Life hack: when is the most profitable time to buy a tour abroad? Early booking or last minute trips

Spring, April, and summer vacation are already on the horizon. Relaxing in comfort and saving money on your trip is the goal of any traveler. What is the best way to do this: buy a tour in advance or at the last minute? Let's try to understand the pros and cons of both options.

Over the past couple of years, it has become popular among avid travelers to book a summer tour immediately after the New Year holidays. The fact is that when booking early, the travel agency provides a discount - from 5 to 50%. From six months to 2 months before the departure date is the standard period for early booking. The minimum period for unpopular and non-mass destinations is 21 days.

The main advantage of early booking is the opportunity to choose. The most comfortable airline, your favorite hotel, additional options offered by the tour operator. This is especially convenient if you are going on a trip with children. You can choose a decent hotel in advance with a range of entertainment for the younger generation. And the cost will be adequate.

Another reason to use early booking is your desire to fly on vacation during the greatest rush - on holidays or school holidays. Are you planning to relax in popular resorts in July or August? Travel industry experts recommend booking tours in advance for this “hot” time. And sometimes even in September. Moreover, the more popular the destination you choose, the more profitable early booking will be. The best hotels in Turkey, Cyprus, Greece and Spain are being sold out in the spring.

In addition, early booking is a way to get a guaranteed discount. The most modest companies offer 5%, while others promise to cut prices by half. For a traveler, the system for receiving a discount is simple - the earlier you buy a tour, the cheaper it can cost.

Last minute tour

Another way to save on your trip is to visit a last-minute travel store. But for many, the synonym for the phrase “last minute tour” is a cheap tour. That is, the level of service is low and not the best hotel, but in reality this is not the case. Tours become last minute for several reasons. Firstly, the tourism services market is extremely unstable. Offers that were in demand a month ago suddenly become useless to anyone. Another option: travelers who bought this tour in advance suddenly canceled.

The most important advantage of buying a last-minute tour is savings. On average from 30 to 60%. But this is not all the advantages. Often, travelers who go on an urgent vacation also receive pleasant bonuses from the travel company (a free excursion, a ticket to a local museum, a certificate for a spa treatment).

The reverse is also possible. The tour operator, in order to save money on you, will try to cut down on some excursion, visit to the hammam or water park.

This is the first, but not the last risk of this method of buying a tour. Anything is possible: lack of entertainment program in the hotel, uncomfortable transfer, view from the room of a concrete wall. You will also probably not receive travel cancellation insurance, since such a service is issued at least 7 days before departure. And if you suddenly decide to cancel the tour, then, most likely, your money will not be returned to you. The penalty for cancellation is 100%.

And one more minus - you will have to go on a trip without carefully preparing and packing your things, and, perhaps, in a hurry the very next day.

If the desire to save money outweighs the disadvantages, then buy last-minute trips! However, in order to “guess” when purchasing such a tour, you still have to work hard in advance.

You need to remember: if a travel company offers you a cheap trip a month before the intended trip, then this is not a last minute tour! Most likely, the price is reduced for another reason: due to the long distance from the hotel to the sea, construction outside the window or other factors that interfere with comfort. Better to look for something else. Inexpensive last-minute tours from all tour operators to visa-free countries may appear no earlier than a week before departure, and if a visa is required to travel to the country, they appear 10-14 days in advance. In most cases, the rule works - the closer the arrival date, the lower the price.

Almost at any time you can “catch” a last-minute tour to Turkey or Egypt. Over the past 10 years, these countries have been receiving the maximum number of tourists from the CIS countries. As a result, there are many last-minute tours to these destinations.

But don’t grab the first ticket you come across! Before purchasing, it is advisable to visit a last-minute travel store (the official website for tour search), look there for information about popular and unpopular destinations and resorts this season, and compare prices.

One more detail when choosing a tour. The last minute tour includes air tickets for a charter flight and hotel accommodation. A travel agency may not sell plane tickets, or hotel reservations, or both.

