People moaning about holiday prices in school holidays

[Vodkamartine]

Say holiday to some hotel or centre parks cost 1,000 for them to make a profit. in the holidays they will fill the spaces easily on January week day they won't. so they put the price down it's just sale and demand why don't people get this. Everyone i know keeps moaning that holiday company's are mean and keep pricing them out.

Wait for some foolish Member of Parliament (the adjective being unnecessary) to bring in the Law of Supply and Demand (Repeal) Bill.

Yes it annoys me too, especially the economically illiterate who start petitions demanding that "they" reduce the prices.

I think people also lose sight of the bigger picture - things like there are a finite number of take off / landing slots at airports, a finite number of aircraft, hotel rooms etc etc. When you have all of Europe wanting to head to the Med in July/August demand soars and prices rise. Nobody wants to go in February so you get a bargain. It's not rocket science.

We see this first hand as Scottish school holidays are different, we regularly go away the first fortnight in July, often flying from Liverpool/Manchester as it's so much cheaper.

There are plenty of cheaper options in the school holidays.

Package holidays are more expensive, but a lot of other holidays are not - or they are more expensive because it's the summer. So if you go away at Easter or May half term, it will be cheaper than if you go in July or August. I have stayed at several hotels/B&Bs which don't put their prices up for the school holidays, but do charge more between May and September, but it's not nearly as stark as the price differences for a package trip where you'l pay £500 one week and £1500 the next.

Oct half term is also an option for many destinations. And if you're in Scotland, you can go away before the prices really shoot up when the holidays in England start.

Flights can cost less in the summer. Prices often depend on whether there is some sort of event on when you want to travel. I looked into some flights last year and they were cheaper on the August bank holiday than at the end of September, I can only think there was some sort of event on at my intended destination the weekend I was considering.

Sky high prices were the reason we never went abroad when our kids were small, except for a couple of Eurocamp holidays which we could afford due to saving up. Usual holidays were camping in Cornwall!

Honestly dont know how families can afford to go away, either to UK or abroad, every half term and school holiday! It seems to be much more prevalent these days, or perhaps I'm just mixing with people who have more money than me

The supply and demand is entirely understandable and reasonable.

I teach and I do understand that my career choice has limited my holiday dates, although it doesn't stop me moaning about the price (until I get there and can relax with a cocktail and a book).

What I do find ridiculous though is that in early July I can travel to an English airport and pay a hand and foot less than a Scottish one, as over the border you are still in school.
The same applies to English families using Scottish airports in September.
You are literally paying for the exact same holiday, in the same place, at the same time of year but your country if departure can mean up to £300- £400 savings/additional expense.

I think a blanket on certain months of the year would be much fairier as surely there can't be that much more of a profit to be made from someone flying from one airport on x date than another airport on the same date.

Again, I would suggest that your type of holiday is probably in the minority LittleLion.

In my small sample of parents I know from school and parents that I work with (approximately 50) they have all but one talked about going to Orlando, going to Centerparcs, a fortnight in Minorca/Majorca/the Algarve etc. I only know one parent who actively takes her children to somewhere where they do anything remotely eductional.

To hear a lot of people it seems they regard family holidays as 100% compulsory - not sure why that it is.

When I was growing up we moved to a much nicer house in a nicer place and couldn't afford holidays - I was glad as I really didn't like them anyway.

@birdladyfromhomealone, off topic a bit, but you should try advertising your holiday let with Irish companies or Irish websites, as Irish secondary school kids get off at the start of June. You might get more business in June/ July that way. I'm sure other European countries are simpler; English kids get off very late!

Similar not simpler, argh!

It's supply & demand pure and simple!

More families go during the school holidays so the prices get racked up and this is where the holiday companies make their big money.

As an aside- have never been to Centre parcs nor had the desire to investigate a holiday package. Some friends have done it loads and love it, although admit it costs a lot for what it is.

I don't really get it, personally, but there you go.

I was being flippant earlier, I do feel sorry for people in occupations like teaching. Some company needs to give a discount for teachers travelling without children in august.

But where would it end?

What about TAs, school office staff, school cleaners, lollipop ladies/men?

