Petition to tackle holiday prices in school holidays

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petition.parliament.uk/petitions/226515/sponsors/new?token=PNpep4mVeQ9WPLw0WUsu

Please sign my petition if you agree with it. I’m asking for the government to change school holidays so they’re different throughout the country. There will be crossovers of course but by spreading out when schools have holidays will spread holiday demand and should lower holiday prices for families. Why should families, who pay more than couples anyway, have to pay 3 times more? We are held to ransom as we have no choice except feel like bad parents taking the kids out of school to get a reasonable deal. Families deserve nice holidays without getting into debt. Why do we all put up with it? The holiday companies can’t do anything about it as they respond to the marketplace like any other industry so school holidays changing is the only way to reduce the cost of holidays. I hope you will support this. It may seem unachieveable and a dream but all changes start somewhere. I believe some European countries spread school holidays out throughout the country. If holidays were the same for the schools within each county but staggered throughout counties as much as possible then this could change the landscape for family holidays for us and our kids and their kids. Life is expensive enough with kids why should parents be penalised for keeping the human race going. Surely travel is important to children’s upbringing to make them rounded confident people as well as having quality time as a family away from the stresses of home. Also wouldn’t it be better economically if people leaving the country and being off work was more spread out? I hope you can open the link to sign. It can be found on the government website for petitions if not. Look for heading’ to legally change school holidays in each county in U.K. so they are different. Please support this and let’s get fair prices for holidays

I’m a perfectly nice, intelligent mum sick of holidays costing a fortune and I’m just trying to do something about that

Nobody doubts you are perfectly nice.

What everyone is saying is that you are on a hiding to nothing with a government petition, for a whole multitude of very sound practical, economical and logistical reasons.

You are refusing to accept any of those and are instead wah-wahing about how it's all so unfair, and how you are the lone voice of compassion and concern for families in dire need (of holidays), in a sea of hard-hearted bitches.

Please no!

Living on the border of 3 local authorities with two children in different schools & dh who is a teacher.

Also I used to run holiday clubs. It was bad enough the year one decided to do something completely different. A local theatre there had to cancel all their Easter activities.

My Dd also does specialist residential summer schools. They would not be viable if all holidays were different.

It would be an absolute nightmare b

If you think holidays are expensive now, wait till we don’t have free movement around Europe!

I’m a perfectly nice, intelligent mum sick of holidays costing a fortune and I’m just trying to do something about that

Me too. What I do is don’t go on holiday if I can’t afford it. I set a budget and holiday according to area and dates.

What I don’t do is expect the holiday companies to change their prices so I can go to spain instead of wales on the dates I choose. Same as i don’t expect the gas company to charge less at christmas because I’m off work and need to use more heat..

The consumers drive the prices. If you really want holiday prices to come down, campaign for you and all you “local support” to boycott peak price holidays. Lack of demand= lower price.

The problem is so often people come to expect a certain type of holiday and instead on holidaying within their means look for someone to blame because they can’t afford it and they “deserve it”

We don’t go abroad in August school holidays either. WHAT we do is take advantage of London Kidsweek offers. Free kids tickets to the theatre through the month of August, a cheap Travelodge/Premier Inn & loads of free/low cost stuff going on.

so which European countries do this? You state some do but I know of none.

How can it be done fairly so that people get the "summer" months rather than February or November?

When do you propose the public exams are so that the children are magically prepared for them?

It is a complete non-starter.

Supply v Demand is indeed basic economics.

I’m just trying in my small little way to help make holiday prices fair for everyone, What is wrong with that?

Well, as many people have already pointed out, it won't make holiday prices cheaper for everyone, but more expensive for longer. The rates in the school holidays are nearer the "retail" price and it's the term time rates that are discounted to tempt more people to book at slow times. Spread the school holidays and the price will be raised all round. Holiday firms will not lower the term time price. They will raise the rates for longer.

But you will not believe this, so good luck with your petition. I won't be signing as I think there are many, many, MANY other causes that deserve attention before we get onto this. And your idea won't work in the way you insist it will.

What a ridiculous sense of entitlement! 😂

All that will happen is that peak times will be extended and you will be paying 3x more for longer.

Our states do have different holiday times. This means overseas air fares/packages are dearer for an extended period of time no matter what state you are in. For less popular ‘non-holiday’ destination states it would be cheaper to visit when your kids are on holidays but theirs are not but no-one wants to visit those states. For popular destination states they just extend the peak to cover all states holidays.

What you are suggesting is only going to work if ALL schools were WIDELY staggered. This would entail some schools having a 2 week term, then a 18 week term, a 4 week term then a 16 week term etc. Kids are not going to cope with that and teachers will be up in arms. Anything of the magnitude of a bit of a variation here and there is just going to extend the peak as explained in our situation above. Given this I am confused as to how you think what you want (cheaper prices when your kids are on hols) can be achieved ?????

