencies.As always I suppose its swings and roundabouts.

I have priced up hotels in Ibiza for September through room agencies and found them dearer when the flights are added than tour
Ops.They seem to have put prices up this year.

I use tour ops and do DIY for booking holidays and on this occasion found TO,s cheaper on this occasion.

Why would a genuine DIYer not book direct with a hotel?

Simple - it usually costs more! If booking through a room agency can save me money and I don't conform to what you define as a "genuine" DIYer, then so be it! Far rather have the money I've saved in my pocket thanks!!

We have had excellent value from agency bed bookers and direct with hotel sites, you do some times get great offers from hotel groups but you have to snap them up very quickly, H10 and Barcelo have been good to us. DIY is like everything else getting more and more expensive, for flights I never look at Thomson I find them very expensive, being retired and able to go at any time is a bonus, I would imagine it is very difficult with children. We are not too fussy and look for good value flights and accomodation.

Dave

Can someone enlighten me then.Do the room agencies/consolidators buy rooms in bulk from a hotel with the hope of selling them all on ,or do they take a commision for each sale from the hotel.

I only think that there are main agents who buy a certaim number of rooms to sell on as when I have booked with Travel Republic the main supplier has been You Travel when we booked with WSH sometimes it was Jumbo Travel. I think that there is a deadline within which they can return rooms not sold. They do not let the hotel know who is coming until a few days before you arrive. Thats the way I think that it is but someone may know different.

Dave

It's a bit risky doing DIY with the economic climate etc. 2 accom suppliers that I have used before ceased trading recently! Though I bought supplier failure insurance just in case could be best £8 spent?! CBG

We have changed our tack a bit, having to pay more for flights we are self catering, booking privately owned reasonable rent apartments and stretching the holiday to a month, it makes the weekly cost reasonable, where before we would have seperate ten day hotel breaks , no more 12-15 euros for a bottle of wine in the hotel every night followed by brandies and coffee we now buy the same for a lot less euros from Mercadona. Thats what becomes of being poor pensioners, haha.

Dave

DIY is far cheaper , 2x day flights gatwick to dalaman total £380 [ with seats together food 20 kg hold bags] transfer to calis beach [ hotel owner] £40 return 14 night B/B free aircon brill hotel room total £210 == £630 total same flight same hotel same datesin june Thompson= £1155 total = =£ 525 cheaper

Was I right? or Was I right? - No sooner had I finished my post when The Great How Dare You Book a Holiday Privately brigade came on feeling threatened. Now, Kimi look what you started! How dare you book a cheaper holiday!!!!!!!

Why cant we just agree to differ.

One mans meat is another mans poison.

Please lets keep the topic friendly.

Kath x

I see nothing wrong with someone pointing out some of the pitfalls of DIY. DIY's fine when everything goes to plan, but there are risks to consider.

I've had incidences where the accomodation booked is not available when arriving at resort and I become the one who has to sort things out. On one occasion I did not reconfirm a flight (my fault) and lost the seats, so had to make alternative arrangements.For some things you're on your own. I DIY the Far East a lot, but there have been incidences that make me realise as a DIY'er you are exposed, eg. tsunami, airport closure and civil disturbance, where you won't have the help of a TO in sorting out emergency accommodation or rescheduled return flights. Imagine if you had DIY'ed a holiday in Mexico at the moment.

For my holidays I will use whatever options available to me wheter that be DIY or through a tour op, using an accommodation agency or booking direct with hotel - there are no hard and fast rules except do your homework.