As with early booking, you need to pay attention to the travel agency where you buy your ticket. And read the contract carefully so that it doesn’t turn out that the agency is saving money on you. You should always check the level of the hotel, room and food. When choosing last-minute Solntour tours, you can be sure that you will not be deceived!

It is worth noting that the chance of buying a high-quality last-minute tour increases significantly in the off-season. The demand for vacations at this time is falling and travel agencies are ready to do a lot to fill planes and hotels. April is the least seasonal month. Most warm countries cannot yet boast of a sufficiently warmed sea. However, in Tunisia, Turkey, Morocco, Jordan and even Bulgaria, you can walk along the coast and sunbathe, and if you’re lucky, even swim. There are also last-minute trips to Thailand at this time - in the spring you can get rainy weather there, but the precipitation will not last long. There is still a chance to go skiing at a discount in harsh Austria, Sweden and Switzerland.

Last minute tours are a good choice for people who want to save money, but are dynamic and not too demanding of service. Early booking is also a way to reduce vacation costs, but it is more suitable for tourists who clearly plan their vacation, prefer comfort and are not ready for surprises. Which method of purchasing a tour should I choose? You decide.

When is the best time to buy trips to Turkey? What is early booking of tours to Turkey, how does it differ from buying last-minute tours, and when to order tours. How to fly to Turkey cheaper.

There are two ways to buy holiday packages to Turkey for the summer:

resort to early booking;
wait for last minute deals.

It is better to take trips to Turkey for May – June. European schoolchildren are still studying, so there are fewer tourists and prices are lower. The most inexpensive, but comfortable months in terms of weather and sea temperature: May and September. In July and August, tours to Turkey become more expensive.

Price statistics for tours to Turkey by month

When is the best time to book trips to Turkey:

In January - March, travel agencies do offer significant discounts when purchasing a summer tour, but in most cases this is a “discount on a cape”. Those. the tour operator artificially inflates the price and makes a “discount” on it. Closer to May-June, prices begin to fall to adequate levels.

It makes sense to make early bookings if:

you know exactly your vacation dates for the summer or autumn of 2018, and you will not have the opportunity to move them;
you want to check into a certain hotel and are afraid that closer to the season all the rooms will be sold out. This is how it usually happens. And prices for a particular popular hotel tend to rise during the season.

As a result, early booking is always a lottery. You don’t know whether you will be able to go on vacation in six months. Will tour prices really go up? But they can become 1.5 times cheaper for your hotel, and it will be a shame.

Usually, early booking starts in January and ends in April, with some tour operators at the end of February or March.

Last minute tours are suitable for you if:

you are not tied to a strict schedule - it doesn’t make much difference to you when to fly on vacation;
you are not going to spend a lot of time on the hotel premises and will only return to your room to spend the night;
price is the deciding factor for you.

Conclusion: when is it more profitable to buy tours to Turkey?

If you are going on vacation with your family and small children, it is important for you to get into a good hotel with proven service, then catch discounts on tours to Turkey if you book early in January - April.

If the hotel is not important to you, then wait for the moment when last-minute tours appear. The closer to the departure day, the more prices fall.

Introductory image source: © the_gonz / flickr.com / CC BY 2.0

If you are going on a trip with children, then, of course, you should not wait until the last minute. Good rooms in decent family hotels at reasonable prices are quickly sold out. And when choosing a good hotel, you will most likely be faced with the fact that everything is sold out.

Experts advise taking advantage of special early booking offers in the following cases:

If your vacation is tied to a certain hotel infrastructure. For example, you are vacationing with small children and you need the hotel to meet the appropriate requirements.
If you want to be guaranteed a good rest at times of peak demand: during school holidays, New Year or May holidays.
Early booking is also worth using if you prefer one specific hotel.
If you are going to vacation in the high season at a popular resort, where tours are always well sold out and there are no last-minute tours, booking earlier guarantees that you will receive a certain discount.
And finally, the undoubted advantage of purchasing such tour packages is the opportunity to choose a convenient flight and a more comfortable airline for the flight.