Going to university, DD was shocked to discover that none of her new friends had spent all their holidays when they were younger camping, but rather had spent lots of time lazing by hotel pools in Spain, Portugal and the like. It's done her no harm, though, and she's well set up for the festival season.

It's all about managing expectations. To expect to carry on with the same kind of holidays once you have kids and to expect them to still be affordable is somewhat unrealistic.

Iamastonished I'm saying that the destination is not important - Orlando or Center Parcs can be just as educational as us taking our caravan to Northern France. It's about parental engagement. E.g. if I chose to go to Orlando I might take the opportunity to explain to ds why it takes hours on the plane, how you might do it by alternative means, the kinds of animals they have there (alligators!) that we don't have in the UK. If I went to Center Parcs we might go for a walk and do nature spotting. I might tell him about the history of the surrounding area. The parents you know might (or might not! ) do the same.

However, assuming the years you have to go in school holidays are around 20 years overall (for parents, not teachers), there's still a lot of years either side of that where you can go more cheaply, at least double the number of years for most people!

I'm an mfl teacher and still would not claim that our family trip to Spain (Seville, not a seaside resort, if that makes any difference) this Easter will be particularly educational. Yes, my dc will see some cultural stuff and will try and speak a bit of Spanish and eat some Spanish food. I'd call that experience, not education. I certainly wouldn't justify missing school to do it. You can 'parentally engage' just as well at home as you can abroad.

people say they have a right to a holiday-yes they doesnt have to be aborad though

After 20 years of paying school holiday prices or having lovely camping holidays or just not going on holiday, I'm about to embark on the cheaper, term-time prices, so please keep the school holiday prices expensive, so I can, at last, have the cheap holidays again! I've waited so patiently and I deserve them.

Moaning is fine, but you have to know who to blame. it's not the businesses pricing the holidays. They are just business responding to demand. It's the government and their rigid rules that should be blamed.

Then you should know Eolian that some of the best learning comes from experiencing it. Certainly as the mother of a child who doesn't do well with theory but excels in hands on situations, it's vital to us. Talk to him without frame of preference and his eyes glaze over. Put him in a new and exciting situation and give him some additional information and he's full of questions. I don't imagine he's too different to most 6 year olds in that respect. And again, I haven't said it's imperative to go abroad to do this - we like going abroad and choose to do so, but I accept we could do this in the UK. However if you're going to Seville and don't believe it's an education (albeit an experiential one) as well as a holiday then I believe you're doing your destination a huge disservice. Imparting a little additional knowledge along the way will capitalise on the experience for children.

I think people do know the reasons for the difference in price but the huge increase between one week and the next can be a shock to the system, particularly when you have no choice and won't or can't do term time holidays, and a good moan is the only way to process it.

We used to do Spanish or French villas with pools for a few hundred pounds for a week or even two when DD was a pre-schooler. Now she is at school we can't afford that and instead take our tent to an all bells and whistles camp site in France and get two weeks away with a water park and all the activities a child could want for as little as £500 (plus travel admittedly). It is more by the coast admittedly but still nothing like the £1500 upwards you would spend even to rent a mobile home on the same site, never mind a villa somewhere in July or August.

Now we have another on the way, we have at least 18 more years of holidaying like this but, to be honest, once the tent is up , the fridge plugged in and the recliners out, a camping holiday can be just as relaxing and educational (or not) as any other type of holiday. The advantage of a campsite abroad rather than a villa on your own is that DD mixes with French, Dutch and often German children, as well as English ones, and it doesn't seem to bother her (or them) that technically they can't really communicate - her French at least really improves in those two weeks.

Once those 18 years are up though, I am off to find somewhere that I can see blue whales on my holidays.

reference not preference.

Sorry, reading back my post, it looks like I think £500 is small change - I don't mean that but it is cheap compared with the equivalent non-camping option abroad.

We are going to Orlando for three weeks in the summer and i'm not pretending to myself that it's an educational visit. Yes there will be educational aspects to it - boys want to go to NASA for the day where I'm sure they will learn a lot, we are also planning on doing one of those swamp airboat ride things to see alligators. And there are probably lots of learning opportunities at Walmart and in theme parks too, but it's about fun not education.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is separating fun from education. They're not mutually exclusive. It's perfectly possible to do both.