Totally agree. After loking at the prices I would have to pay in school holidays, we made the decision to take our 5 year old out of school for a week in June. We are now paying less than half the price. This is only possible because he won't be missing anything as he is only in Primary 1. Don't know how they have got away with it for so long

It's not so easy when you work there. We have a very understanding headmaster, but when you count up the loss of wages you don't really gain much. It's not worth it.

Thats why alot of people including me do it DIY as it works out a lot cheaper in most cases. It may sound daunting but believe me is very easy. Karen

We do all our short city breaks DIY, but for the main summer holidays the flights are so expensive it's not worth it. We only have 2 airports close to us one an hour and a half away the other roughly 2 hours. To get anywhere else takes us at least 4 hours so usually means the extr expense of a night's airport accommodation.

Can I just point out it is not travel agents who set prices - it is tour operators. The travel agent sector has to work with what we are given.

I didn't mean to pick on Travel agents I just get so angry that we are punished year after year for having to go on holiday at certain times of year. Isn't it about time that they started spreading the cost of holidays throughout the year. I realise that perhaps there won't be any fantastic deals but it's surely a fairer system. I know loads of people who would still prefer to take holidays "out of season" as the summer months are simply too hot!!!

Sorry but I cannot agree that they should even out the prices over the year. Yes I have been there and got the T shirt with kids at school and can understand your frustration. But why does anyone think that I and thousands of others should subsidise your holiday?

Yes at high season the prices go up, but if it was not for those of us who take our holidays "out of season" (and there are a lot of us) the price would be a lot more.

The holiday business is not just for the six weeks school holidays.

There are a great number of small operators who even at high season can undercut the big operators by a considerable margin. Holidaytruths has lots of information on how to DIY or find bargains.

The simple tip of ignoring the free child place and booking the kids as adults and avoiding supplements is a constant bit of advice on here.

fwh

I just wish they would be more honest about it. They say that their hands are tied because hotels charge extra, as do airlines and that it's an industry wide thing. What does bug me is that there can be such a huge shift from one week to another - that week being the start of whichever school holiday.

Scotland start their summer holidays earlier than England/Wales so you would think that they would have a couple of weeks where flights and holidays are a cheaper price. But no, the tour operators up their prices accordingly just for Scotland! Despite it not yet being the so called 'high season'.

I'm saying this as a person without kids, from England by the way, but I feel for families. Fair enough prices higher in high season, it's the massive discrepancy that I think is unfair.

I totally agree Sand C, and fwh - What makes you think that you're subsidising my and "thousands of others" holidays. The opposite could be said - it's because people like me have to pay exorbitant prices in High Season that there are all the cheap holidays at other times. I'm just having a general moan that its highly unfair that people who have no option but to holiday at peak times have to pay so dearly.! I would love to be able to holiday when its a little cooler. Unfortunately my job doesn't allow it.

The travel industry is just that - an industry - and it operates in a free market and hence the higher the demand, the higher the price. Who subsidises whom is probably debatable but if the industry had to rely only on those who travel in school holidays then prices would be even higher. A great many out-of-season holidays are priced at little above cost price or below cost price in order to keep the facilities going and viable throughout the year.

If holiday prices were more even throughout the year then the incentive to take a holiday out of season disappears and some hotels etc could struggle to remain open throughout the year. If they are then having to rely on a shorter season then either facilities will be closed down as uneconomic and simply wouldn't be there for anybody to go to, either in or out of season, or prices would rise again so that the profit previously generated over a longer season would need to be generated more intensively over a shorter one.

In the end one just has to accept that these things are controlled by supply and demand, currently holidays are essentially rationed by price. They're priced low enough to keep up demand for them and priced high enough to ensure that demand doesn't outstrip supply. We could try other ways of rationing them I suppose but I can't for the life of me think what they would be unless it was in the form of a totally regulated system which would take freedom of choice away from the majority.

SM

If you look at it in a balanced way most folk probably have 10 years of holidaying with children, and 40 years of holidaying without children. So presumably it all evens itself out in the lojng run. (apart from those that choose to work in the Education sector).

Until I had my family I always went on holiday in June and September and no doubt will return to doing this when they have fininshed their Education.

Why would the travel industry alter this they are a business not a charity. If they couldn't operate in a cost effective manner we would all probably be a lot worse off.

holidays are like everything else and governed by the laws of supply and demand. more people want to go to the med in our summer months and so the hoteliers can (and do) put up the prices at these times.
maybe what we should be doing is having the long school holiday in january/february which would drastically cut the heating bills for schools, and make it slightly easier for those going to work during these dark months to get on public transport during this period.
this would solve some of the problems as the demand for hotel places in the med would then fall and so would prices, making for cheaper holidays for everyone in june/july/august.
it would of course mean that the prices for winter holidays would go up, as would the prices for the canaries etc but you cant have it all ways.
one of the upsides would also be that those of us who holiday without kids during the summer would be able to lie by the pool in peace and quiet, and maybe even be able to go for a swim without waiting for all the families taking their kids to lunch.

It just doesn't seem fair though to those of us who for various reasons have to take our summer holiday from work during August - Whether we have children or not.
I wouldn't mind paying a little extra but the difference in prices at the moment is just ridiculous.
As for people having to holiday off peak in order to keep the facilities going- well if the August prices were more reasonable, we'd be able to afford an "out of season " break as well.

I think this is one of those arguments that will go round and round. Partly I think things are not helped by the way school holidays are split up. How many of us have tried to get weekend flights to fit holidays into the Easter break or even over half terms- it's very difficult, leaving the only option to pull the children out of school. If like us you don't like doing that, really the only time to get away is in the summer holidays- again the old supply and demand thing!!

If school holidays were to be more evently distributed perhaps tour operators could level out the prices a bit, while still, giving those who can go outside of school holidays a good deal.

Pam

I value the information, advice and comments on HT.

I do not trawl the net looking at holiday advice sites in other countries, but

I am willing to bet that exactly the same complaint is aired on them as on here.

I do not see people complaining on here about how the price of petrol/diesel always seems to rise at holiday times - but it does.

Being realistic if the TOs were to "smooth out" prices so that those who go in July/August got it cheaper whilst people like me who go in May and October were forced to subsidise them then it would be like asking Turkeys to vote for Xmas.

It really is supply and demand. Other countries also take their holidays at the same time as us.

Here on HT there are complaints that people cannot get the holiday they want. Nothing to do with the price - always to do with the lack of the holidays they want because they are all booked up.

I have suggested before - not a popular idea I admit. Abandon your foreign holiday and force the TOs to rethink. If nobody books then they would be forced to rethink their policies.

I am sure you are all going to support that idea - Not

fwh