Ann Wason Moore shares simple trick to saving when booking holidays

Forget about how many shopping days until Christmas, it’s time to start saving for summer holidays … and it might not be as tough as you think

While debate rages over whether it’s still too early for Christmas decorations (it’s not), it’s never too soon to start planning your summer break.

And this year, Santa has come early if you’re looking for a holiday hack.

You would think that living in Australia’s favourite vacation destination, Gold Coast residents would know all the best travel secrets, but boy are we missing a trick – and no, I don’t just mean holidaying at home.

Despite the cost of living crisis, the one thing Aussies refuse to cut back on is their holiday budget. Data from the Australia Bureau of Statistics showed that even though household spending growth slowed in the first quarter of the year, we’re spending more than ever on our travel budgets.

But guys, we can do so much better.

Look, I consider myself a pretty savvy traveller, I have alerts set for airfare sales, I’m a member of far too many loyalty clubs and I will eat off the children’s menu if I can get away with it.

Gold Coast Airport. Photo Scott Powick Newscorp

But one little trick saved me over $1000 on a six-night trip I booked last week.

Among all the argy-bargy about Airbnb – whether we need a crackdown to open up more housing, whether it’s costing our traditional tourism operators too much – there’s one key argument we might have missed: does it really offer the best deal?

Remember when booking platforms first came out and it was amazing to finally compare prices? That was great then, but now it’s made us lazy – and that is costing big money.

I’ve long compared direct booking prices versus booking platform prices for hotels, given hotels often mark up prices 10 to 25 per cent on booking engine websites, but I never thought to do so with holiday homes … until this week.

Trying to find better images of a certain home we were looking at booking with another family over Easter (like I said, never too early to plan a holiday), I discovered a ‘secret’ deal.

Almost every home listed on these sites will have its own site, and if you deal with the owner or local manager directly, it will save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

And don’t worry, the only business I’m ‘ripping off’ is the international booking conglomerate.

Gold Coast. Picture: Stephen Brookes

The accommodation provider was delighted, I was delighted, my bank account was delighted.

So go ahead and do your homework on these sites, let their algorithm be your research … and then use your phone the old-fashioned way and dial some numbers.

We did the same thing for a loan staycation as well, securing a central Broadbeach unit for friends for far less by booking directly rather than paying hundreds of dollars in fees to an overseas corporation.

But wait, there’s more.

That’s the holiday hack to save money, but there’s also a way to save time. And, once again, it’s all about forward planning.

By strategically booking leave around key public holidays, you can really maximise your time off.

Research from Corporate Traveller, a division of Flight Centre Travel Group, shows that you can ease into 2025 with a 16-day Christmas break between December 21 and January 6, by combining seven days of annual leave with the public holidays of December 25, December 26 and January 1.

And it only gets better in 2025.

By adding just seven days of annual leave, from April 14-17 and 22-24, employees can enjoy a 16-day break from April 12 to 27, thanks to Easter and Anzac Day public holidays.

The only problem is making sure you book all your festive holidays before your colleagues.

But there’s a simple solution … just get ahead of the game and be your own secret Santa.

Originally published as Ann Wason Moore shares simple trick to saving when booking holidays