School holidays - cost of travel and taking kids out in term time poll - the results!

The price hikes are the way capitalism works, though. And if you want to challenge that, then good luck, but it's not been noticeably a roaring success elsewhere... (I'd suggest starting by growing distinctive beards and commissioning some iconic posters)

I agree with 3littlefrogs that more shorter terms spread over the year is probably the way to go, as there would have to be a price-smoothing effect coming out of that.

I would propose 4 or 5 "terms" a year, with more equal holidays, so that parents have more choice as to when to take a longish break. most people can only get 2 weeks, or maybe 3 at the most, off work at a stretch..

I would keep schools open all year round and run training courses, and sports camps staffed by local authority leisure staff as well as the school curriculum.

School buildings and facilities are underused.

Of course teachers need their holidays, but not necessarily all at the same time, and not for 8 weeks over the summer.

Nice idea squiffy but I can't see how it would work.

We would still need to charter a plane and book accommodation for the busiest time of the year and so the prices will inevitably be higher than if we were doing the same off peak. I agree that cutting out the middle man would remove some of the excess in the price jump but the basic problem of supply and demand will still be there.

I stick by my earlier comment that the key is to get rid of the peak in demand by spreading the holidays more than is currently done.

Brilliant idea, squiffy, but can you imagine the rash of AIBU threads?

Met this awful couple who let their kids run around causing havoc/ this horrible family who smacked their children/ snotty people whose children are too clever for state schools/ dreadful louts with children at comps/ people who hired a 4x4 on holiday etc. etc. etc.

I'm with Squiffy - Squiffy for prime minister!!

But then again - the holiday companies are not uniquely British and so ABTA would be pretty toothless to stop them charging huge prices when these holidays are being bought by others ...

Why not do something more interesting......

This site is full of sucessful mums and mums who are passionate about their kids. Nothing to stop us trying to launch a plan to actually act on what we all know. You could launch an appeal to get members to volounteer to work together to build a business plan (and do the research) to see if we can actually fill the gap in the market.

What you have at the moment is proof that there is a gap. Currently holiday companies have to block-book flights and accomodation that covers not just the school holidays, but much of the whole year. They will settle the price levels at the point where supply at that price = demand at that price. And their costs include annual costs of running a company, publicity, marketing, brochure, empty weeks, and so on and so on. Which means they simply cannot reduce their prices and remain profitable.

But what is to stop US block-booking somewhere in the Med direct with the owners, chartering a flight and sending out 200 mumsnetters for a week's holiday, in the summer of 2010, at cost?

Launch that as a 'Mumsnet mission' for 2010, and you'll get more publicity than you can shake a stick at, especially if you email Branson and get him to lend a plane.

Ask for MN volounteers (lawyers, PR people, finance people, people in the travel busienss already) and see what happens. If it dies, it dies. If not, well, could be fun....

I agree that it is unlikely that the travel companies are going to stop doing this. Lets be honest - it is not really their fault that so much of the demand for their produce comes in such a small time window.

I'd say a more productive tactic would be to campaign for staggered school holidays. There is no reason at all that everyone has to be on holiday at the same time. I know there is some variation between areas, but not nearly enough. Xmas and Easter are obviously fixed to some extent but this still leaves alot of flexibility.

Media release + lobby ABTA and Dept for Children, Schools and Families - see if you can put pressure on them to get together?

But ultimately that's capitalism for you...