Can you still get last minute bargains

[fruitstick]

DH and I have decided to go away for a week in September leaving DS behind. (He's more than fine with this).

We haven't booked anywhere and I want to leave it to the last minute and get a bargain.

DH is more cautious and wants to book something now.

I don't want to be the one responsible for us not being able to get anywhere if I insist on holding on.

What say you?

We really just want somewhere warm and relaxing.

In my experience, and others may have better information or stats, the whole last minute booking phenomena rarely works as it used to. Following Covid and being in an economic crisis with interest rates etc, many travel companies, hotel owners and similar have reduced their offerings to keep themselves profitable. Overall this seems to mean that as the availability of accommodation and flights decreases, the remaining choices are being fought over by too many people, effectively pushing the pricing up. This seems a total reverse form years ago when owners and operators were desperate to offload empty rooms and plane seats.

Incidentally, if you're booking online, the travel companies use the down loaded cookies to tell them how many ones you're searching for a holiday and alter their pricing accordingly (upwards). Delete your cookies before each search.

I've honestly never found a last minute bargain, I've only ever found great prices when booking really far in advance! I'd just be aware that last minute you're going to be limited to how / when you fly and where you stay but what's available (which potentially will be the least popular options as it's all that's left).

Hotukdeals has a travel section. Worth keeping an eye on:

https://www.hotukdeals.com/tag/travel

There are some last minute deals at the moment - dates 2 weeks ahead, but not all are cheap some are pricey as it’s the more expensive room categories left etc so not necessarily bargains, and some are the less desirable flight times too.

Some have dropped 20% for same dates since looking last weekend so definitely have got cheaper

September there may be more availability too?

Its always a risk but you’re too late for the early deals, I would narrow down where your interested in check dates out for that now and then watch it for a little bit and see how it adjusts, you’re probably just have to pluck for it at some point

I think if you want a package holiday then you should book now.

If you’re happy to fly any time from any airport, possibly two flights to get there, not precious about the accommodation, basically cobble something together at the last minute, hang on.
Even then, I think as pp have mentioned you might be out of luck.

I am looking now for beg August, left it far too late, most of the good stuff has gone and we are picky about hotel and flight times! argh

oh and clearing cookies has never worked for me, it is always the same price afterwards 😂

Those days are long gone. I'm old enough to remember teletext bargains and then last minute.com best one was a week in Majorca for £90!

September should be ok for availability but do prices go down nearer to departure? Not in my experience.
The other thing about last minute is that you are left with what other people have not chosen. So the best flights sell out early, the best hotels sell out early.

You will get something for sure but I wouldn't wait in the hope of saving money.

You could test it out by picking a few holidays out now and tracking the prices weekly. look at Jet2, they are pretty competitive and often offer discounts.