Holidays & annual leave

[Lamora]

We would like to go overseas next summer and ideally book soon so we know what we're doing and can start paying, but my employer won't even discuss summer holiday requests until they get a rota for team cover, which this year didn't happen until late Spring, and we ended up staying in the UK as a result. What do people do in this situation? Are there companies you can book with that will give you affordable options to completely rearrange the date (and potentially location) if you can't do it? I'm a package holiday newbie so sorry if it's a dumb question. I think it's likely the leave will be approved, but I wouldn't stake thousands of pounds on it!

Save the money (start putting it aside in a separateaccount), then book and pay when you can.

Save the money, and book when you gave the rota. You can book in the Spring for a summer holiday.

Unless you're going in the school holidays, you don't need to book months in advance, just save the money if you want to spread the cost. We usually go away in June and September and the furthest ahead we book is around 2-3 months and have booked under a week before we've travelled before and there's always plenty of choice if you're reasonably flexible.

However, if you do need to go in the school holidays, your employer's system is completely unreasonable for people in that situation as it's always likely that you're going to be significantly reducing choice or increasing cost of a holiday if you're booking 'late'.

Hasn't anyone said anything before and can't the system be changed? It can't be the first time this has been an issue - it's completely the norm for people wanting to holiday at peak time to book by Christmas at the latest.

Does it have to be a packgage holiday. I have nearly always booked last minute, even when the children were young. I just use Skycanner and booking.com.
Just pay for the flights when I book and usually on booking.com you pay when you arrive or leave.

Thanks everyone. Yes school holidays are a must, unfortunately. The cash flow issue is less important as we can save as some of you have suggested, but our experience last year (well, this year) of waiting until the holiday rota was set up was that all the affordable holidays (we have four kids so it's not cheap) within the parameters we were looking at had long gone by then, and we were left with either paying extortionate fees to get the same kind of holiday we'd have got for significantly less by booking early - which we couldn't afford - or paying the same to go on a really grim looking holiday, so we chose to stay in the UK instead.

I agree it feels unreasonable to me - I don't think that people should get priority choice just because they have children, however there are 6 weeks in the summer holidays, 6 of us in the team, and only 2 of us have kids & a necessity to book within school holidays, so it does feel like it unfairly penalises parents within the team. You're right, I think I will raise it - I suspect it's simply that nobody has ever thought about it like this, as they are generally a good employer.

We have this issue every year with do employer, by the time the holiday request sheets are out we're priced out of a holiday as all the best deals with free child places etc are gone.

We've got round it by applying for a weeks parental leave instead of annual leave. These requests need to be replied to within 7 days and need very good reason to be postponed.

We've also written to the employer saying the holiday was for a special occasion e.g. milestone birthday and asked for it to be approved in advance.

I dont think this is what you meant but just be careful with the "were the only ones with kids, so only ones with necessity to book in summer holidays". Others may be married to teachers, look after the grandkids, etc etc.

That's a good idea re parental leave - I'll look into that as it hadn't occurred to me.

And yes that's a good point, definitely not right of me to assume others don't have a need to book in school holidays as well, so I will be careful how I frame it. It's not that I want first dibs at all, and I'll happily get in the queue behind non-parents even if I'm left with no choice which week to take, it's purely that timing point and wanting to be able to organise in advance.

Even if you’re going in school holidays and you’re savy you can book late. We did two weeks in Spain for £1200 in August booked in July. Family of 4.

personally I’d wait for the rota to come out and book then.

I challenge you to find a week in the Canaries in July, 4* all inclusive with a waterpark, under 1 hour transfer time, in an apartment with separate children's sleeping spaces (not a family room!) for under £2k with Jet2 or TUI. That's my holiday criteria and if I'm booking 18months in advance it's achievable, 3-4months in advance I'd be looking at paying at least double and my budget doesn't stretch, with 4 children the OP will be even more restricted with choice of hotels on a limited budget.

It's not as simply as 2 weeks in Spain for £1200, did that include all your food, flights, pools, transfers, airport parking and entertainment? I doubt really doubt it.

Jet2 let you pay a deposit and then you can move/change your holiday for a fee.

I think your employer is being unreasonable though, wanting to book 10 months in advance isn’t odd!

Easyjet holidays charge £60pp deposit and supposedly let you make changes quite easily. I haven't had to try that out though.

We used to have to book all of our holiday at the beginning of the year, if the business is consistent, it’s an easy thing to do!