Is early booking of tours worth it? What is early booking: pros and cons

How does a travel agency work? Last minute tours, early bookings and discounts. October 14th, 2015

In I told, albeit very approximately, how tour operators form prices for tours. Today, although later than promised, I continue the topic and tell you what the concepts often encountered in conversations about tourism mean: "hot tours", "early booking", "Fortuna system".

Early booking.

I have already said that tour operators buy blocks in hotels long before the season. For example, already now, in October, programs for the next summer are being slowly formed. At the same time, the tourism business is highly seasonal. Although most of operators works both on summer and on winter destinations, sales in winter are significantly lower than in summer. In order to smooth out seasonality, block numbers are almost always put on sale at a discounted price. This is called the "early booking" promotion. At the same time, discounts of 30 - 50 - 70% are declared. In principle, the way it is, everything is fair, but we mean a discount on the price of the hotel, but on the whole tour. As a result, the difference in price is less. However, save 20 percent on total price the tour is real.

Most often, there is no deception, closer to the date of departure, prices rise, although anything can happen. Tourists are very offended when they see that their hotel, bought six months ago, has become cheaper before departure. Operative negativity is also completely unnecessary, and literally last season a kind of “low price guarantee” began to appear. If a tour to an already purchased hotel is cheaper for some reason, then the operator can recalculate it down and return the difference.
I repeat that such price cuts are still an exception. In my memory, only in a couple of cases it was possible to use the "guarantee", in the vast majority of cases, the price went up.

In any case, you can always refuse and return money from the operator, although it is not a fact that the hotel will re-confirm the same tourists by new price. True, if the price has dropped significantly, then nothing prevents you from booking a neighboring one. The return process is not always easy and deserves a separate post, which I will definitely write. For now, just believe that the agency's statements that "the money cannot be returned", or, moreover, the words "operator's fine" are nothing more than horror stories. What is the penalty for a commercial organization to an individual? Rave.

Summary: early booking is a profitable promotion for tourists. In any case, you can refuse the tour and return the money if something more interesting appeared closer to the trip.

Hot tours.

Favorite topic of tourists. Questions are especially pleasing, for example, at the beginning of autumn: “pick something for us that burns on New Year" or similar.

Let's start with the fact that tourists and travel industry employees most often invest in the concept of a "burning" tour completely different meanings. Tourists mean a tour for a penny, although in fact, a “burning” one is not the cheapest, but the cheapest tour. About the reasons for this decline, for example, many tourists left at once, or something else. The main thing is that it cannot be predicted in advance. Perhaps there will be a failure in sales, perhaps not. On peak dates like New Years or May holidays, nothing will burn.

Let me illustrate this with an example. We have a section on our website. Tours calendar. There are collected the cheapest prices in all directions. Let's take Egypt from Moscow for the next dates:


The minimum price is 15584 rubles per person.

Now we look Hot tours.


What do we see? The Regina Hotel fell the most aqua park, the price of which decreased by 8.5 thousand rubles. This is a very good decline, but still, the regular, non-hot price is lower than the hot one. Can burn and expensive hotels, sometimes it’s realistic to find a hotel with a price list of 300 thousand for 180 or something else, this will also be a “hot” ticket. But tourists, most often, when requesting a "hot tour" mean the lowest possible price.

Nevertheless, it is quite possible to fly away on a "burning" ticket, if you take into account the following:

• "Last minute" vouchers do not exist in advance, they can appear only on the next dates;


• "Last minute" vouchers for the required dates may not be available, on the dates of increased demand they most likely will not be at all;


• the more restrictions, the less chance that suitable option will be able to find. For example, it is much more difficult to catch a "last minute" tour to a certain hotel on a fixed date than "next week to Hurghada for 5-7 days no more than 30,000 rubles";


• decision speed is essential. There are never many last-minute trips, so if you think about buying for a long time, then someone more nimble will buy it.

How and why is it done?

To begin with, you need to understand that the sale of "burning" tours for the operator is not income, but minimization of losses. And if the share of those burning becomes too large, then the entire business of the operator will become unprofitable. And tourists quickly get used to the "burning" ones and begin to wait until the last for a price reduction, which does not contribute to sales at all. On the other hand, some of the rooms purchased by operators in hotels are not for sale, 100% occupancy is an unattainable place. Leaving them completely empty is somehow quite stupid. To combine the incompatible, a sale "by fortune" was invented.

The operator knows with good accuracy what percentage of pre-paid rooms, according to statistics, he does not manage to sell at a normal price, but it is very unlikely to guess in which hotels they will remain empty. It is this percentage that is put on sale at the last-minute price, but without specifying the hotel. Several goals are achieved at once: you don’t have to fill up the price before departure, you get a guaranteed loading of some of the seats on airplanes, the loading of hotels improves and becomes more uniform, but for a tourist - a good price.

Again, let's see an example:

In mid-February, Coral Discount 5 * (that's the name of Coral Travel's Fortune) costs 15 thousand cheaper than when specifying a hotel of the same category. A similar card and 4 *. In addition to Egypt, Fortune operates in Thailand, India and Vietnam, it is found, albeit less frequently, in European directions.

