Last Minute Trips - advice please

A snowHead

So, Last Minute Bookings with a TO. Just how late do we leave it? We are just a party of 2 and are pretty flexible on where we go - european alps / pyrenees.

Do you generally book 2 weeks before - a week before or the night before you go to get the best deals?

also , who do you normally get the best last minute deals with? Crystal? Inghams? Neilsens?

any advice appreciated thanks.

A snowHead

If you have a few resorts in mind just keep checking the prices you are not guaranteed to get the best price even less than a week before departure.

Generally a good time is about 4-6 weeks IF the TO have a lot of occupancy remaining and are getting about worried. They usually dump the price down to try fill it up.

Inghams always seem more expensive to me, Neilson have very little occupancy in anywhere other than France and Italy left.

Italy has a lot of occupancy due to the fact (I think) they have the worst snow conditions this season in general.

Crystal is probably your best bet at the moment but check all the sites, have a shortlist of Resorts and Hotels. If you keep an eye prices over time you'll know when is the right time to book.

Also research resorts. Some resorts are super cheap and plentiful in very late season, the reason is because they are low down and it's possible skiing could bad / not possible in resort.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

It's a fine line isn't it - playing booking chicken! I tend to book 1-2 weeks before we go, as that normally leaves us with the balance of a decent amount of choice and low prices - and some tour operators start charging late booking fees within a week or so of departure. The husband took it to booking on the Thursday for a holiday leaving on the Sunday last year and we did get an excellent deal but had to sort out our travel ourselves - which as it turned out really wasn't difficult. I'm actually just in the process of booking for 21 February at the moment, so again in that 1-2 weeks out period. If you're less fussy than me though (likely) leaving it to the night before can have excellent results.

I tend to look on igluski and then google to find out who the tour operator is of where I like the look of - this can show a difference of hundreds of pounds so is worthwhile. I'm also not adverse to calling the operators and asking if there is wiggle room on their price to secure a booking. That normally gives results too.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

I'd go to the solutions rooms on chalets direct, put your request out there and see what comes back.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Try Silver ski, I've done quite a lot of late deals with them within a week of departure, they even wanted me to pay a single room supplement but I said take the booking or leave it so they dropped the single room supplement, that was booked on the Tuesday before departure

Help!!

Last Minute Trips - advice please

snowHeads Forum Index >>> The Piste