to think this 'campaign' is inane and moronic

[AgaPanthers]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25894902

"With about 250 friends on Facebook, Paul Cookson did not expect a "rant" he posted to have much impact.

He wrote that he was "sick to death" of being "ripped off" by companies which put up holiday prices outside school term time.

A few friends agreed, and followed his request to "share this post if you have also had enough".

It soon went viral, and more than 143,000 people have shared it so far.

Supporters also began signing an online petition calling for government action and this has now gone far beyond the 100,000 signatures needed for a possible debate in Parliament."

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It follows with some illustrations about the extra cost of an all-inclusive week in Lanzarote during half-term compared with the following/previous week.

For fuck's sake. It's February. Not many people are going on holiday. Despite the price increase, the AI in Lanzarote will be FULL during half-term. The following week it will be nearly empty because obviously family resorts are going to get booked up mainly during school holidays.

So if they make the price the same all year round, they will get even fewer visitors in non-peak times, and it will probably be more economical to close the hotel down and put people out of work/on zero hour contracts, than to keep it open, because obviously if the price is always the same then the popular dates will book up first.

Ridiculous bleating on about their human rights to jet off to Playa De Las Americas for a week of egg and chips and sitting on the beach.

Next they'll be complaining that they have a human right to dinner for two on Valentines Day at the midweek lunch rate.

It's February, the weather is shit, unless you fly a good distance south. There is a capacity in terms of planes and hotels to plonk people on the beach in the Canaries that does not meet school holiday demand, so prices are high. Simples. (Although if he did want a family break, there are plenty of places in Europe, that while not enjoying bucket + spade weather, could still be nice for a family trip, and very affordable.)

Wait till Easter, even, and the weather will be better, and hence more short-haul destinations open up for family breaks and you can find something more affordable.

But fundamentally you do not have a right to cheap holidays in the sun in February half-term.

Charging a lot in school holidays is annoying but it's simply supply and demand. Change this and you'd have to change hotels in this country charging extra at Christmas and NY and so on and restaurants putting up their prices. It's a non starter.

So, prices are never elevated because they know people will pay it then? What about profit margins?

That's exactly why prices are elevated (or more likely, lowered). Because that is the market value.

Anything is only worth what people are willing to pay. It would be really bad business to charge less in the interest of fairness.

It's just not how consumerism and capitalism work.

Overall annual profit for holiday companies is based on them needing to make more in peak seasons because they cannot make much at other times. You can't just average it out and say they should make £x on each holiday and no more. If companies were stuck charging what they can sell holidays for on 1 feb all year round, they would close down.

See, I was under the impression that businesses always charge at least the minimum they need to cover costs and that they increase prices when they can in order to maximise profit. Have I got that wrong?

Well, for a start, costs increase when more people want to go. You need more staff to run a full hotel than a mostly empty one.

I thought that the extra income from paying guests would offset the extra outgoings on staff....

So if you were selling something, (a room in a B and B, your house, something on ebay, your services...), you wouldn't take the best offer at the time. Of course you would.

Houses sell better in Spring, craft items sell better at Christmas, I never get any work in January/ February unless I do it for practically nothing - but I can get paid well in Summer.

See, I was under the impression that businesses always charge at least the minimum they need to cover costs and that they increase prices when they can in order to maximise profit. Have I got that wrong?

No, that is correct. The minimum they need to cover costs is heightened in peak times, as there are more people there.

Often business run at a loss during quieter times, so the difference is inflated to cover those additional overheads as well.

The train argument is different because people have to travel to work so there will always be uptake. If a grotty hotel tries to hoik up its prices to way more than the rooms and facilities are worth people simply won't go. No one is forced to travel for pleasure.

Thanks for explaining Juno.

Metella, I think what annoys me picks from list is the convergence of 'You must go on holiday, everybody goes on holiday, you've failed in life if you don't go on holiday'-type advertising with the higher prices at the only times of year when most people could go anyway. They're trying to make people feel like a holiday is essential and that they can't NOT have one (similar to train travel, only in that case the imperative to pay is valid).

So in theory they could charge a flat rate throughout the year (or at least bring the ends of the spectrum closer together) to increase their potential audience.

Whoah!! For the last 13 years or so I have been dutifully taking my holidays during the school holiday periods and just having to lump it where the price is concerned. After this summer we will finally be free to holiday at other times of year. I would be distinctly pissed off if someone now started to adjust the price to a flat rate so I ended up paying as much in term time as I would in school holiday time in order to subsidise other parents.

5foot5, I will be distinctly unimpressed when the government rolls out childcare to all 2 year-olds universally and also when they finally institute free global childcare, but there you go!

