What is early booking and does it really help you save? What are the pros and cons of early booking? Who benefits from it? In this article I will tell you everything in detail and give advice.

This article is intended for persons over 18 years of age

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Early booking of travel packages is gaining more and more popularity every year. Travel agencies offer tourists to book a summer tour in winter, and in summer to book a trip for the New Year and promise huge discounts. Everyone wants to have a good vacation, but no one wants to overpay for their vacation, and this is quite logical.

What is early booking and who benefits from it?

Early booking is booking a tour at least 21 days before departure (usually these are not very popular destinations). This is a special offer with an attractive price and the opportunity to pay for the tour in several stages. In the tourism business, like any other, everything depends on demand: high demand - high price, low demand - low price. The “winter season” is considered a “low season” in tourism; after the “New Year’s boom,” the tourism market freezes. Of course, tourists vacation all year round, many go to warm up, others go skiing or fly to sales in Europe. But still, February and March are months when there is no huge tourist flow. What should be done to “invigorate” the tourism market?

Let's first remember what a tourist package (tour) consists of. The cost of the tour consists of the cost of the accommodation facility (the main part of the tour), air travel, transfer and medical insurance. Many Mediterranean hotels operate in the red in winter, and, naturally, they need funds. Where can I get them? It's simple: hoteliers give good discounts to tour operators provided they receive funds here and now. Accordingly, the tour operator has the opportunity to reduce the price, the tourist will book a tour and pay part of it now at a “low » season. Everything is quite simple.

Everyone benefits from early booking, starting with hoteliers who can “survive” the winter: in any case, they will not work at a loss, because there is a “high season” ahead, during which they will earn very good money. The tourism operator is also satisfied; even during the low season, he has the opportunity to earn money and be confident that there will be income. And the tourist gets his discount.

And now about the most important thing: is it really worth running to a travel agency or tour operator in February-March and booking a tour for the summer? Below are the pros and disadvantages of early booking for tourists.

Advantages of early booking

1. Choosing a convenient flight.During the “high season”, there are often several flights per day to the most popular destinations. By booking a tour in advance, you can choose a flight and departure airport that is convenient for you (in most cases you will have to pay extra to specify the flight). But during the season, mostly charter flights fly, which means that even if you have specified the flight, the flight may be rescheduled.

Advice! If you are dependent on departure times, book tickets for regular flights - this will help avoid unpleasant surprises, but regular flights are always more expensive than charter flights.

2. Wide selection of accommodation facilities.By booking your tour in advance, you have the opportunity to choose exactly the hotel you need. This is the main advantage, because the choice is huge, you can choose among thousands of hotels, apartments and villas. You can choose the required room category - this is important when vacationing in a large group or with children. Some tourists prefer to vacation in the same hotel year after year. If choosing an accommodation is a priority for you, then early booking is for you. After all, during the “high season” there may simply not be room in the hotel.

3. Tour cost and tour payment.The cost of early booking is lower than in the season (of course, last minute tours “nobody canceled, but they may or may not be, and remember that a “last minute tour” is almost always leftovers that could not be sold). The cost of an early booking tour is fixed in currency (dollar, euro) and is paid at the tour operator’s rate on the day of payment. This means that the cost of the tour will change only depending on changes in exchange rates. Tour operators pay for the tour in different ways, but most often you first need to pay 50% of the tour cost, then you can pay in installments, and 2 weeks before the start of the tour, payment must be 100%

4. Planning.Many tourists like to plan everything in advance and know that they will fly on vacation on a certain day, to a certain hotel. We booked a tour in February and relaxed until August. During this time, you can plan, for example, excursions of interest. Or if you are flying with the same company, but from different cities, then it is very important that the whole company vacations in one place at the same time. Many vacations take place on fixed dates, and if you don’t take care of the tour in advance, then there may simply be no seats on the flight that day.

Disadvantages of early booking

1. Cancellation.Many tour operators apply very strict penalties for tour cancellations. And some even fine you for making changes to the application, for example, changing your last name. Or, let’s say, you decide to remove/add a tourist to your application. Although every year tourist operators become more and more loyal. In any case, carefully read the service agreement, especially the clause with the terms of fines.

