Last Minute Travel
Maybe you’re an obsessive trip planner who’s trying spontanaeity on for size. Maybe you hate to spend more time planning a vacation than you spend on vacation. Maybe you just like not knowing where you’re going to be on holiday in a month’s time. Whatever your situation, you’ll be pleased to know that booking last minute travel has gotten easier.
Last minute travel can mean different things to different people, and even what’s considered “last minute” can vary. Generally speaking, if you’re booking a flight with less than 30 days to go until lift-off, that’s last minute. Some websites, however, such as Site59, specialize in the serious last minute market with the ability to book domestic destinations three hours before take-off and international destinations five hours before. Now that’s spontaneity with a capital S!
If you can be flexible, that’s one way to get the best deals on travel at any time - but especially with last minute travel. If you’re not tied to certain dates, weekend travel, peak season, preferred airlines or specific hotels, your options increase dramatically. In fact, if you’re just in the mood to get out of town and you don’t even care where you go, that’s even better. The fewer limits you impose on your holiday, the more chances you’ll have at snaring a great deal.
Sometimes you’ll find that booking last minute travel as a package offers even greater savings - with things like hotel, airfare and even a car rental bundled together. If you’re in need of more than one vacation-related item, be sure to check whether a package will save you more money than booking each item separately.
If you’re a risk-taker, you could score a fabulous deal on sites like Priceline and Hotwire - just be sure to do the necessary legwork beforehand. With these types of sites you’re asked to hand over your credit card information along with a price you’re willing to pay for a given item (hotel room, air ticket, etc.) - if they can match you up with someone willing to sell at your price, you’re committed. So do your research before you type in your credit card information - check around on sites like Orbitz, Expedia or Travelocity to see what the going rate is, so you know you’re not over-paying.
By now you might be wondering, “What makes prices in the travel industry so flexible, anyway?” Well, consider this - if you were selling pencils, and you had 100 pencils for sale in a box, if you didn’t sell any pencils on Monday you’d still have 100 pencils on Tuesday which would be perfectly sell-able. The fact that the date had changed wouldn’t change their sell-ability at all. If, on the other hand, you were selling hotel rooms, you’d be faced with a different equation. If you had 100 hotel rooms available on Monday night and no one stayed in them, you’ve just lost 100 hotel rooms’ worth of money. Sure, you still have those same 100 hotel rooms to try and fill on Tuesday night, but your ability to sell Monday night’s rooms disappears as soon as the date changes.
This same scenario is also true with airline seats and car rentals, and just about anything else you can think of in the travel business. While a hotelier might not make as much money on a room if you get a discount last-minute rate, the income that hotelier gets from you is better than that room staying empty and therefore not generating any income whatsoever.
So, the good news is that last minute travel deals can be plentiful, depending on the time of year and destination. The bad news is that they don’t allow time for waffling - if you see a deal that meets your needs, don’t sit on it too long. Last minute travel deals can disappear, sometimes within hours or even minutes. It’s a bit of a moving target, so if you get a bullseye, go for it!
To begin searching for last minute travel deals, use the booking tool right on this page. You can also find last minute deals at sites like Priceline and Site59.