Many people ask me whether its necessary to book early to grab a deal for their North Cyprus holidays. My answer is unfortunately not so simple as the question...
There are many benefits for booking early, such as meeting deadlines for many early booking offers from hotels, airline airfares are at their lowest, and you guarantee your stay at your favourite hotel.
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| How to get the ultimate deal on your holidays |
So how does it work? and how to get the best deals
Scheduled flights: The flights tend to start off with the lowest class of tickets for their flights on release. this means that someone booking very early on, could well save a fortune compared to booking at the last minute for the same flight. You could be sitting on the aircraft and pay £200 less than the person next to you, just because you booked early. Schedules carriers include British Airways, Turkish airlines, Monarch, Easy Jet, AtlasJet, and Pegasus Airlines.
Charter flights: These tend to work differently to the scheduled flights. The purpose of a chart flight is to maintain capacity during peak times for package holiday makers. The prime objective of a charter flight is to sell seats for holidaymakers travelling on package holidays. Flights that are available through charter systems tend to be those that are being offloaded into the market due the fact that they cannot be sold to package holidaymakers.For this reason you usually see charter flights being offered for lower prices closer to the dates of departure. this is where you tend to grab last minute holiday deals.
Hotels: Many hotels have special offers and promotions. Companies like Direct Traveller negotiate these rates with the hotels for holidaymakers. For this reason its usually more cost effective to book with a tour operator than direct with a hotel. Early booking promotions tend to be price discounts, free nights, dinner upgrades, room upgrades and sometimes free car hire. Anything that ads value to your package holiday can be included. These early booking offers have a book by date, so you must for example book by 31 March to benefit from the special rates.
On the other hand hotels also have last minute offers to try and improve capacity at the hotel, and so can sometimes offer excellent value for booking the last minute for some dates.
Fluctuations in package prices: These occur due to the fact various suppliers may review their rates, from hotels, airlines, transfers, and anything else. Although tour operators may have a contracted rate, they sometimes middle of the season renegotiate to further ad value for holidaymakers.
Extension of early booking offers: You may also sometimes find that early booking promotions are extended. For example a free half board upgrade may be originally advertised for book by 28 February, then be available again to book by 31 March. this is down to the contracting team re-dealing with the hotel and getting the offer extended.
Rule of thumb: For peak dates (June - Sept) i would recommend booking early, other dates you may get a good deal at the last minute. however it all depends on how flexible you are with your hotel, you departure dates, and your airport. The more flexible you are, the more likely of grabbing that bargain holiday you dreamed of. There's always deals out there you can take advantage of. Call and ask for that special offer.
If you have any more tips, or would like specific advice, please let me know below!
