I’m sure you have seen advertisements or received emails about so called last-minute travel deals and they often seem too good to be true. So what are these and are they real?

When a hotel’s near-term occupancy rates are low, or that flight taking off in a few days has empty seats, these businesses will lose potential money if that vacancy is never filed. The business will marginally make more money by filling the occupancies at deep discounts rather than having a vacant room or empty seat. These last minute deals generally occur from 3 weeks to 3 hours before the intended travel.

Hotels, flights and rental cars are often packages together in some combination at the last-minute to make the deal sweeter. If the hotel, airline and the car rental companies partner together and offer you a better package, those empty cars and hotel rooms fill and the flight gets fully booked. Everybody benefits. Package prices generally include all applicable taxes and fees but do not include gratuities, hotel parking fees, telephone fees, room service and other typical resort charges.

Last minute travel deals are generally paperless. Airline E-tickets are generated and the hotels are notified electronically with the reservation information. It is up to you to keep all your confirmation numbers and bring them with you when you travel. Last-minute deals that include flights are generally eligible for earning frequent flyer mile credit but can’t be purchased by redeeming existing miles. Also your seat assignment is usually not reserved at the time of purchase. It is up to you to contact the airline with your confirmation information and reserve a seat through them. Same with special airline meal requests.

Many of the deals offered are for weekend getaways or longer weekend trips and may require a Saturday night stay over. Week-long travel may often be from a Wednesday to a Wednesday. Las Vegas is one of the exceptions with daily travel and generally no Saturday night stay over.

These deals sell out fast and availability changes all the time. You need to move quickly and book something you like when you first see it. Also, all purchases are generally final. You can’t change your travel itinerary after the package is purchased. Many of these travel deals must be purchased online.

If you are interested in taking advantage of last-minute travel deals find a good travel website that offers last-minute travel packages and visit it regularly or get on their deals alert mailers if they offer them. If you know where you want to go, search by destination. Peter Diaz, President and CEO of VoyageMonkey.com Online Travel says “These deals are excellent for the person our couple that has a flexible schedule and knows exactly where they want to go but the exact date or time is not crucial to their travel plans. On the flip side, somebody with exact desired travel dates but no particular destination in mind could do a search by date and departure city and see what last-minute travel packages are available. By staying flexible you can save up to 70% or more. The cruise industry often puts together last-minute travel deals offering savings of up to 80% on unsold staterooms.”

If you are a true bargain hunter and want to take advantage of last-minute travel opportunities, then stay flexible, monitor your favorite last-minute travel website, and get on the websites travel deals email list. You will be taking exotic vacations at a fraction of the cost. Learn more about booking last-minute travel deals at VoyageMonkey.com

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Peter B. Diaz is President and CEO of VoyageMonkey.com Online Travel - VoyageMonkey provides unique travel articles and online travel booking for cruises, hotels, flights, vacation packages and more.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

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