Everyone loves a great deal, especially when it comes to booking your next holiday! With new comparison sites popping up here, there and everywhere and an almost endless array of travel companies and websites offering the “best prices”, there is a huge amount of competition.

Frankly, booking your holiday can be a bit of a minefield, especially when the price you see may not transpire to be the total price to pay! It is possible to get a genuinely good deal if you tackle it in the right way. Here are some helpful hints to take into consideration.

Flight

As seat availability decreases, the price inevitably increases, so simply, the sooner you can get your flights booked, the better.

A handy tip is to sign up to airline newsletters and keep your eyes peeled for flash flight sales; sometimes a flight sale can begin at midnight and last for just 24 or 48 hours but if you are aware in advance you can get a seriously reduced price.

Try to be as flexible as you can with your travel dates and consider flying mid-week as opposed to at the weekends. 9 times out of 10 it will be much cheaper.

Don’t be set on flying direct, especially if you are flying long haul! Also, check if there is a difference in cost if you try alternative routes? For example, if you wanted to fly to the USA or Asia, it may well be cheaper for you to book a budget airline flight to a European airport such as Amsterdam Schiphol and then board another flight to your onward destination. We can’t make any guarantees but it’s definitely worth checking.

It goes without saying that you should stop by at comparison sites such as Skyscanner.net who do a great job in comparing prices from a variety of airlines. Be sure to check more than one comparison site though as rates can still vary vastly between them. If you find a good price on a comparison site, still check the airline’s own website before you book.

Lastly, consider any additional costs that may affect the rate such as checked baggage fees, credit card fees, checking in fees and more. Do comprehensive comparisons of all associated fees before you make your decision.

Hotel

If a hotel hasn’t hit full capacity they can drop their rates quite considerably. Booking a hotel therefore works in the opposite way to booking a flight. If you are fairly flexible on when you can travel, booking your hotel last minute can save you a good chunk of cash.

Sign up to discount voucher newsletters and travel website newsletters. Often websites such as hotels.com will have flash sales offering a certain percentage off the rates. Additionally travel websites will have specific deals available for set dates; a good example is Travel Zoo who send their weekly Top 20 Travel Deals.

Always check the hotel’s own website and see if they are offering any special direct deals. Alternatively, you could always telephone the hotel directly and try to negotiate a deal yourself.

Consider trying Priceline Hotel Bidding. You will need to select the area that you want to stay, select your star rating then the website will suggest a guide price based on your selected criteria. You then enter the maximum bid you are prepared to pay per night and the website will check if any hotels will accept your proposed price, with nothing to pay unless you win. Check out this more in depth guide on the Money Saving Expert website, tried and tested by Martin himself.

Car hire

Booking car hire can be a nightmare, even for some of the more experienced hirers. To a first timer, it can all be a bit of a minefield.

Don’t ever take the headline price as gospel. Car hire companies lure customers in with what appears to be a super cheap price. 95% of the time there will be extras to pay which could increase the rate ten-fold.

Compare the insurance cover properly and read the companies terms and conditions to check for all inclusions and exclusions! Almost all car hire companies advertise that their rates include zero excess but unfortunately this is rarely the case. They usually offer expensive additional products which you must purchase in order to reduce the excess to nil.

Even if the excess is reduced to nil, damage to tyres, glass parts and the under carriage of the car will usually require an additional insurance to cover these items. Check the cost for cover to those items of the car.

Fuel is rarely included within the car hire price and will usually need to be paid for locally upon collection of the car. You can’t really do anything about this, but be aware and make sure you factor this in when considering the total cost.

Lastly, make sure you consider additional extras such as a second driver, unlimited mileage etc. Little extras can really make or break your car hire experience, but can turn out to be costly. The more free inclusions and added extras you can get in the price, the better for your pocket in the long run.

We all cherish our annual break and we all love a good deal so hopefully some of these tips will come in handy when you start to book your next break away.