When To Book Your Vacation?

For many years, it was expedient to book last minute travel. There are websites devoted to the notion that booking right before your trip will save you money. Unfortunately—fortunately, depending on how you look at it—those days are over. More people are traveling, and resorts and cruise lines want loyalty. They are looking for travelers who want to repeat the experience.

In order to get loyalty, it does not make sense for them to provide discounts for the last minute travelers. Vacation providers would rather reward their loyal clients. For example, a cruise line would prefer to upgrade a past client to a suite rather than sell it cheap to the last minute looky loo. They realize that if they discount the last minute trip and their loyal clients are paying more, their clients might not remain loyal.

If you are traveling with your children, and you need a room large enough for 3 or more, booking early is your best option. In the peak seasons of family travel, the large rooms go first because most people would prefer to pay for one big room rather than 2 small ones. Also, they will be assured that their family will be together and don’t run the risk of one room being far away from the other room.

On cruise ships, the middle of the ship is the most desirable spot. Usually, these cabins cost more than the ones aft or at the front of the ship. Keep in mind, though, that aft cabins with balconies can be very desirable because of the view. The view isn’t relegated to a one side of the ship. On the other hand, the very front of the ship can be the roughest.

Photo courtesy of cruise.co.uk

Another advantage of booking early is that you can make payments on your vacation so that when you depart, it is all paid for. At 411totravel.com, we have a program built into our system that will alert us if the price of a cruise is being promoted to a price lower than what our clients paid. If that happens, we make sure that the client is not going to lose any of the amenities they are getting with the original price. Then we inform the client that the price has gone down, and we get the cruise line to change it.

This only applies before final payment. However, keep in mind, that the cruise line is not going to lower the price to capture the last minute people. If they do, most likely, they will upgrade the loyal client to the better room and sell the less desirable room to the last minute price conscious traveler. Location in resorts is just as important and sometimes it is the extras that the room has. For example, swim out rooms are currently very popular at resorts. Guess what? They sell first! The same is true of having a whirl pool tub or other amenities.

The best part of booking early is the anticipation. If you know you have a nice vacation booked some time in the future, it helps you to get through the hard days at work. This has always helped me get through the rough patches of life. I think that when you book late you miss all of the anticipation, and you are probably cheating yourself. So book early, make it the best location and amenities, and anticipate. You won’t regret it.

So now that you're onboard with early booking, let's talk about your 2019 vacation!

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