2. Last Minute Tours. TO As I wrote above, this is most often what is left, for example, a plane flies, and 70 seats are purchased from tour operators, and 68 are sold, money is paid for the seats, and the tour operator gives it back at “cost”, accordingly, the price is reduced. The same goes for rooms in accommodation facilities. But good tours also sometimes burn out, but again, this is a matter of luck.

3. Exchange Rates. The question is ambiguous. The cost of the tour is fixed in foreign currency, and the exchange rate is not always stable. For example, tourists who booked tours for the New Year in the summer of 2014 did not save money, but rather overpaid, because the exchange rate more than doubled in the fall of 2014. This happens infrequently, but nevertheless we are not immune from it. In any case, most often the tourist immediately pays 30-50% of the tour cost, and recalculation is carried out for the remaining amount.

1.Tourism is a business, and no one will engage in charity and “give” vacations to the detriment of their business. Therefore, when you are promised discounts of up to 50%, this is nothing more than a marketing ploy. Yes, you can really save money by booking early, but not much.

2.Buy early booking tours only from a trusted travel agency.

3.Check the tour operator, go to the Rostourism website, make sure that the tour operator really exists and conducts tourism activities. In principle, good travel agencies do not work with unreliable tour operators. Alas, not a single tourist operator is immune from bankruptcy, and we have clearly seen this over the past few years.

4.Carefully, no, very carefully read the terms of the contract.

5.Keep the contract for the provision of tourist services and all payment documents until you return to your home country, so that in case of unpleasant situations, for example, checking into the wrong room, you will have evidence in court.

In any case, it is up to you to decide what is best for you. Early booking is really beneficial, but is it really reliable in today's economy? We need to rest in any case, because traveling helps us take a break from everyday life, see the world and get incredible emotions.

Today, buying air tickets through ticket offices and agencies seems like a last century method. Every year, more and more airline passengers prefer to book tickets online. There are specialized websites through which you can reserve your favorite seats on the plane and buy tickets. This is very convenient: you don’t have to go to the other end of the city and wait in long lines at the ticket office. Just one click of the mouse from your computer from anywhere in the world is enough – and your air ticket booking is complete!

The ticket you choose must be paid within 24 hours from the date of order. Otherwise, the reservation is automatically canceled and the ticket becomes available for ordering by other passengers. When paying, use a Visa or MasterCard credit card, or even better, if the reservation system allows, use electronic money.

In order not to miss the chance to purchase a ticket at the lowest price, regularly monitor price dynamics. It may be more profitable for you to buy an air ticket online with departure from a neighboring city, and the return point will be Arkhangelsk. Sometimes it is more economical to get to a neighboring city by land transport, thereby winning in the price of the flight. Preferably booking roundtrip air tickets: In this case, flights will also be cheaper for you. In addition, if you immediately have return tickets in hand, then you save yourself the hassle of searching and purchasing return tickets for a suitable date. Airline workers are familiar with incidents when a person took a one-way flight and could not find a suitable return ticket. Be prudent in advance - and this won’t happen to you!

If you for some reason changed your mind about flying on the selected day, but was made, contact the agency whose details are indicated in the email confirming your ticket reservation. Any large city in Russia, including Arkhangelsk, has a network of offices and branches of the largest companies selling plane tickets, so there should not be any problems with finding a ticket delivery point. If there is no office of your agency in the city, call the contact number indicated in the letter or on the tickets.

And finally, we remind you that Air ticket booking is a popular service, and therefore there is scammers and speculators, creating thematic sites. Use only trusted Internet resources, do not go to dubious sites. We advise you to use the largest airline ticket search engine AviaSales.

We remind you that we, as a community of independent travelers, to save on travel:
- buy cheap air tickets on Aviasales,
- book hotels on RoomGuru
- rent apartments, houses or rooms on AirBnb (bonus from us 1263 rubles),
- we look for a rental car in advance at,
- we do insurance (required!) online through

Tatiana Solomatina

Hotels

Nowadays, traveling on your own is quite easy. Progress is moving forward and you no longer need to run somewhere to book a hotel. Everything can be done without leaving home via the Internet.