Early booking tours. What should you pay attention to?

Here are a few things we'd recommend paying attention to if you're attracted by the low early booking rates.

Hotels, of course, can reduce prices for accommodation, but it is unlikely to let guests in for free. Airplane tickets are the most expensive part of a travel package, sometimes accounting for 70% of the trip price. And fuel prices are rising - and tickets, despite regularly appearing discount promotions from airlines, are not cheap at all. If you are offered a vacation in Cuba or the Dominican Republic for $600, think about it: an overseas tour cannot cost less than a flight.

Unfortunately, the experience of the last two years, when several large and medium-sized tour operators “disappeared” from the Russian tourism market, suggests that, already on the verge of collapse, companies were selling tours at unrealistically low prices. They received the money, but did not pay for any tickets, transfers, or hotels. Over the past year, 10 thousand tourists either lost money altogether and were unable to relax, or ended up on the street in a foreign country without return tickets.

Search for early bookings. Experience of experienced travelers

Natasha, 35 years old, two children - 2 years and 6 years old:“My husband and I are avid travelers. Previously, we could go to an agency, buy a last-minute ticket, and fly somewhere the next day. But with the advent of children, everything changed. No, we didn’t stop traveling. But we began to take a more serious approach to our choice country and the hotel in which we want to relax. In addition, my husband got a more stable job, and is forced to plan his vacation in advance. We already know at the beginning of the year when we will be able to devote time to rest. While the eldest son was little, and we were not tied to school, we preferred to relax in the off-season - it’s cheaper and there are fewer people. But this year our son is going to 1st grade - we decided that we need to have a good rest in the summer. Therefore, we are already looking at all the offers of travel agencies for August. This is the high season, so We will book the hotel and flight now."

Sergey, 42 years old, son 13 years old:“I always plan my vacation in advance, especially since there is not much choice, I have to adapt to the child’s vacation in order to relax together. For example, we planned a New Year’s vacation at a ski resort in September. And we did it well! Our friends who wanted to us to join, at the beginning of November we were faced with the fact that all tours to our hotel were sold out. We are also already thinking about summer holidays. We have not yet decided on the country, but we already know that it will be Europe. In the near future I will go to our agent to book a tour ".

Marina, 27 years old, daughter 3 years old:“We have completely stopped using the services of our travel agencies: we book everything perfectly well via the Internet ourselves. Now there are a lot of sites where you can book a hotel with a decent discount. My daughter is allergic and has a rather complex diet, so we choose apart-hotels with a kitchenette, where "You can cook on your own - and not all travel agencies offer such rooms. But in order to catch a good deal, we begin to monitor the websites of airlines and hotels in advance. Sometimes it turns out to be much cheaper than buying a tour from an agency."

Some useful tips:

Don’t be fooled by big discounts; most often this is a marketing ploy or an advertising gimmick.
Reasonably evaluate the price-quality ratio. Remember that even with early booking, the average price of a 10-day tour per person in a decent hotel fluctuates around 1000€ to Europe and 1000$ to Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Tunisia and other not very distant countries.
You should not buy even the most attractive tours from an unknown travel agency.
When purchasing a tour, be sure to ask which tour operator provides you with this service. Don’t be lazy to go to the Rostourism website and check whether such an operator exists and for what amount it is insured.
Don't skimp on health insurance - especially if you're traveling with children.
Be sure to read the contract you sign - carelessness can cost you a pretty penny.
Keep the contract and all payment documents until the end of the trip. In case you are placed in the wrong room or in the wrong hotel (which is possible during high season), they will be very useful to you.

Last minute tours are a tasty morsel for any tourist who likes to save their money. This is also a great opportunity to arrange a spontaneous vacation for little money.

