Finding Cheap Package Holidays

A Google search for “cheap package holidays” reveals that you only have a mere half million sites to check out. Actually, sounds a lot, but that isn’t as massive as I thought it would be. Then of course when you start actually looking through the holidays on offer, you start to realise either that your definition of a cheap holiday isn’t quite the same as the vendor’s definition, or that they are just using the “cheap” tag to get business for the same old re-badged packages that everyone has.

And there’s a thing. There used to be 4 (not sure if there still are) main Central Reservation Systems - Galileo, Armadeus, Sabre and Worldspan if you want the gory details - and any travel agent you walked into off the highstreet basically searched the same system, had the same holidays, and usually the same prices, although some reps were better at searching than others! Now we’re all hi-tech and searching for our own cheap packages on the wonderful Interweb, guess what? Yup…the same 4 central reservations systems are in use once again.

However, there are also a number of “clearing houses” that get unique deals and of course, everyone wants their cut of the action, so the prices start to vary as the competition hots up. Some of these cheap package holidays are just so cheap I struggle to see who gets anything! You have to feel for some of the hoteliers who are at the wrong end. That said, I guess they have a choice, but still. My g/f recently did 7 nights in Greece with her daughter for £180 each! How is this possible I ask myself? The line of people that need to be paid: hotelier, airline, package holiday tour operator and then you have the airport taxes on top!

Anyway, once again I am digressing. If you got this far, you’re probably wanting to know where the cheap package holiday bargains really are right? Well the answer’s above. They are all in one of 4 places and it’s down to the sites you choose to search. For me, I search all over, but for some reason with last minute holidays it seems I always end up booking through the same sites, so here’s the list of travel sites that always seem to end up with my money when I want a cheap package holiday bargain:

Lastminute.com
Expedia.com (+ .co.uk)
Laterooms.com (Hotels only)

One note about Laterooms. They don’t actually take the money and you need to take the credit card you used on Laterooms to the hotel you are staying at. I got refused at one hotel in London because my P.A booked it by phone and I turned up with no card. Bast*rds. The hotel’s fault, not Laterooms.

For USA residents: In the USA, there are three principle market leaders: Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity. As mentioned elsewhere, I use Sidestep a lot primarily for flights too.