As a rule, experienced travelers do not have difficulty booking a hotel on their own, but not everyone is experienced, many tourists are just starting their journey from a package tour to freedom of movement, so this article is for them.

Read below for a brief overview of services for searching and booking hotels, as well as instructions drawn up using a specific example.

Before you begin the process of booking a hotel online, you need to understand the principle, the chain of actions that are performed to achieve the result. If you do not book accommodation on the official website of the hotel, then the booking systems - Agoda, Booking, Ostrovok, etc. - act as an intermediary between you and the hotel. They are free for you. Hotels and inns register with them and pay a certain percentage for each order.

However, there are many reservation systems; prices for the same objects may be different. It is possible to sort through all the services to find the best price, but it is time-consuming and labor-intensive.

Search engines come to the rescue - aggregators (Hotellook, Roomguru, Trivago, etc.), which act as intermediaries between you and booking systems. Search engines themselves do not make reservations; they only help you choose the right accommodation option based on the databases of their reservation systems. You see the price offered by each, which allows you to compare them and choose which one is cheaper. Click on the desired option and the search engine will redirect you to the selected service, where you make a reservation. Search engine services are also free.

Many people do not bother with search engines, but simply work with their usual booking system such as Booking, without taking into account that other services may have other housing options, or the cost there may be lower. In my opinion, it is unreasonable to act this way, but everyone has their own preferences.

I just want to introduce you to the most popular services for searching and booking housing. Having learned the features, you yourself will make a choice about how you will proceed - use one booking system or some kind of search engine aggregator.

Brief overview of hotel search and booking services

Hotellook, Roomguru and Trivago

Hotellook, Roomguru and Trivago are aggregator search engines. Very convenient, free tools for finding housing. I repeat, aggregators do not book hotels themselves. They only help you find the right option and show the price of different booking systems. The booking itself takes place on the website of the service that posted the offer you liked. This is where the system redirects after clicking on the “Book” button.

Search engine interfaces are clear and accessible. Roomguru is somewhat reminiscent of Booking. There are a lot of offers, but using convenient filters, you can quickly weed out the unnecessary ones.

Each aggregator has its own list of partners, works with booking systems on its own individual terms, the cost of the same object may differ for everyone. If your goal is to find the best housing option on your own, then I recommend studying the offers of all these search engines. Of course, the process will take a little longer, but this is how experienced tourists manage to profitably find cheap rooms in expensive hotels.

Agoda or Booking

Most people use Agoda and Booking services. In terms of their functions, they are identical - they are reservation systems. Both have a large base of hotels around the world, including. However, if possible, I prefer to book a hotel on my own through Booking, and here’s why:

• Booking gives the final price per room. On Agoda, the price does not include taxes, please note this! You can find out the full cost of your reservation only after confirmation. Agree, it’s not a very pleasant prospect to sit with a calculator and add the percentages that make up taxes yourself in order to understand how much your stay will cost.
• Booking has a more convenient and intuitive interface. Compared to Agoda, there are many more options. You can easily filter by star rating, cost, rating, etc.
• The Booking hotel map shows the exact location of the property. There are discrepancies on Agoda, you have to double check.
• Booking has good technical support. I contacted her several times and issues were resolved promptly. Agoda's employees are less friendly and efficient. There was a case when I did not receive a response to my letter at all.

In my opinion, the only advantage of Agoda is that they take payment for the reservation to their account, without transferring your information to a third party - hotels. Booking itself does not deal with finances, redirecting all your credit card data to the hotel, which debits the money. I don’t really like to shine the map in unverified places, so I attach importance to this fact. Although I didn’t have any unpleasant incidents with Booking.

Of course, I also use the Agoda service, but rarely. If Booking gives the same prices and conditions, I still prefer it.

Airbnb

Booking an apartment, room or house is sometimes preferable to a hotel. In this case, it is better to use the Airbnb service. Many property owners post their offers here. The database is quite large, the service is convenient and easy to use.