A tour becomes “burning” if it expires. In fact, the tour operator arranges a sale on the eve of departure so as not to incur losses. The package includes air travel, transfer, insurance and hotel reservation. If the hotel has a lot of unsold seats or the plane is half empty, the tour operator reduces the price of hotel accommodation. The difference in price between last minute and regular tours can be 30-50%. How to catch a last minute tour? The best way is to monitor their appearance online. The tour operator is interested in selling a last-minute tour as quickly as possible. Selecting and purchasing a tour online is several times faster than in a travel agency - you see all the offers at once and can choose the appropriate option. On the Tutu.ru website you can buy last-minute tours from all tour operators in 8 minutes, ahead of everyone who wants to go on a trip at a favorable price. The more noticeable the tour, the more profitable this offer, the more people want to catch this “tidbit”. Therefore, if you find an offer that you like, then hurry up with payment - it may be taken right from under your nose.

Last minute tours from Moscow

Most last minute tours are offered departing from Moscow. Hundreds of regular and charter flights depart from the capital every day to many countries around the world. By purchasing last-minute tours 2019 departing from Moscow, you get the opportunity to save a lot - most often they are cheaper than similar ones from Russian regions.

Follow new last-minute tours online, choose from a variety of offers and relax with pleasure!

Of course, it’s great when you can plan your vacation several months in advance, buy tickets or a tour and calmly wait for the cherished date on the calendar...

But what to do if you can’t exactly plan your vacation in advance? For example, in recent months our dog gave birth, a close relative fell ill, there were several urgent work orders, we had to look after the turtle of friends who left before us... Well, with such initial data, how can we buy a ticket in advance?

If you have approximately the same picture, read the tips below.

If your goal is the sea or a popular city during the hot season, and you want to fly away in the next week or two, then, most likely, it will be more profitable and certainly faster to find a cheap, so-called “last minute” package tour.

Of course, if you have a visa and your goal is a European city, you can look for low-cost airline tickets, book a hotel yourself, etc., but in this article we are considering primarily the situation when there is no time and the dates of the trip will be determined only a week before her or even less.

For those who are already itching, you can still start searching for a cheap tour through this reliable form:

Where to look for a cheap tour with real prices?

The general answer is on the Internet. Only via the Internet you can quickly look through dozens of offers and choose the best and most inexpensive option for you. Another thing is that prices on websites often do not correspond to those stated, and it’s a little scary to buy a last-minute tour online for the first time. (Looking ahead, you can buy the options below in the office, but it’s better to find them online).

Very often companies sin by not including fuel surcharges in the total cost of the tour. They say that these are costs from a different category, and in general, the main thing is to attract a client with a low price, and then come what may... But you and I don’t care what category it is from, we pay out of our own pocket!

In general, now I will present several working tested options with a final price, where you can definitely choose and buy.

1. Onlinetours website

This is what I call a “site with a human face.” shows us all offers with a final price. Includes flight, accommodation, selected meal plan, insurance, transfer from the airport. There is no need to add anything in your mind.
Moreover, it shows precisely for all those traveling - not some hypothetical “for one”, but for everyone, including children, if they are traveling with you. The search system is very flexible.
The company, naturally, is the most humane, has been operating for a long time, with physical offices in different cities of Russia, 24/7 telephone support (more than 250 operators work in different cities) and the winner of many competitions in the field of tourism.
Just go to the ““ tab, select the desired direction, departure city and see all the offers.

There is a very convenient system for setting parameters compared to other companies. The main thing is that you can immediately look for a vacation with children, while on most other sites you can only look at last-minute tours for one or two.

If you have very specific preferences (for example, you want to relax in April, only in Kemer and inexpensively), but the required tour is not available - leave your email address - as soon as something becomes available, the system will send you a notification.

What happens after you've chosen a tour? The easiest option is to pay it immediately with a bank card. But not everyone has the required amount in their account right away, and in general it can be scary to transfer that kind of money online. Exit? The company offers to immediately pay only 30% of the tour cost, and the rest - by card or in the office within 3 days. Moreover, in large Russian cities a courier with a payment terminal can come to you for free. Well, isn't it a fairy tale?

