Okay, I need argument ammo about holiday prices

[UnquietDad]

Got into a slanging match with a SCF (Smug Child-Free) about the criminal hikes in holiday prices during the school holidays. I need blistering retorts backed up with unshakeable facts, please! The sort of thing people on here do really well. Somehow, I think "just you wait till you're a parent" isn't going to cut the mustard.

His take is that people should "stop whingeing" because it is perfectly reasonable supply and demand. "Of course holiday prices are going to go up in school holidays, and as long as you want a market economy they absolutely should go up."

Please help me out before I hit him.

Many thanks.

Come on, chapesses, in the interests of preventing physical violence... Don't tell me he's RIGHT??

um..well..he is right up to a point about the economics of supply and demand BUT morally it's not fair because families are the people least likely to be able to afford the prices. You may well have to resort to fisticuffs!

Some of them go up as much as 300%. You don't get that with other consumer goods. It baffles me.

It's not really much of a riposte to arses like him but we go abroad to France, where the mark-up is blatantly seasonal and reasonable, rather than school hols related and humungous.
England is becoming too expensive for us

How about "You may be right, but it doesn't make you any less of an idiot."

prices will go up in the holidays because people still carry on paying the prices, if I was going to go away at that time I would leave it to the last minute and see what bargains I could get, although with large families this probably wouldnt be considered as holidays need more planning.

Its extremely logical that holiday prices are based on supply and demand and that peak times like Christmas, New Year and school holidays will be prime revenue for holiday companies. As a parent you have to make many sacrifices and accepting that holidays will be restricted to school dates and at a premium is one of them.

Supply and demand implies that parents have some kind of choice - which of course we don't - so it's not a free 'economy'.

Families are cynically manipulated/exploited by the travel companies.

Move over and let me hit him first ...

I'm afraid I tend to agree with the 'reasonable supply and demand' argument. It's natural it would work like that - perhaps the real situation is that the school holiday prices are 'normal' and the off-peak prices are 'reduced' because of lower demand? No-one is going to pay much for a week in the UK in February, hence it's got to be cheaper to attract someone.

Don't get me wrong, I have 3 children and we only ever take holidays in the school summer holidays, so I know what it's like. But having said that, it's not so hard to get decent priced holidays, it just takes more planning and looking around. We've had brilliant UK holidays in July/August, costing anyway from £250-500 for a week for 5 people.

If we wanted to go abroad in school holidays, we would have to accept the price hikes and see that as a special holiday to be saved for accordingly, not one for every year.

One trick is to book direct for accommodation like villas in france because their pricing isn't geared to the UK holidays.

That's a good one, foxtrot.

And I like your point, BecauseImWorthIt.

I would say to him, 'Just ... you ... you shut up right. You, you ... what do you know? Your just jealous.'.

Because then you can be terribly smug and say 'yes, well of course it was twice the price the week before but because we waited until la rentree it was a steal'. This should be on the 'how to be a ponce cheaply' thread too!!