Summary: in my opinion, for those tourists who want to save on vacation and are counting on buying a last-minute tour, it makes sense to pay attention to Fortuna. It will definitely be no worse than last-minute ones and you won’t have to catch prices on the eve of your vacation, wondering whether you will be able to fly away or not.

Finally, about discounts.
It is pointless to choose an agency to purchase a tour solely on the basis of the discount, without reference to the price of the tour. The agency can give a discount within its commission (and this is about 10% of the cost of the tour), while a competent search among the offers of operators can give a much greater benefit. For such a search, our

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

This article is intended for persons over 18 years of age.

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Early booking travel vouchers is gaining more and more popularity every year. Travel agencies offer tourists to book in winter summer tour, and in the summer book a trip for the New Year and promise huge discounts. Everyone wants to have a good rest, 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 not very popular destinations). This special offer with an attractive price and the ability to pay for the tour in several stages. IN tourism business, like any other, it all depends on demand: high demand — high price, low demand — low price. "Winter season" is considered "low season" in tourism, after " new year boom» The tourism market is slowing down. 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 the months when there is no huge tourist flow. What to do to "cheer up" the tourist market?

Let's first remember what a travel package (tour) consists of. The cost of the tour consists of the cost of the accommodation facility (the main part of the tour), airfare, transfer and medical insurance. Many Mediterranean hotels work in the "minus" in winter, and, of course, they need the money. Where can you get them? It's simple: hoteliers give good discounts tour operators, subject to receipt Money Here and now. Accordingly, the tour operator has the opportunity to reduce the price, the tourist will book the tour and pay for part of it right now at a “low price”. » 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 ahead high season”, for which they will earn very well. The tour operator is also satisfied, he has the opportunity to earn money even during the "low season" and be sure 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 a tour operator in February-March and booking a tour for the summer period? Below are the pros and cons of early booking for a tourist.

Advantages of early booking

1. Choosing a convenient flight.During the "high season", the most popular destinations are usually served by several flights a day. 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 for specifying a flight). But during the season they fly mostly charter flights, which means that even if you have specified the flight, the flight can be rescheduled.

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

2. Wide range of accommodation facilities.Booking a tour in advance, you have the opportunity to choose exactly the hotel you need. This is the main plus, because the choice is huge, you can choose among thousands of hotels, apartments and villas. Can choose required category rooms - this is important when relaxing with a large company or with children. Some tourists prefer to rest year after year in the same hotel. If the choice of accommodation is a priority for you, then early booking is for you. Indeed, in the "high season" there may simply not be places in the hotel.

3. The cost of the tour and the payment of the tour.The cost of early booking is lower than in the season (of course, "hot tours ”No one has canceled, but they may or may not be, and remember that a “burning tour” is almost always leftovers that they could not sell). The cost of the tour for early booking is fixed in currency (dollar, euro) and is paid at the rate of the tour operator on the day of payment. This means that the cost of the tour will only change depending on changes in the exchange rate. Tour operators pay differently for the tour, 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 to rest on a certain day, in a certain hotel. Booked a tour in February and relaxed until August. During this time, you can plan, for example, interesting excursions. Or if you are flying with one company, but from different cities, then it is very important that the whole company rests in one place at one time. Many vacations take place on fixed dates, and if you do not take care of the tour in advance, then there may simply be no seats on the flight that day.

Cons of early booking

1. Cancellation.Many tour operators apply very severe penalties when canceling tours. And some even fine for making changes to the application, for example, changing the name. Or, let's say you decide to remove / add a tourist to the application. Although every year tour operators are becoming more loyal. In any case, carefully read the contract for the provision of services, especially the clause with the terms of the penalty.

2. "Hot tours". TO as I wrote above, this is most often what is left, for example, a plane flies, and 70 seats are bought from tour operators, and 68 are sold, money for the seats is paid, and the tour operator gives it away at “cost”, respectively, the price decreases. It's the same with the rooms in the accommodation facilities. But good tours also sometimes burn, but again, this is a matter of a happy accident.

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. So, for example, tourists who booked tours for the New Year in the summer of 2014 did not save, but rather overpaid, because the exchange rate in the fall of 2014 more than doubled. This happens infrequently, but nevertheless we are not immune from it. In any case, most often the tourist immediately pays 30-50% of the cost of the tour, and the recalculation is already for the remaining amount.

1.Tourism is a business, and no one will do charity work and "give" vacation 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 on early booking, 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 tour operator is immune from bankruptcy, and we have clearly seen this over the past few years.

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

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 have evidence in court.

In any case, you decide what is best for you. Early booking is really profitable, but is it really so reliable in the conditions modern economy? In any case, you need to rest, because travel helps us to relax from Everyday life, see the world and get incredible emotions.

It would be difficult for me to answer this question unambiguously. There are several aspects to consider here.

