5 Of The Best Holiday Booking Hacks In Just 8 Minutes
Welcome you savvy traveller! You’ve been working hard preparing for your adventure and saving for your travels. You’re ready to book but wait! How can you get the best flight, accommodation and travel deals for your money? You deserve a fabulous price. There’s only one way to go about it and it’s with these holiday booking hacks! Give me 8 minutes and you’ll be ready to go.
This post is sponsored by aqua Card (credit provided by NewDay Ltd, 18s and Over, Subject to Status, UK residents only), but as always all thoughts and opinions are honest and Teacake’s own.
5 Best Holiday Booking Hacks in just 8 Minutes
1.Do Everything In Your Power To Get Cheap Flights
Flight hacking has so many secret tips and techniques that you can use but I’m going to give it to you simply and easily. All of these hacks can be put to use right away. You don’t have to be a technological mathematical wizard.
Use An Incognito Window In Your Internet Browser
When you’re searching for flights online, make sure you use an incognito window so that companies can’t track what you have been looking for. Flight and hotel sites have cookies on their pages which lets them track how many times you’ve looked at certain flights. If they see you’re interested, they’ll bump the price up slightly every time. Avoid this and go incognito!
Book At The Right Time
There definitely seems to be a magical number in the air for one of my favourite holiday booking hacks these days: the number 53! For the most competitive prices, the best time to book a holiday on Skyscanner is 53 days in advance. This isn’t a hard and fast rule but Skyscanner will lay out all of the prices for you day by day so you can see the best time to book! The Skyscanner Android and iOS app is super handy to have with you too so you can keep an eye on the best flight deals. Download it here!
Choosing to fly at unsociable hours will also save you money. Late at night or really early in the morning works. Just make sure to check the prices of transport which can get you to the airport at that time or get there early and catch some wink before that flight!
Are you booking last minute? Then your best bet is to book midweek to lower the costs. Flights on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and sometimes Saturdays are much lower than the rest of the week! Most people are living for the weekend so beat the crowds and fly when they’re not around.
Book At The Right Place
I’m talking about the physical e-location you’re booking your flight from. If you pretend to be in the country where your flight is leaving from, it is going to be much cheaper for you. To do this, you can book using the booking site’s URL address in that country. For example, if you’re flying from Italy, book at www.skyscanner.it. Or, you can use a VPN which tricks your computer into thinking it’s in another country.
Travel Hand-Luggage Only
To avoid paying extra baggage costs, travel with a carry on only. I use my backpacking packing list every time to make sure I have everything I need.
2.Make The Most Of Credit Cards To Help You Out
Sometimes we need some extra financial support to start our dream trip. If you’re a responsible spender and are able to meet at least your minimum payments each month, aqua card takes a responsible approach to lending and will only give you credit limit that’s manageable for you.
They’re an excellent option to consider if you want to make the most of the holiday booking hacks here!
3.City Breaks And Staycations Are Where It’s At
I’m currently back in the UK after a whirlwind year of travel in 2016 and rediscovering the beauty of the UK again. I’ve stepped into the beauty of the Scottish Highlands, seen the best of Ireland in one week and plan to travel so much more within my beautiful country.
Bare Castle On The Isle Of Skye
You really do not have to fly to take a holiday this year. How about exploring your backyard? For all you Europeans, you can hop, skip and jump across to your neighbours so easily for a perfect quick holiday getaway!
4.Get Savvy With Your Accommodation
For the best hotel deals, one of my holiday booking hacks is using a hotel search engine such as Hotels Combined. Hotels Combined get a Teacake high five for searching all of the top travel sites in one go to find you the absolute best deal. There’s no booking fee or mark up either.
Other ways to save on your hotel room is to take advantage of sites encouraging you to book your flight and hotel together.
If there is a promotional code option when you get to the checkout, just do a quick internet search. There are plenty of coupon codes out there to help you save your pennies.
Want a room upgrade? When you check-in, make sure it’s later in the evening. The hotel will know what rooms are truly free at this point and will be more willing to upgrade if the top rooms haven’t been taken.
AirBNB is an awesome option for having your own room in a local’s home, at a much cheaper price than a hotel. Here’s a Teacake freebie of £28 AirBNB credit to get you started!