I’ve just put ‘holidays’ in the search bar on the petitions website, good grief there rate some entitled requests There’s a NQT petitioning for 20% off holidays for teachers, loads of ones demanding the government intervene in pricing, people asking for free school holiday childcare for all children etc. There’s even one suggesting that employers shouldn’t be allowed to say no to school holiday time annual leave requests from parents!

My D's had what he thought a brilliant idea once.
He announced he was going to wait for the 50% sale on Amazon and use all his vouchers to buy more vouchers therefore doubling the value

When he found this was not a possibility he stamped his feet and said he was going to get a petition up to force them to debate the fairness in parliament.

His excuse for not understanding the issues with his idea was he was 6yo at the time.

@EnglishGirlApproximately I’ve just put ‘holidays’ in the search bar on the petitions website

It's also a little funny that OP thinks she's the first person to think of this as well. It's the Govt petition site equivalent of "cancel the cheque"

Well this has been a disaster hasn’t it.

witchend that’s very clever for a 6 year old! he’ll go far in life.

shots I know there’s loads of them!

Oh this is hilarious I go abroad every second year because I can't afford it every year. It's AWFUL having to live like this....truly AWFUL I tells ya

You're not trying to make prices fair for everyone, you're trying to make them cheaper for you and more for others

This ^^ You are working on a ridiculous premise OP, and you are refusing to comprehend the reality.

I live in Scotland where we do have holidays a couple of weeks earlier than the main English peak holiday season... the consequence? At my work and dhs work, almost everyone with dc wants the first 2 weeks in July as holidays, and that just isn't possible. So some have to go later and pay higher prices, others take their dc out of school in June. That's what would happen elsewhere too unless the 'variable term times' were extended across the whole year (excluding Xmas and Easter, of course). Maybe OP would still end up paying close to peak prices to holiday in February, while less well off families might be holidaying in a chilly cottage in the Highlands! Oh yes, that would be fair!

My work means that it is very difficult to take time off mid April to mid October, it is difficult to find holidays that are warm and cheap during that time, but at least they are not also overrun with kids. (And yes I do have dc)

It won't work. It just won't.

The variation in prices that we see now will lessen yes, but all that will happen is that the prices will increase all year round.

The prices are the prices due to it being a luxury. I wish the prices were lower, of course, but I also wish my entire house cost £37.80.

When car insurance was made "fair and equal" for men and women, it didn't bring down the cost of insurance for men, but put up the insurance for women. This industry is based on probability. Women are statistically less likely to be in a crash than men. Is it more fair now because it's more equal?

OP, your understanding of the word "fair" means that a certain set of holiday makers must pay more despite not going in peak season (hottest weather - July and August) which means cheaper for you, but not "fair" for all involved.

I'm a childless teacher who has paid more for skiing and summer holidays for years and I think your idea is not "fair" at all. I'm happy to pay more and simultaneously enjoy the benefits of a capitalist society.
P.S. I'm pregnant, which is not relevant for this thread, but you seem to need that sort of qualifier for me being on this forum.

I agree with everyone else that this is ridiculous.

Timing of exams, results, university offers, children of different ages at different schools, work placements etc are all more important than cheap holidays.

Not to mention, why would anyone want to go somewhere when the weather is crap.

That petition is not going to be taken seriously.

No way, I have DCs at schools either side of a county boundary and it's bad enough already that the term dates don't always match. We sometimes holiday with relatives with DCs at school elsewhere, again different term dates make this harder. Also in a few years DH and I will be holidaying alone again and will not want to pay higher prices in what is currently term time because it's not term time everywhere else.

What is wrong with that?

Well, many of us have tried explaining what is wrong with the idea logistically and economically. It just wouldn’t work and shouldn’t even be tried. ‘Fair’ doesn’t mean ‘the same’.

Honestly, people here aren’t being horrid for the sake of it (this isn’t AIBU).

I'm sure many of us have wept when looking at the price of a holiday cottage and it's £200 cheaper a week earlier/later.

But agree with every single other poster - staggering the school holidays would be unworkable. There were threads a while ago demanding that the school holidays were moved to July because the weather is nicer then. Well, look at it now! Not too bad, is it? And I remember some crap Julys (2012 for one, when the dcs' sports day and summer fete had to be cancelled due to waterlogged field and everyone said the Olympics would be a wash-out).

So no doubt masses of people would be whining that their allocation was not very favourable, and on top of that the higher prices would just expand anyway. No one is going to be a sudden winner by getting the first two weeks of July.

Also when people moan about the cost of holidays, what they actually mean is the cost of the holiday they want is too much. I remember a poster weeping and wailing that they couldn't afford a holiday in August. I indicated some quite bargainous chalets in Norfolk and the Isle of Wight (I have been to both chalets) but that was met with much sniffing and it turned out they only wanted Devon or Cornwall . Well, tough.