Firstly, if you have already decided on a place of rest and definitely aimed to spend it in a pre-selected hotel, which for some reason is especially pleasant and sweet for you, then in this case it is better to book a tour in advance, preferably three or four months in advance. Then you will definitely spend your vacation exactly where you planned, and no annoying overlays will spoil it. If you order vouchers a few months before the start of the trip, then, as a rule, in this case, many tour operators offer them for an early booking promotion, which implies a discount from regular price percent by 20-30. So we flew to the Dominican Republic, having bought a tour four months before departure and saving at least 30 thousand for two.

Secondly, if you don’t care where to relax, you don’t have any special preferences for any place or hotel, and the employer has nothing against spontaneously letting you go on vacation, then you can safely take a ticket for a week or even for 2-3 days before departure (unless, of course, your stay in the country of your choice does not require visa processing or you already have ready visa). But here, too, there can be pitfalls: there are more than enough places in hotels, but there are no flights. We didn’t have a vacation like that a couple of times: once there were no empty seats on flights to Tunisia, another time we waited until the last last minute trips to Turkey, and when they appeared, it turned out that all the seats on the return flights were occupied, and we didn’t We get back to work on time. When buying a ticket almost close to the date of rest, one must be prepared that the choice of hotels and inns will be very limited, hotels are usually on fire, where tourists find many shortcomings in food, service, and location. If you are ready to endure some inconvenience for the sake of saving your budget, then last-minute tours will be a good option for you.

And one more thing, why it is impossible to say unequivocally which tour (purchased in advance or just a few days before departure) will be cheaper: the price of vouchers from many tour operators is directly dependent on the dollar or euro against the ruble. And since the currency market is extremely unstable, and the ruble is crawling up and down, and it is almost impossible to predict its growth or fall with absolute probability, it will be very difficult to predict which tour you will be able to save more on. Therefore, the well-known statement that last-minute trips are definitely more profitable does not always turn out to be true. Sometimes a tour purchased on an early booking actually turns out to be cheaper than the same tour purchased on the eve of departure.

Tourists around the world have long and actively enjoyed the benefits of early booking tours. Most tourists in Europe book their trips in advance. And it's not all in vain. After all, discounts on early booking tours often reach 40%.

Early booking ( early booking) is a promotion developed jointly by tour operators, hotels and carriers. Its meaning lies in the fact that tours booked and paid for months in advance are much cheaper.

Hotels are interested in receiving money from tourists as early as possible in order to guarantee their occupancy, as well as to receive cash receipts in the off-season. And since tourists do not really like to plan holidays in advance, hotels offer very serious discounts when paying for a tour a few months before the trip, in order to interest tourists financially. Similar motives apply to tour operators and air carriers.

Advantages of early booking of tours for tourists:

1. Savings on the purchase of the tour. As mentioned above, with early booking promotions, tourists can save up to 40% of their money. As a rule, discounts for early booking tours are 10-30%.
2. Availability of the best hotels and convenient flights. Good hotel is a popular hotel. It should be remembered that tourists from all over the world come to quality hotels, in particular from countries where early booking is widespread, therefore Great chance that best places will be sold out in advance.
3. Early booking is also beneficial because by using it, you don't have to worry about fluctuations in exchange rates (and the exchange rate usually rises during the season). After you have paid for the tour, any changes in the foreign exchange market do not affect the cost of the tour. No additional payments will need to be made in the event of an increase in prices for hotels and air travel.
4. Lack of fuss associated with the preparation of documents. Especially it concerns visa countries. Some certificates and permits require a lot of time to process. And it's much easier to do it ahead of time.
5. The pleasure of planning and anticipation of the future holiday. When we know that relaxation and a sea of ​​​​impressions await us ahead, we work in a completely different way - more inspired and easier.

Therefore, if you have a stable environment in your family and at work that allows you to make long-term plans, then you should definitely use early booking tours. In this case, it should be borne in mind that in case of refusal of such tours, in most cases, penalties are provided. But do not panic ahead of time. In fact, travel insurance saves you from unforeseen situations, which provides for a full refund of the cost of the tour, regardless of the reasons that prevented your trip. This type of insurance will not be burdensome for your wallet (the cost of insurance is only a few percent of the cost of the tour).

So follow the announcements on the websites of the companies you are interested in for the start of early booking, use

Now is the time to think about a vacation in the summer of 2017. In this regard, the issue of the “Early Booking” promotion has become more relevant than ever, which has been heard by everyone for several years, but not everyone fully understands what it is . We will dispel the most common misconceptions and speculation about the "Early Booking" promotion.
And the head of the sales department of the tourist operator "Mouzenidis Travel" Evgeny Kiselev will help us with this.

What is "Early Booking" really?

How it works?

Big discounts don't matter!

Why do tour operators, travel agents and hoteliers go for such discounts?

Myths about "Early Booking"

Myth #1: “The discount will be even bigger in summer”

Myth No. 2: “The flight for which the tour is booked can be canceled”

Myth #3: “I will book the tour in advance and won’t be able to fly”

Myth #4: “I’ll book for one date and get a vacation for another, and I won’t be able to go”

Myth No. 5: “In summer, the exchange rate will drop and I will lose money if I pay for the tour in advance”

Myth #6: “I’ll book a promotion when it ends, but now I’ll wait”

Myth #7: “The tour operator will go bankrupt and I will lose money”