I think it is sad that many many children will no longer experience a holiday because of the extortionate rates during school holidays. It will become yet another social divider.

away it always has been. This isn't a new concept.

I think you may be right, away. Still, I suppose 'twas ever thus with kids and jealousy.

I am going to have to take DD out of school for a week in the summer before they finish for the holidays as i cannot get any holiday in any school holiday this year . So i figured if i took her out before the summer holidays it would be the least disruptive time as she is yr 6 and will have long finished her sats and be in demob mode before starting secondary school .
We usually accept the fact that school holiday times are more expensive and go during them . Although there are things we have done to make it cheaper like booking last minute in the UK when the weather has been poor and got great deals on cottages in places like Northumberland , got one for £300 for the week , watched it go down in price over a few weeks , takes nerves of steel

The thing is if you pay more for a car, you get a better car. If you buy luxury goods then theoretically you get better quality. If I want to book a flight for the first day of the summer holidays I am paying £1000 extra simply for the privilege of flying 24 hours later. This is what irks me.

It is inane because it's basic economics and supply and demand.

Holidays are NOT essentials. If you can't afford something, you don't buy it - doesn't matter whether that's a new car, a holiday, the latest surround sound system.

I'm single so holidays are often out of the question because of single supplements. I'd like not to be single, but despite trying, there's only so much I can do about that.

Having children is a choice. It's going to cost in all sorts of ways and not just potentially making your holiday expensive.

We always went away in the school holidays as a child , parent was a teacher . We went abroad twice during the 18 years i went on holiday with my parents . My children have never been abroad or on a plane , i honestly dont think its the end of the world or that they are underpriveleged .

There will always be some people can afford more than others and short of a communist state where we all get a standard holiday provided once a year by the state you cannot get around that. This is pure and simple jealousy.

I volunteer at a food bank and it makes me quite angry that some people feel entitled to campaign to get a holiday while there are families that cannot feed their children. In fact it makes me despair of the selfish society we live in.

away - some of us never went on holidays when we were children back in the 70s or 80s, so don't see what the problem is for children in the present day. My parents simply couldn't afford it. We had a few days out but our first actual proper holiday was when I was 15 (1988) to the Isle of White. My parents are now in their early 60s and have never been abroad. I have been abroad twice. I don't think it has actually damaged any of us, not going on holidays when we were all younger.

Average holiday prices will not work due to supply and demand, as has been said. There is also the likelihood that those who holiday in June and September due to the lower prices would start going in July/August instead if prices were the same throughout the year.

Due to the fact that some employers will only allow x number of people off at any one time parents may find themselves unable to book annual leave at all in the summer holidays, much less go abroad on holiday.

It's inane, most specifically, because the focus appears to be on the 'right' to have a week on the beach in Magaluf, rather than, say, the fact that it costs £25/night to go camping in August, and only £10/night in September.

If I were to go to Magaluf at half-term, I could book a package, for £2,000 or whatever it is, or otherwise book for flights for £1000 and hotels for £1000.

If I went the previous week, the flights might be £500 and the hotel £500.

Many of the holiday companies own their own charter airlines, so they could cut the air fare to £500 during half-term, but the hotel is owned by Spaniards, and it will still cost exactly the same, so the potential saving is only from the air fare.

And if they do cut the air fare to £500, then they will go out of business. I remember a few years ago I booked cheap flights on XL. I booked the wrong dates and called to change to better dates. To my surprise they did, and at no charge. No surprise at all that they went bust, stranding many holiday makers (not us, thankfully).

Airlines operate in a global market, so let's say Thomas Cook airlines agree that instead of charging £200 at half-term and £100 the week before, they will instead charge £150 (because you'd have to be seriously deluded to think they would charge £100 all the time) all year round.

What will happen then? Well they will sell out at half-term, just as before, but this time only getting £150/head instead of £200, and the week before they won't sell any flights at all, because instead of paying £150, all the British holiday makers will see that actually they can fly on Iberia for only £100, and they really don't care that Thomas Cook are doing parents of school-aged children a favour by charging non-parents more.

So now the flights are completely empty out-of-season, they are making less money during the holiday season, and the hotels cost exactly what they always did.

So they go bust! Wasn't that a great idea?

The thing that irritates me is that it's the same people who complain about the "nanny state" when it suits them, who whine for this sort of tripe.

But the sad thing is that the political parties will be angling for these voters, who've got animated about something for the first time in years. So the government will have to be seen to take it "seriously".

We tend to holiday out of season because it is cheaper. If it cost the same all year round, we would book for the sunnier summer months. The truth is there would be too much demand for the school holidays, and holidays would quickly sell out.