Booking a holiday in 2021, how does that work? Last year was and this year is still not the best year for the tourism industry. Nevertheless, there is a good chance that you will finally want to book a holiday again soon. How do you make sure you don’t get blisters when a trip is canceled and how do you find the best deals?
Tip 01: Get travel advice
Just to get straight to the point: corona will make traveling different than before. Even if you have already been vaccinated, this does not mean that you can travel to any country just like that, because you can still pass the virus on to people who have not been vaccinated. A good place to start is to check the government website before planning a trip to a particular country. on www.tiny.cc/reisadvies you will find all kinds of information. below Travel advice: choose your destination enter your destination. You will then see a map of the country and for popular destinations it is divided by province or region. Sometimes an entire country is yellow, orange or red, sometimes only certain areas have restrictions. The date of the information is always stated. Under the heading Coronavirus country-specific information regarding corona can be read. Here you can read whether you have to wear a face mask on the street, whether there is a curfew and whether you can move freely through the country. Please note that the information may change from time to time, so please keep checking the site regularly. Especially right before departure!
Check out the government website before you start making holiday plans
Tip 02: Book a flight
There are of course all kinds of flight comparison sites, but we find Google’s flight comparator the most useful. Go to www.google.com/travel/flights and enter your departure location in the first box. Bee Where do you want to go? you can enter not only a city, but also a country or region. Enter a start and end date and click To search. Google now lists the best options for both the outward and return journey. If you want to filter the results, you can do that with the oval buttons at the top. For example, you can exclude certain companies if, for example, you once had a bad experience with a certain company. if you’re on Luggage click, you can indicate how many pieces of hand luggage you want to take with you, Google will then indicate the prices if, for example, you want to take two pieces of luggage in the cabin. It Date grid is another useful feature. If you are not tied to specific dates, you can see here which departure and end dates are cheaper than the dates you have indicated. Cheaper options are shown in green, more expensive ones in red. Bee price chart see which periods are more expensive or cheaper. Here you can also change the length of your trip. The table will then be updated immediately.
Tip 03: Find bargains
Google mainly focuses on flights, although you can also find hotels and vacation rentals by clicking on one of the options on the left side of the page. But for bargains including flights and overnight stays, or if you just want to stay in your own country, the site is www.vakantieveilingen.nl a better option. For example, at the top, click Day out and you see a lot of auctions of entrance tickets to amusement parks, saunas and zoos. Before you can bid on an auction, you must register by clicking New user? Start here to click. If you make a bid and you win the auction, you are obliged to pay the amount afterwards, so it is not a non-binding offer. It is also important to know that there is always an additional 5.50 euros in administration costs. The bids often go up significantly in the last minute. Think about the maximum you want to pay for it in advance, so you avoid paying too much for an auction.
Another useful site for bargains is www.vakantiepiraten.nl. The editors scour the internet all day for the best holiday deals. You have to strike quickly, a trip can be gone in no time or have become more expensive. The site also occasionally indicates ‘error fares’ from airlines, which are flights that are much cheaper than normal due to a human or technical error. These kinds of tickets can usually no longer be booked within a few hours, so it can be useful to install the VakantiePiraten app and turn on the notifications if you want to use this.
You have to strike quickly, a trip can be gone in no time or have become a lot more expensive
Tip 04: Book hotels
If you want to book a hotel, it is smart to use a comparison site. It is possible that you pay less than the rate via a comparison site when you book directly at the hotel itself. There are countless comparison sites, some well-known ones are Booking.com, Hotels.com, Trivago.com and Expedia.com. Most sites have the same prices, but sometimes there is a small difference in the hotel price. It’s smart to see if your favorite comparison site has a bonus program, with which you can get a discount on overnight stays or even get the occasional free night. Hotels.com, for example, has the Hotels.com Rewards. If you have booked and completed ten nights’ accommodation, you will receive one night’s worth of the average price of the ten nights as a gift. Almost all hotels listed on Hotels.com participate in this. You can’t redeem your Hotels.com Rewards at every hotel, by the way.
Tip 05: Cancel
In these times it is important that you can easily cancel a booked holiday or hotel. For example, if a country is suddenly no longer accessible to Dutch tourists or if a lockdown or curfew is imposed in your holiday country. With most hotel comparison sites you can easily see what the cancellation conditions are. Sometimes the same hotel room has two different rates: one where you lose your money and one where you can cancel for free up to 24 hours before arrival. Such a room is often a bit more expensive. Many sites even allow you to search for hotel rooms that are free to cancel. For example, at Booking.com, put on the left Free cancellation a checkmark to show only rooms that can be canceled free of charge. Please read the exact conditions of the cancellation. Sometimes you can cancel for free until the day of departure, sometimes you only get a percentage of your amount back and sometimes you get the cost of the room back, but not the administration costs of the comparison site.
Cancellation insurance
You can often cancel hotel rooms, but this is a different case with airline tickets. With cancellation insurance from a reputable provider, you can sometimes get your money back through the insurance. What exactly is reimbursed depends on the policy. So read this carefully! These insurance policies often also have conditions, such as a maximum reimbursement. Please note, because cancellations due to corona are usually not included in the cancellation insurance.
Tip 06: Book everything online
Do you want to save money? Then arrange everything online. So you can easily book your flight and hotel online, but all the extras are also much cheaper if you book it in advance via the internet. Think of a rental car or, for example, extra luggage.
For rental cars it is advisable to book an insurance policy without deductible. In most cases this costs a few tens more, but there are many cases of rental companies that are difficult about scratches or dents after returning. And it is often difficult to prove afterwards that you are not responsible for that damage, especially if you do not speak the language.
In some cases, the insurance is even cheaper online than when you book it at the counter upon arrival. This is especially true if you want to take extra baggage on a flight. Always book this online, because the prices you have to pay at the airport are exorbitant. In addition, follow the rules that apply to your luggage. At budget airlines such as Ryanair, easyJet, Wizz Air or Vueling, the desk staff is often relentless if your hand luggage is just a bit too large or if your suitcase to be checked in weighs a kilo too much.
