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Post by cariad23 on Mar 1, 2021 10:45:11 GMT
when i booked last may , i did it because everywhere was getting booked up people transferring bookings from 2020 to 2021.
If i book early i expect to get best deals and a guarantee of lowest price or an ammended booking price.
The price when we booked was £729 most prices were £700-£900.
Today i checked prices villa maria now £584 £145 each cheaper. Thats £290 cheaper i think thats a cheek, oasis now available at £698 was over £900 at the time, a place we have been to twice and love.
It now mentions on website you can buy a covid self test kit for £70 if they are needed,. and you may need to self isolate or quarantine.
Anyone think this pricing is unreasonable
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Post by balddave on Mar 1, 2021 10:53:24 GMT
Those prices including accommodation are on par with flight only option, it really doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.
It again raises the discussion as to book early or last minute, my personal option is early to secure dates/accommodation I prefer.
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Post by cariad23 on Mar 1, 2021 11:20:54 GMT
ive always got good prices booking early. i looked up flight only at the time it was over £1100 because we wanted to go to angeliki,
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Post by bvrc on Mar 1, 2021 16:20:16 GMT
I’m a last minute person, every holiday I’ve ever been on, bar about 2, have been booked less than 3 weeks in advance - I usually plan them around work and it’s easier to leave til the last minute, and for the most part we are flexible on accommodation, swapping and changing resorts to give us a different feel for the island. Every time we’ve got good deals, some very pricey accommodations coming in at reasonable costs. I know it’s not feasible for everyone to leave booking til the last minute and certainly if you really want a certain accommodation it would be unwise to do so, but since I’ve always had a good result from ‘last minute’ finds, it’s all we do now - we might say to each other early in the year that late August/early September is around about the time we’d like to go, but nothing is booked until about 2nd week of August - we browse & keep an eye out from maybe July, but that’s more getting us in the Skiathos mood than wanting to book.
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Post by dennisn on Mar 1, 2021 20:06:04 GMT
Cariad, you're booked into Villa Maria a week before us, so I've looked at our date (only one room left - of course!!) and it's £60 each cheaper now. But that's on the prices we booked in about March 2019.
I'm not sure how accurate my first price is as we've mucked about with things and it includes two discounts. But it does indeed look as though this year's price is cheaper than we are paying (correction have already paid!).
Thinking back many years (BV, before Vera), I used to book flight only to Samos. In those days, Thomsons weren't allowed to do flight only, they had to provide accommodation. So they did, but in very large print said they had to do it, but the accommodation would be whatever was available and could be very basic, e.g. dormitories, camping etc. I always took a copy of the brochure containing that statement, because on arrival, the local rep said 'you're flight only so you're getting your own accommodation aren't you'. To which I responded No, I'm taking your accommodation. Then we had the discussion about who was right and eventually the rep directed me to one of their local spare properties. Because they were in a state finding somewhere, it normally turned out to be one of the unbooked places at the higher price end of their brochure. (When I was still a family, we ended up in Sicily in a beachfront villa, two bedrooms, bathroom, sitting room, kitchen, gert big fridge/freezer, cooker, doorbell, phone, telly, the beach was at the bottom of the two steps down from the front door, sea ten paces away.) Never did see any dormitories or camping. In Samos I used to ask if there was a room at the particular place I wanted to stay and there always was.
I've just looked at your week and it's now £619 (again, only one left!!). Looks like the good old algorhythm at work. Maybe it will look different again if somebody else looks it up.
I'm afraid I don't know about reasonable pricing - I have never been in a position to shop around for Skiathos except for the first time we went, when we chose Villa Maria on two criteria - pool and small number of rooms (16). We were in our opinion, incredibly lucky to pick the right one, so there's no shopping around ever since. We have always booked long in advance - as soon as TUI release the next year, I'm in and booking. Strangely enough though perhaps, I haven't yet done so for 2022 - dammit, we still have our bookings for this year, complete with the Euros we bought back in 2019 for those bookings (we already had our Euros for the 2019 bookings). I don't want to book for 2022 until we've got the go ahead for 2021.
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Post by cariad23 on Mar 2, 2021 15:57:11 GMT
After a long and hard think, and after telling our friends in Luton they told us they had booked troulos to surprise us arriving 23rd june and staying at the astoria.
So after looking at the astoria location as we will probably spending most evenings with them. ( we met in India 11 years ago and have spent several holidays together and visits to each others homes)
The Astoria when we booked was over £1000 £1100 i think its now £767 and has breakfast included. So i went on line and ammended our booking to the astoria which i think is better value for the money. Its free to change dates or accommodation at the moment.
But you wont escape that easily Dennis we will definitely come and meet you at villa maria and have some drinks together, maybe even share some early swims as we wake silly early.
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Post by kevb on Mar 2, 2021 21:19:40 GMT
I've decided not to check mine in case it's gone down though to be honest Loveholidays always seem good value which suggests they operate on fairly fine margins and probably can't afford to go much lower. I was fairly happy with whatever I paid or I wouldn't have booked it. The next mission is timing buying more Euros at a decent rate!
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Post by dennisn on Mar 2, 2021 21:38:44 GMT
Cariad, we walk past the Astoria each morning to the beach for our dawn swim. I think most days we pass just as the first Astoria clients are looking for their breakfasts. If you do long lingering breakfasts, you’re bound to see us one day, to or from the beach.
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Post by *Di* on Mar 3, 2021 10:36:34 GMT
We decided as we dont want to travel abroad even if allowed this summer instead of just cancelling this years booking for June, amend it to next year carrying the deposit over and actually travelling a couple of weeks earlier to my surprise it was considerably cheaper than this years booking which was booked LAST July/August time.. and hopefully better flight times than the changed ones of this years holiday.. A lot depends though on whether we book Australia too as that hangs in the balance too for Lord knows how long? 🙂
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Post by *Di* on Mar 3, 2021 10:38:52 GMT
AND I was on the phone sooo long waiting to see if we could change to next year I decided to use my app whilst waiting for someone to answer the phone I did it all via manage my booking! Just like that and confirmation email within half hour. 👍🏻
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Post by cariad23 on Mar 3, 2021 12:02:25 GMT
I did it on manage my booking too, all done in 5 mins.that’s why I prefer to book online easier to check things. I think last summer they added £200 to all prices then offered £200 discount if you rebooked for next year meaning if you had no previous booking you missed out. They didn’t want to refund all those deposits and full payments
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Post by cariad23 on Mar 7, 2021 10:32:50 GMT
Theyve reduced prices another £20, totally unfair policies penalising early bookers, next years prices high too. Hopefully i wont be working next summer, and can book last minute i have to give a minimum of 6 weeks notice.
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