When should you book your next vacation? My favorite answer to that question is “NOW!”
There was a time when waiting until the last minute to plan a vacation could provide a lower price. Those days are long gone! Hotels, resorts and cruise ships have realized that rather than rewarding those who wait until the last minute with lower pricing they are offering their lowest prices to those clients who book the furthest in advance. We then see prices continuing to rise as availability starts to disappear. Even today, when we do see a last minute discount on a resort or cruise, the last minute pricing for airfare negates any savings that clients actually receive.
Did you know that when cruise lines announce that their World Cruise itineraries are open for booking that they normally sell out within a week?
For those clients who are planning a milestone celebration we often start the process 18-24 months before their desired travel time, especially when they are traveling with extended family. These are celebrations for milestones such as anniversary trips, “big” birthday celebrations, graduation trips or group trips or even multigenerational trips when you have the schedules of several travelers to coordinate.
When we start working around school holiday schedules those dates fill quite quickly so it’s not uncommon to start planning 12-18 months out. We’ve got several families booked for Spring Break 2023 already because their dates were not flexible. We’re starting to do the same for Summer of 2023, especially for families who’s children are involved in summer sports and only have one or two weeks during the summer when they can travel. If your dates are not flexible you need to book as soon as possible to secure the best value but also your top choices for destinations, flights and activities.
The other segment of clients who are starting to plan 12-18 months out are the honeymooners, once you have a wedding date set it’s time to start planning the honeymoon to make sure you get the best value for your vacation investment.
There are clients who are flexible enough to travel during any time of the year and can wait until 9-12 months before their desired departure date to start planning their vacation. These are the clients who are enhancing their children’s education by exploring the world beyond their classroom and traveling during the school year, empty nesters who aren’t tied to school schedules, and retirees who aren’t worried about vacation time allocation.
Certainly the actual time spent traveling is going to provide memories and happiness for years to come, but studies have shown that a great deal of happiness actually comes from the anticipation of the trip as well. So why not start that anticipation process now and cash in on the added happiness? You’ll most likely get a better value for your vacation investment as well.