Travel: An expert’s guide to bagging a budget holiday

What are some top tips for bagging a budget holiday?

Transcript

00:00 It can be a bit of a minefield can't it? If you want to spend less this summer it's all

00:04 about being flexible, having an open mind and double checking all your costs. Before

00:08 I book anything I always check the triangle of cheap travel, that's hard to say. The three

00:13 points are transport, accommodation and daily costs. So first bit of advice, take off during

00:19 the week if you can. Likewise, if you can be flexible with your departure dates, look

00:23 for some midweek departures, look either side of those dates. Tuesday is widely touted as

00:28 the cheapest day to fly but it is best to compare prices across the range of dates before

00:32 you book. The cheap holiday expert also recommends that if you're looking for a cheap hotel upgrade

00:37 it's not as cheeky as you may think to ask for one. She recommends emailing your hotel

00:43 with a particular formula. She says to find out the name of the person who makes the upgrade

00:47 decisions, usually the general manager, and why you've chosen to stay in their hotel specifically.

00:52 Add a little bit of humour and tag them on social media and you might work your way to

00:57 a free upgrade. One site I rarely hear anyone talking about but can be very useful for scoping

01:02 out the best prices is the very underrated Google Hotels. So what I do when I'm using

01:07 this is I'll type in the destination I'm hoping to visit or if I already know the hotel I

01:12 will go ahead and type in the name of the hotel. And if you are searching by place I

01:16 will scroll through to see which hotel piques my interest. I'm always looking for somewhere

01:21 with a nice pool. That's my number one priority, good pictures and a nice pool. Some of you

01:26 have scoped this out already. House sitting is exactly what it sounds like. Somebody with

01:30 a home needs someone to come and look after the place whilst they're away. Often they

01:33 have pets that they have to look after and of course those all important plants they

01:37 need watering. The last piece of advice you may not have heard before, buy flights first

01:42 thing in the morning. Flight systems are loaded every single morning so flights which were

01:47 on hold overnight, people have got them in their basket, usually from business customers

01:51 who haven't checked out, they all get released at around 1am. So you can often get better

01:55 prices the earlier you book.