Airbnb is a system for booking private housing. As in hotels, the principle of daily rentals works here. Of course, you can rent a house for a month, but there are few such offers. I wouldn’t say that you’ll be able to save a lot if you’re applying for a hotel-level apartment, especially in big cities. The daily cost from private owners for such options is not budgetary. However, everything is relative, and of course you can save money, especially if you are traveling for a long time and find offers with monthly rentals, or if you are traveling with a large group - the price for several hotel rooms will most likely be higher than the cost of an apartment. Of course, a lot depends on the location of the housing.

I was unable to use this booking system. I considered options several times, but based on my requests, the cost of private housing was comparable to the price of a hotel room, so I always booked it. Plus, I don’t really like private housing, but these are my “cockroaches” in my head, you shouldn’t focus on them.

Which service should you choose?

So how to book a hotel on your own? Which service to use largely depends on personal preference. All booking systems or search engines have their advantages and disadvantages.

There are services that are better to use in a particular country. For example, experienced travelers believe that Agoda has more offers in Asia, while Booking has more offers in Russia and Europe.

Almost every country has local booking systems, they are less known globally, but are popular in their own country because they specialize in a certain area. But their bases are more focused not on popular hotels, but on simpler options in the form of guesthouses or apartments. Data from such services can be found on forums.

Of course, everything listed above must be taken into account, but let’s not forget about the price. It is unlikely that anyone will want to overpay, just because the service interface is more convenient and the search process takes less time. I think that for many, the decisive role in where and how to book a hotel is the cost of housing.

Experienced travelers are well aware that gone are the days when one booking system was used to select a hotel. After all, now there is a much greater chance of finding the best option through search aggregators. Moreover, the most advanced tourists use not one, but several search engines at once. Thus, getting a complete picture of the supply market.

Is it worth booking a hotel on the official website?

Of course, you can book a hotel on the official website, but it’s worth it only if you speak English well, the hotel has already been selected, and the room price is significantly lower than on search aggregator engines.

Otherwise, you will have to sift through many hotel websites yourself, spending a lot of time and effort on this. There is a chance to miss more interesting options, because not all hotels have a website. Most guesthouses do not have their own resource. If we are talking about hotels abroad, then only a few of them have a Russian version. As a rule, you have to book a hotel in English, which is a serious challenge for people who do not speak English. In addition, do not forget that sometimes correspondence is required, which will also have to be conducted in a language other than your native language. Any misunderstanding may result in loss of money. After the experience in Sri Lanka, I try to avoid direct booking. If you are interested in details about how I lost $1400 when I booked a hotel on my own on the official website, read.

Visual instructions

It is quite difficult to create instructions for all occasions. Beginners do not have the experience of seasoned travelers, so I recommend that they do not yet go to official hotel websites or little-known services that specialize in a specific area.

Use proven search engines - Hotellook, Roomguru or Trivago. These resources are easy to navigate even for a beginner, if only because they are in Russian. These search engines have many offers of hotels around the world, you are sure to find what you need and easily book a hotel at the best price.

I will show you how to book a hotel on your own using the example of an aggregator that will give us the best option, but first you need to find a hotel and compare the cost of booking on all three aggregators.

Why such difficulties? Isn't one search engine enough? – you’ll probably think. I will answer. If you want to save money and choose the best option, then focusing on the offers of one aggregator will not achieve this goal. Now I will prove it with an example.

Let's say you are planning to go to Phuket, you are interested in a 4-5 star hotel near the sea on Nai Yang beach. We open aggregator sites. Fill out the conditions. Click "Search". Look at the picture that emerges.

Roomguru offers only 1 hotel according to our request, Trivago – 9, and Hotellook – 12 hotels. Moreover, these data do not mean that Hotellook is better, because in a different area, or with other search conditions, the result may be the opposite.

The only hotel, which was shown by Roomguru, is also on other search engines, but if the cost of booking Roomguru and Hotellook (1,728 rubles) is the same, then Trivago gives this hotel for 1,697 rubles. You will say - what little things, the difference is small. But firstly, the difference is often greater, secondly, it is the price per day, and thirdly, as they say, “a chicken by the grain...”.

Therefore, it is better to search on several aggregators. Be sure to use a map during the process. It is everywhere. This way, you can clearly see the location of the object, because the description does not always give an accurate picture.

