Travel SALES are they just too expensive?

It’s that time of year where those who are savvy hold out for that elusive discount on the purchase they put off before Christmas.

Also, January to March are traditionally the busiest booking periods for people looking to secure their Summer / Annual holidays.

Everyone loves a Sale, as we know we are getting the best price for the product we want, right?

Perhaps, yes! However, in travel things can be a little more complicated. I won’t bore you with terms such as; Yields, R&R models, distribution models, ancillary and upsell business, run rates and dynamic pricing. Let us just say it as it really is, if a travel company has to promote a sale then it’s usually for 1 or 3 reasons.

Firstly, they have committed money already to securing holidays and a worried they may not fill them – then any money coming in is a loss mitigated for them. Good for the consumer/client and a relief for the travel company – however, perhaps these were not selling because the holidays were not that great in the first place – so why are they so great now? Perhaps you have secured one which is great – good for you! I have done this myself in the past – but make sure all that glistens is gold……….

Secondly, the company is promoting a really cheap deal which 95% of people will never purchase. Hook the client in and then get the sale person to try and convince you to pay more once you are on the phone with them and they only have 4 seats left at price x, which is actually 30% higher than the advertised price, but hey you knew that was too good to be true…………right?

Thirdly, the most likely scenario for the sale was that the companies prices were too expensive in the first place. Yes that’s right, with so many middle men between the client and the holiday product you can only imagine how much over the odds people can be asked to pay. Now this may surprise you, but actually the price you pay direct may not always be the best price you can pay, sometimes you just need real experts with the best local knowledge to lead you in the right direction.

In addition, one has to consider if a travel company can really reduce it’s prices by 20%+ and still make a profit then you can imagine just how much they are marking things up when not in the sale in the first place…………..

Here at AsktheTraveller, we aim to offer fair pricing. We can achieve this by working directly with the local experts, obtaining the best possible prices and making sure more money goes back to the local destinations. Of course, if special deals crop up on specific hotels and/or airlines we know about them and we offer them as you would expect. However, our business model is based around offering the best value for money – we do not mark up 30-40%, we always endeavour not book through another Tour operator and source directly with the Local Experts.