‘Early birds bag best travel deals’

According to travel portal TripAdvisor’s ‘best time to book report’ released on Monday, leisure travellers can get double-digit discounts for hotel rents if they pick the right time to book a holiday.

Holiday booking trends in the recent past have shown that travellers who plan in advance take home the best deals, revealed a report that compared hotel room prices across 25 cities in the world during the summer travel season between May and July.

Travellers planning early for vacations to Jakarta and Sydney enjoyed the fattest discounts — up to 44% — on stay, stated the report (PICTURE USED FOR REPRESENTATION ONLY)

Travellers to areas in the South-East Asia and Australia, for instance, enjoyed a 44% discount on hotel rents if they made their bookings at least three months in advance, the report said.

According to travel portal TripAdvisor’s ‘best time to book report’ released on Monday, leisure travellers can get double-digit discounts for hotel rents if they pick the right time to book a holiday.

The report is based on a combination of hotels booked on the TripAdvisor website and meta click data, which is an algorithm based on web searches made by travellers. This was used to pick the 25 destinations in the report.

For instance, those who booked rooms in a destination in Asia up to three months ahead of the their holiday, got up to 24% discounts, stated the report.

Travellers planning early for vacations to Jakarta and Sydney enjoyed the fattest discounts — up to 44% — on stay, stated the report. These “lucky travelers” must have booked their holidays three to four months ahead of the trip, said the report.

“For the cost-conscious Indian traveller, the report answers the most important question — when to book your hotel stay in order to maximise your savings for summer travel this year,” said Nikhil Ganju, country manager, TripAdvisor India.

But the price cuts at long-haul destinations such as Rio (14%) and Buenos Aires (17%) were relatively marginal despite booking four months before the trip, the report said.

The region-wise break up showed that early birds bound to Europe got up to 26% discounts but those travelling to the US (8%) and the Caribbean island (8%) got smaller discounts, the report added.