Narrow your search, remove unnecessary offers by checking the boxes next to the desired parameters - star rating, rating, type of housing, etc. This will help reduce time.

I hope I have convinced you that when booking a hotel, you need to use several search engines. You managed to choose a hotel. Go ahead. I will show you how to book a hotel using the example of a hotel, since it is the only one listed on all three search engines.

Open the desired hotel on each aggregator, click “View” or on the hotel name. You will be redirected to the hotel page, where there will be a list of offers from different booking systems with prices. True, Trivago shows this list on the main page; in other services you need to click “View”.

We compare prices and choose the best option. Click “Book”. The search engine will redirect you to the website of the booking system that made this offer. In my case, this is Hotelbook.

Actually, that's all. You will receive an email confirming your reservation. Usually a file with the reservation itself is attached to the letter. Just in case, print it out.

Important! Always read the cancellation policy before clicking the “Book” button! Anything can happen in life, you need to understand that penalties for cancellation or no-show can amount to the entire amount of the stay. Be sure to pay attention to this!

By the way, for comparison, I looked at the same hotel on Booking, the cost is much higher. Here’s the final proof: you shouldn’t use the service out of habit.

Perhaps now, a novice traveler will find it difficult to choose and book a hotel on his own. But believe me, this feeling will pass after the first operation. Experienced people do everything quickly, automatically. But they were also beginners once. So you shouldn’t be afraid, you need to start taking action, move forward, and you will definitely succeed.

If you decide to go on vacation on your own, then do not forget to look at the information on how to buy and. These are no less important issues when organizing a vacation.

Tatiana Solomatina

Why provide the hotel with your bank card details and how do you make a hotel reservation?

Many people have at least sometime booking hotel rooms, faced a similar problem. We are talking about providing hotel managers during the booking procedure not only with your personal and address information, but also with your bank card number. Why do this? After all, it would be much easier to agree with the hotel manager that the tourist will arrive, for example, on September 1 and stay in a room on the 2nd floor with a view of the beautiful seascape, etc.

Of course, such reasoning is quite logical, but hotel representatives should also be understood, because before the guests arrive, they need to prepare, stock up on all the necessary products, prepare the room, etc. And after all the preparations, they will be waiting at the hotel for the person who booked the room, but he changed his mind about coming on September 1 and decided to come on September 2.

What happens? The hotel is waiting for him, turning away other people who want to rent a room, but he doesn’t show up at all and doesn’t warn him that he’s changed his mind. It was for this purpose that rules were established, according to which a person must not only say what date and time he will arrive, but also confirm his intentions with the data of his bank card. And in order not to get into an unpleasant situation, tourists and vacationers booking rooms should know the following rules, which operate in almost all countries.

1. Full payment for services(booking, accommodation, meals) is made only after these services have been provided (some hotels operate on a pre-payment basis, but this nuance is always indicated in the description of the room itself).
2. The client has the right to refuse the booked room. He can do this almost before the day of the booking date, specifically 1-2 days before check-in (without penalties). Information about the cancellation period can always be found in the booking conditions for a specific room.
3. In case of untimely cancellation of the reservation According to the law, the hotel has every right to demand payment from you for 1 night of accommodation or another amount established by law.

How are such actions on the part of the hotel justified? First of all, the fact that during your booking you take on certain obligations: to arrive at the specified time and move in. And if for any reason you are unable to do this, then you must, in accordance with the rules, report this within the allotted time frame. Otherwise, you will have to pay the hotel for at least 1 night's stay.

Therefore, according to current international rules in the hotel business, the client is obliged to provide his bank card details when booking a room. Without this procedure, the hotel will refuse to book your room. This scheme is usually called - a scheme of financial obligations between a tourist (vacationer) and a hotel. It operates all over the world, so it must be understood and taken for granted. If you decide to become an independent traveler, you must accept all the rules in force in the tourism industry.

How can I save up to 20% on hotels?

It’s very simple - look not only on booking. I prefer the search engine RoomGuru. He searches for discounts simultaneously on Booking and on 70 other booking sites.