5.Don’t You Dare Skimp On Travel Insurance
I know that it is initially an expense for you. Yet, believe me that Travel Insurance is an absolute essential. However much money you want to save, you cannot afford to skimp on it.
Get Travel Insurance
Don’t scrimp on your most important solo travel safety tool.
Get travel insurance and ensure peace of mind!
Having a broken contraceptive implant trying to be taken out of my arm in Vietnam was fun (not). That time I was horribly sick in a hostel in Poland after food poisoning is something I wish I could forget. To date, my 2 week stint in a Russian hospital after I was seriously ill from The Mongol Rally tops them all though. Travel insurance has saved my ass many a time. Make sure it saves yours and your wallet’s too.
What Holiday Booking Hacks Do You Use?! Comment Below!
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Wow! Thanks so much for the travel hacks, especially the incognito mode…never new that.
Glad you picked up some useful hacks Davina!
Woah! We had no idea about the incognito window thing, bumping up the price for interested destination sounds terrible. The time of fly definitely makes a great deal of difference we have noticed too. Exploring the backyard is yet another great idea for we tend to ignore the one easily accessible :)
A homecation is never a bad idea :) I’m enjoying exploring my homecountry right now. Great Britain is turning out to be a delight!
Great tips and I agree with all of them! Especially travel insurance, I’ve had to use it a couple of times and I’d never be without it! It’s definitely worth checking out credit cards too, if you can be responsible like you say! And UK travel for the win :)
Great tips. I have never bought travel insurance to date. I thought it just covered the cost of your trip if it gets canceled or something?
Oooooh no Alice. If you get sick, travel insurance is such a lifesaver. I’ve been caught off feeling rotten quite a few times and travel insurance has saved my ass every time.
Some great tips for a traveler here. You are right about exploring backyards. As for the booking, I usually check booking.com and I’m yet to use hotelscombined. OMG! a broken contraceptive out of your arm? That sounds terrible. Hope it went okay. Can’t stress the importance of a travel insurance enough!
Thanks for sharing these useful travel hacks! I didn’t know that going incognito will make a difference to the price.. Didn’t know the companies up the prices like that when you’re searching for flights! I’ll keep that in mind next time I’m making a reservation :)
Awesome! Glad you picked up a good hack for yourself :D
Great tips. I follow most of the tips but I should be more careful about searching incognito for flights. It can make a big difference but other than that you summed up all important tips!
Perfect! Glad you agree with the tips :)
Some excellent points here, I’m going to look for a flight later today. I’ll now search Incognito, hopefully I’ll get a cheaper price. I’ll consider buying the hotel and flight together and see if it’s any cheaper than separately too. You could have saved me some money today!
I hope I did save you some $$$! How did it go?!
These are some really super tips. I wish I could be as disciplined as you are and it is sometimes genuinely depressing to think how much money I wasted on flights that I could have save if I had only been better prepared and taken a better approach. Will certainly try and implement this ideas for the future
Hey Gareth. Don’t beat yourself up dude! Sometimes life gets in the way and I forget to book early or use a travel hack. Try your best but most of all, wishing you happy travels!
Great tips! 53 days in advance? That’s intriguing! Let me try that out! Ofcourse airbnb is a great option. If I’m backpacking solo, I prefer hostels which I feel are safer than airbnb!
Hostels are always an awesome way to go. I do love the unique, truly local experience you will get with an AirBNB though! Staying with a local that has an awesome track record of brilliant reviews gives me faith that I won’t be staying at the next Normann Bates’ hotel. Hostels and AirBNBs are different experiences – really recommend travellers to try both and see what floats their boat :)
Such a great post! Love this advice and information. I’ve never been one for travel insurance, but I am about to embark on an 8 week trip internationally and am definitely getting it this time!
Good for you Kyntra. Highly recommend not leaving without it. I understand on the surface it can seem like an expense you don’t want to fork out for, but when the crap hits the fan, you’ll be eternally grateful for it.
Some fab tips here – I never knew about searching incognito! Will give it a go when I fly home from Bali xx
Nice one Lucy! Hope you got a good price!
Really great info! My bank recently offered me a credit card upgrade and I know there are some travel perks connected to it. Looking forward to putting it into action! I also second your paragraphs about travel insurance. It is absolutely necessary!
Hey Ania that’s great. As long as we spend responsibly, a credit card is a good savvy travel hack to have!
Awesome tips :-)! Will try some of these out!