united states For those you travel frequetly...

[Jetta]

What do you notice about the rates if you wait until the last minute, per say. Are they generally higher than usual or lower? Thinking airfare and car rental. I think I found a deal on a car rental but my travel companion wants to wait until the last minute to book anything, which simply goes against my nature. But we're splitting costs and I don't want to book something and then end up with a cancellation fee if something comes up that's a better deal. Because the rates will change and we will continue to check them. So when should we book? Earlier or later?

 

Thanks for the advice.

[RedDress]

In my experience, the only time that "last minute" works out is when you are extremely flexible, you don't really care where you are going (you just want beach, for example) and even your dates are a bit flexible. In these circumstances, I've gotten FABULOUS deals.

 

The more your plans are strict (specific places, dates, wants, must-haves), the less worthwhile it is to go last minute. The whole thing about last minute is that you are taking waht is "left". Selection is minimal.

 

If you have something specific in mind, I wouldn't book TOO early (ie: a year early) as prices are still high. I wouldn't wait too late either. Maybe about 2 months before arrival is about the sweet spot... but it's impossible to predict.

[LMJ]

What do you notice about the rates if you wait until the last minute, per say. Are they generally higher than usual or lower? Thinking airfare and car rental. I think I found a deal on a car rental but my travel companion wants to wait until the last minute to book anything, which simply goes against my nature. But we're splitting costs and I don't want to book something and then end up with a cancellation fee if something comes up that's a better deal. Because the rates will change and we will continue to check them. So when should we book? Earlier or later?

 

Thanks for the advice.

20 years ago before the Internet and dynamic pricing you would have been right as advanced sales would have been cheaper. Its much more based on dynamic pricing to balance supply and demand. You might want to choose companies like Enterprise or see if you can get a rental through Priceline. These are not absolutes but in general the case nowadays. Holidays change everythiing as demand is higher than usual. But I think if you travel on the holiday when everyone else is already gone the demand would be low and the service provider would thus keep prices low to fill that demand. Think about it if you have a plane with 300 seats, you are operating at fixed cost. The plane filies no matter what. Even at $1 the carrier would recover some of the fixed costs. If 600 people want a seat then the carrier has pricing power over the customer to charge more. Your friend is going by the assumption that at the last minute the carrier will lower price to fill all seats. Hope that helps.

[Jetta]

Thanks for your insight, we reserved the flight today. Still waiting on the car rental but that doesn't concern me as much as the flight did.