After payment, you receive a contract, and if you pay in cash at the office, you also receive a check.
Moreover, the system supports bonuses from Mnogo.ru cards, and also awards its bonus miles for each purchased tour over 30,000 rubles.

I also really like the ability to purchase the “Extended Insurance” option with one click, which is very convenient, especially for families with small children. After all, children are always unpredictable - they can get sick right before a trip, and then they have to stay at home... Extended insurance allows in this case to return all the money for a trip that didn’t take place, and not lose it. Moreover, the money will be refunded even if your child gets sick and is not flying with you.

Personally, I am very pleased with how the company is developing and constantly improving its service.

2. Website of the company Level.Travel.

The company operates on a similar principle as the previous one, but with minor differences. So, for example, you can’t immediately find a last-minute tour for a family with children, but you can set other parameters, for example, the type of food or the number of stars in the hotel.
It’s also nice that you can immediately see the arrival and departure times and thereby save yourself from unpleasant surprises like getting up at 2 a.m. for an early flight to the airport. Moreover, if the proposed flight does not suit you in time, you can immediately choose another one.

It is not possible to pay part at once and part later on not every tour, but there is an option to buy the tour in installments. You can mark it, fill out a short form, and within 15 minutes you will receive a response from the company. Installments are given at 0% if you pay within 50 days.

You can also pay for the tour in full at one of the company’s offices (available throughout Russia). But in the case of last-minute tours, you need to understand that while you are driving to the office, someone else can buy the ticket, so it is better, of course, to pay online.

For purchasing any tour you receive points. 1 point = 1 ruble. You can spend them when purchasing your next tour. The system also works with Mnogo.ru and Kukuruza cards.

See what tours are available now.

3. Websites of major tour operators

Sometimes it makes sense to look at last-minute tours on the websites of large tour operators, like Biblioglobus. They themselves do not work directly with individual tourists, but you can always find the address of the agency closest to you directly on their website and ask them to sell a tour from them.
Life hack: if you come to an ordinary travel agency with a clear and specific option, a la “tour to Kemer, hotel such and such, dates such and such, price on the tour operator’s website such and such,” then you can ask them for a discount for the time saved — after all, you did all the work on selecting the tour yourself.

But for the selection of a tour to be successful, read a couple more tips.

Important points to pay attention to when looking for a last-minute tour

Visa

If you need a visa to the country of your dreams, but you can’t decide on the dates yet, get it in advance, separately! And then, with full right and pride, look for a last-minute tour. You can contact a travel agency or apply for a visa yourself. Often, it may be more profitable to apply for a visa separately and then buy a cheap last-minute tour. Well, or at least more predictable for people with busy schedules.

The only thing that is extremely important for you to remember is that you need a visa with a good range of days so that it does not expire before you go on your trip. Example - You are planning to go to Spain for 10 days over the next three months. This means you need a visa for 10 days with a corridor of 90 days. Or multiple entry visa.

Well, very cheap offers

Pay attention to the number of days on the tour, as well as the type of food. Very often, cheap last-minute tours are a vacation for 3 or 4 days without meals. And this is not always a suitable option.

Seasonality

Remember about seasonality - the closer to the peak of the season, the higher the price, even for the most last-minute tours. For example, a trip to Cyprus in June could be found for $700 for two, at the end of July it was difficult to find a last-minute tour for less than $1,000 with the same parameters.

Getting to the departure city

If you still have to get to the departure city, it is very important to think about how you will do this before purchasing a tour. During the high season, there may not be optimal tickets for intercity trains/buses - in this case, you will have to pay either additional hours of waiting, or pay more than expected. Of course, there is often the option of driving your own car, but there are also nuances here - for example, how safe it is to leave it for the entire vacation in a foreign city.