I’m in the process of trying to plan a last minute Christmas vacation and am not having much luck.
I’ve heard for a number of years that last-minute travel can be a great place to find deals. Airlines with empty seats and hotels with empty beds often slash prices in a last-minute attempt to fill them.
According to an article in the Mercury News by Marjie Lambert, however, this used to be the case 2-3 years ago but times, as they say, have changed. Apparently the industry has become far more efficient at filling empty spaces well in advance and no longer need to drastically cut prices to bump up occupancy.
This is bad news for those of us who sometimes wait too long before booking our vacation.
All is not lost, however. A couple of sites, such as site59.com and lastminutetravel.com, still do good business catering to last-minute travelers. The trick, according to Lambert, is to simply be flexible with time and location. The best deals to be had will be those you snatch up after forgoing your initial destination.
Right now I’m thinking a beach, any beach in any country, will hopefully be flexible enough.