Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

groovybaby

2010-10-30 02:33:17

I thought i would post the following info for folks who are worried about the price hikes in turkey for next year. if you really want to go i have found out through trip adviser (hope thats okay mods

) that the CHEAPEST way to holiday there is this.

a) do NOT use an agent. any agent. agents make money out of you

b) now we have internet its dead easy to find flights that suits you and at best prices(check out martins mse site for tips on finding cheap flights)

c) book DIRECT. find the name of hotel or apartment you like and email phone them. they sell rooms to agents for as little as £3 a night!

the agent sells it to you for much more than that! the hotel only sells it cheap to the agent coz they want you to spend money in the bar and restaurant. grab yourself a deal and contact the hotel direct and if they say to you the room is £20 a night you can try and barter and they will probs give you a deal. even if they charge the full amount it will work out cheaper than using an agent anyway. plus they will collect you FREE OF CHARGE from the airport and take you back when you depart.

the days are gone when we needed agents to book a flight hotel and transfer for us. we can do it ourselves! we have internet! better than all that we can book it at the time and day we want instead of being told when we can go. thats more like it!

my mates did DIY booking this year (flight plus hotel with free transfer by phoning hotel and booking) saved about £400 by not using an agent. nice! just the 2 of them aswell! hey hey!

might not make turkey cheaper but you will save on your actual holiday cost for flight hotel,apartment/transfer. do a reccy and try it out. you will be quids in! more spends for you when you go on your hols!

smc4761

2010-10-30 15:53:36

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

I agree in the main with your post but disagree about it always being cheaper to book direct with the hotel/apartments. I tend to use http://www.otbeach.com or http://www.travelrepublic.com and have found that they are much cheaper than booking direct with owners. The apartments I use wanted £70 per week and yet I booked with travel republic and the cost was only £50 for 2 weeks

As with all things simply shop around. Check with travel agents if you prefer that piece of mind they may well price match or be cheaper, unlikely but you have nothing to lose

Stewart

Crispy

2010-10-30 19:51:15

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

I book direct if I can get it cheaper,but thats not always the case !! For last months holiday I used travelrepublic for my flight and accomodation because the flight I wanted with aegeanflights was cheaper with them and also the apartments were more expensive to book direct with the owner !!doesnt make sense I know,a lot of the owners sell rooms very cheap to the agents,but some ask ridiculous money to book direct with them :que

Jay Trip

2010-10-30 21:00:25

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

I have just been pricing a hotel in Rhodes that I want to go next year.
Thomson package price,£598
Booking on line with Alpha rooms,Hotel £830 and £586 for Thomson flights +transfers
Travel republic,£880.13 for hotel and £586 for Thomson flights,+ transfers.
I have tried Olympic,Med Hotels, Thomas Cook and other booking agents and non can beat Thomsons price. :que

I intend booking it at Thomson agents as they match the web price.
Thomas Cooks price was the nearest and they also do 2 weeks car parking at my local airport for £25 for 2 weeks,but I dont think I can stand another 4 hour flight being squashed and being constantly hassled by the crew to buy something from the trolleys that go up and down the aisle continually. :rofl

Kedi Yavrusu

2010-10-31 14:09:28

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

Sometimes it can be cheaper to book through an agent though so it is always best to check all options before booking.

smc4761

2010-10-31 16:16:03

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

Well done Jay trip for getting a Thomson holiday cheaper than the others. Every holiday I go I always check Thomson Thomas Cook etc, and I have always found that Thomson were the most expensive and by a huge amount.

The apartments I stayed at this year cost just over £50 for the 2 weeks booked via travel republic. Thomson wanted over £350 for the same booking.

Stewart

Jay Trip

2010-10-31 19:35:08

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

If Thomson dont match the price of hte hotel in Rhodes there are some apartments in Icmeler where my hubby prefers to go and they are only £228 for 2 weeks on Thomson website,including the flight and transfers.The flight alone is £283. :que

blondiescot

2010-10-31 20:08:44

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

We usually book everything independently and separately as we've found it works out cheaper. However, this year, after losing out original October flights with the collapse of Kiss, we tried in vain to book replacement flights separately, but the prices were extortionate, and we ended up going with Thomson, which worked out cheaper than our original flights were. It pays to check out everything thoroughly - booking everything separately can work out cheaper, but not always.

Strawberry7

2010-11-02 08:54:38

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

Booking directly can save you a small fortune. My friend does it all the time, and saves about a thousand pound a year on her holidays. You do need to spend a couple of hours doing searches etc, but that can be part of the excitement for many people.

Just make sure your insurance covers you for cancelled flights (most of them do), and paying by credit card should cover you anyway.

When we've booked a hotel direct we phone them and also email them. We've saved a lot of money that way, and the hotel usually picks you up from the airport and takes you back free of charge, too. So yes, booking flights and hotel direct is definitely the way to go for the future.

I think travel agents hark back to the days when people were new to travel, and took package deals because they felt safer that way. Now, of course, people are much more widely travelled and experienced, and with the Internet the world really is their oyster.

