There are lots of ways which could save you money on your vacation. These ones however have been tried and tested and they work great. If not all, you could use a few depending on your vacation's demands.
Avoid time share holidays
By 'Time share', I mean any lifetime/annual holiday membership options. There are many players currently in the market selling those. Mahindra Holidays, Country Club to name a few. Never sign up for any of these. More often than not, its money down the drain. Allow me to explain.You will never get bookings when you need. If there is a long weekend coming up, or if its a holiday season in general, most likely the accommodations are already booked out. So, unless you plan way ahead in advance, you can never really get accommodation in the location of your choice. Their front end office will instead direct you to other locations which you were never interested in anyway. But since you've already paid up, you'll most like end up going to a place you never intended to.
The little known secret is that all their locations are let out in retail anyway to even non-members, and at a pricing which may stump you. Besides, paying up for a lifetime membership would mean you'd always prefer to stick to the same chain. The most delightful entity of travel is spontaneity and exploration. By signing up for packages, you are stifling both.
Never book accommodation online
All travel booking websites work on commissions. They demand anything from 10% to 15% as commission charges from providers. So out of every 100 Rs you spend, around 10 to 15 goes towards commissions. Hotels would be more than happy to directly pass you that part of the discount. Large chains actually prefer a direct connection to the customer. So, the best thing you could do is look up the hotel you were intending to book and pick up the phone. But, just asking for 10 to 15% discount isn't nearly enough.Bargaining
The most immutable law of saving money. In the service industry particularly, there are no fixed prices. There is no minima and no maxima. Providers would prefer passing you a decent discount rather than have the rooms empty. It adds to the daily turnover after all. So, if on a longer vacation, spend considerable time on the phone talking to various hotel chains. Mention clearly that you don't intend to haggle too much, but if they pass you an attractive rate, you'll just finalize the deal immediately instead of checking on other options first. It depends on the season, but you could 7 out of 10 times, walk away with almost 30% discount. Remember, everyone in India bargains. You just need the adapt the tone of your bargain depending on where you are.Hub-hop
If you are planning to be really frugal, here's another neat way. Often, airline pricing across two cities depends on the volume. Flying to a closer, but larger hub like a metro is much cheaper. So book flights until the last possible large hub and then arrange transport locally. It could be a train or a taxi. But this often works out cheaper. If its just an overnight journey and a vacation spanning 4-5 days, just book a train all the way through. Indian train journeys are fun. Especially when travelling with friends and family.Off peak fun
Say you landed up on a beach in Goa and wanted to have some water-based adventures. Picking slots around the peak time would mean two things.
- You can't bargain much. The vendor is busy and he has loads of other non-bargaining customers stacked up. Your skills are of no interest to him. Even if he is interested, he cannot possibly pass you a discount in front of a crowd. Since if someone else pays attention, it'll cut his margins all through that crowd.
- If you succeed, you'll get less Assuming you did manage to bring the price down, be prepared to get less. Say you bargained for a speed-boat ride. So instead of taking you around 2 KMS into the sea, he'll just take you half way across and back. This mostly happens when the business itself is run by a small closed group of 3-4. They signal each other to pass information on what you should get.
So, drop in at an off peak time, and talk. Preferably alone. Most beach side sport operators start at 7:30 AM for example and they'd be happy to pass you a better bang for your buck that early.
Group buy
This works for anything. Be it airline tickets or hotel accommodations or other services. A recent example is of a friend who when suggested, did bargain for a group and ended up securing accommodation in a resort which would usually cost around 13,000 Rs per night at a high end hotel chain, for 7000 Rs. on a booking of 8 rooms. Hotels always look for these deals from their consumers and its extremely fair if you both win. Airlines do this too. So, the next time 10 of your friends from the same city decide to show up at the same place for an event, like your wedding perhaps, ask them to sync up. The power is in the numbers.