Hawaii Vacation Specialist-Chris

Well for a holiday season, especially christmas you really should be looking about 1 year in advance or as soon as pricing becomes available.  Keep in mind airfare pricing and schedules are usually put out by airlines 330 days from the present date and hotels generally don’t take hotel reservations more than 1 year in advance.  So while it is good to book early, there is such a thing as too early when trying to book a trip.  For other times of the year 6 months in advance would be a good time to book, but also keep in mind, the earlier you book, normally with our packages the longer you have to make payments on it , so you don’t have to put down a lot of money up front.

Another reason not to wait long, goes right back to the class of service with the airlines.  From all these blogs the class of service just seems to be the biggest pestering thing in these package prices…well it’s true.  why take the chance of the airfare going down and by that time the lowest class of service is sold out so now the airfare went up anyways?  The waiting game doesn’t always pay off.  If you book something in a higher class of service and a lower class opens up we can alway switch the class of service to get the lower price.  We have done it many times.  This is another reason why last minute trips are not always the best way to go.  Many times the airfare is higher, unless you get lucky and something good is still open, but sometimes it’s almost like you have to settle for what accomodations are open.  Wouldn’t you rather have a full selection of choices than wait and everything is booked up?  Think about it, everyone else wants the best deals too and the most for their money so of course if there is a good deal they will snag it , if you don’t.  Most people think well if the hotel has rooms open at the last minute they will sell it to me for cheaper so the room wont’ go empty…well I’ve yet to see the hotel give a cheaper price at the last minute just to fill a room, in fact it usually works quite the opposite…when you see promotions, they only give so many rooms at that promotion price, so often times at the last minute, yes they may have rooms open, but they are no longer offering it with the 5th night free or for a promotional rate because that alloted amount of rooms they were given to sell at that price are already booked so guess what no free night for you because you waited too long.

Many people are looking for good prices to hawaii for christmas and say I’ll just wait til the prices go down.  Every year it’s the same, you wait for the prices to go down, well christmas time is the most expensive time of year to visit hawaii and well the prices are more than likely just not going to drop for christmas..so if you get a decent deal jump on it right away and definately don’t wait on a holiday season package for the price to go down, chances are, it’s not going to happen.  Hotels just don’t give deals during the holiday season, so they are not going to miraculously drop their prices at the last minute and more than likely they will be sold out by the time you get around to booking it..leaving you with one of two options…the most budget hotels that you probably wouldn’t have chosen if you had a choice or the very most expensive hotel that you weren’t planning on paying that much for.

Prices can change at the blink of an eye.  Lately Ive been doing quotes and the next day the class of service is already gone up.  So if you are looking for something at the last minute and you get a good deal, don’t even wait til the next day to book it, you should get on the phone and do it right then because that is where I see the most prices go up at the blink of an eye when the planes are starting to fill up and the class of service keeps going up and up until the flight is sold out.

An example, I sent out a cruise quote one day.  Understandably the customer had questions and I responded as quickly as I could to her questions and sent her all the information she needed.  She waited and in waiting of course came up with more questions and more questions.  The price I got for her I thought was a really good price and was surprised she did not book it sooner.  Well after a lot of foot dragging finally said okay now that I have read all of this and that I am ready to book my cruise.  Well I check availability online, call the cruiseline, guess what?  The cruise is now completely sold out for that date and she was not flexible.  See perfect example of a good deal that someone neglected to jump on right away and ended up with nothing.  Cruises are the same could be gone in the blink of an eye.  The groups department for Norwegian Cruiseline can pull up to 300 cabins at one time.  That is a nice chunk of the ship gone in a matter of minutes.

So I guess the point of this blog is don’t wait to book your trip.  Hey sometimes we get a good deal at the last minute…I’m not saying it can’t happen…but why take the chance of maybe getting a good deal rather than locking in a good deal early?  Plus it gives you time to plan your activities out after the big portion is out of the way…because yes, there are times when activities will sell out ahead of time too.  Big one is the old lahaina luau in maui which during a busy season can sell out over a month in advance.