Strawberry

shirley h

2010-11-02 12:28:15

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

I think it all depends on what airport you can fly from. With a very limited choice of cheap flights and destinations from my two nearest airports, I've often found it cheaper to do a package. It also doesn't help that I have to go during school holidays when there is even less choice of cheap flights.

As an example we're going to Kalamaki for 2 weeks in August. No end of people recommended booking a certain hotel direct with the owners to save a fortune. If you booked direct you had the Air Conditioning, safe and fridge included in the price, as well as airport transfers. I obtained a quote and thought it wasn't too bad but once I'd priced up the flights, the holiday came to £200 more than the package with TC (and I'd already budgeted for the extras).

So the package was the way to go for us. However, I am doing a week's DIY to Costa Del Sol in April which was CHEAP.

Jay Trip

2010-11-02 19:25:54

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

I have managed to get the web price for a holiday in Rhodes with Thomson,I even got the extra 5 kgs luggage thrown in. :tup

It took a bit of bargaining but I had a printout from Hays travel,who offered to match the web price.
It was almost £300 each dearer if I booked it separately and even Travel Republic were £250 dearer!
All I need now is a discount code for the car park at the airport :rofl

huge*abba*fan

2010-11-04 14:04:49

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

Think I will continue booking with a company such as Thomsons or Thomas Cook (direct or through a travel agent) regardless if its gonna cost me alittle more - purely for piece of mind.

Kedi Yavrusu

2010-11-05 10:17:03

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

If we were to book a holiday with Thomas Cook etc. in school holidays it would cost us twice as much as it would to book DIY so it wouldn't be an option for us. I think the way the tour operators put up the prices so much in school holiday is outragous!

On the other hand before our little ones started school I was able to get some fantastic deals with free child places during term time that we would never have been able to beat doing it ourselves.

huge*abba*fan

2010-11-05 10:19:50

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

I suppose I do it for peace of mind, especially with so many companies going under

Strawberry7

2010-11-05 10:34:11

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

Hi Abba Fan,

But if the tour operator goes under (and they occasionally do) how can that give you peace of mind? If you've booked your flight and hotel direct, taken out insurance, and paid by credit card you're covered in the unlikely event of the hotel suddenly closing, or the airline going into liquidation. Also, when you book a hotel direct, you don't pay the full cost until the end of your holiday - so even if something were to happen - your money would still be in YOUR bank.

Strawberry

huge*abba*fan

2010-11-05 10:38:24

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

I personally feel, and its only my opinion, that you are far safer booking with a larger travel agent/operator then any small operators on the web.
Its been proved time and time again that when people search the web and book with not well known operators (because its cheap) and then moan when they go under and lose their monies.

Strawberry7

2010-11-05 10:53:30

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

Yes, I agree that if you are going to book with an agent it is far safer to book with a large one. Of course, even then there's no guarantee that it won't go under, but with the global economy as it is right now, chances are some smaller travel agents/tour operators may collapse and fold.

I think tour operators do have a place in certain fields. Say, for example, a retired couple who had never been abroad in their whole lives wanted to visit, say, China or Japan, then obviously it would be far safer to book through an operator simply because they'd be able to guide you through the booking process and help you throughout the holiday with regards to sightseeing, or what to do in an emergency.

But for regular travellers to Europe and Turkey a tour operator is no longer the necessity it once was.

Strawberry

huge*abba*fan

2010-11-05 10:55:12

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

I think we will agree to disagree on this one

Judith

2010-11-05 11:19:09

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

Last spring I spent a week in Portugal. I planned and researched the trip a fair amount of time ahead but decided after costing that the trip would cost more than my budget, so I didn't book it. A couple of months later I saw an advert in a travel shop window for a week in Portugal I popped in to check it out and low and behold it was to the same hotel at a much lower price. I booked the holiday having saved a fair amount of money and travelled from a more convenient airport. So in this case the agency booked holiday proved cheaper than a DIY one. I've just returned from a touring holiday in Oman and the cost of the holiday if booked DIY would have been astronomical so I was happy to book a package.

I've been travelling for almost 50yrs now and I book both individual and/or with tour companies. I remember being stuck in Bangkok 2 years ago because protestors had closed the airport and as I had booked DIY the extra time spent there all came out of my pocket, not a small sum I may add. There was a group of people staying in my hotel that were on all on a Kuoni holiday. Their extra days were all paid for by the tour company.
A similar thing happened during the Volcanic Ash delays, most package holiday customers were taken care of by their tour companies but individual travellers were often just dumped by their airlines.
I'm still not put off from booking DIY but it doesn't always work out cheaper.

Dazbo HT Mod

2010-11-05 11:20:59

Re: Do not use agents to book holiday DIY cheaper on web!

All I'll say on the subject is shop around and find the deal that best suits you. There are pro's and cons of using agents, but if the deal is the best one for you, it doesn't matter if it's via an agent or not. I've found it's sometimes cheaper to do DIY, sometimes cheaper to book a package deal. Cheaper is not always best though!

Darren

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