Group Holidays

Firstly you should consider if you do really all want to spend a week together. If one or more of your group isn’t likely to stay positive throughout the trip, it may be worth politely dissuading them from participation, rather than allowing them to ruin the holiday for everyone.

Secondly you need to think about just how big you want your group to be. Unless you are just self selecting friends it can be that an advertisement at a work place or club generates dozens of potential group members. The discounts typically begin in low season for parties with at least eight + members. We then operate a scale with savings that can be as good as the equivalent of one-in-every-four people in the group travelling free when a large group travels low season.

Group Leader

You should also consider who is to be the group leader, usually having a couple of people drive through decisions that need to be taken, collect in money due for the holiday from all participants and so on, works well. But the leader(s) need to be smart, trustworthy, efficient and reliable. Next consider what kind of a group trip this is? Do you plan to all be together every day and party together every night? Or will you act as if you are a collection of separate holiday makers who just happen to be on the same plane and in the same resort together? Either approach can work, but it’s good to be clear from the start what members of the group can expect, and to let them know how they are expected to participate, or not.

Resort

Another point to think about is the actual resort or destination. Although many groups contain people of a similar outlook, having a common theme or reason for the trip – such as a shared Hobby such as Golf , there’s no reason why groups shouldn’t have mixed ages of participants. But if groups contain mixed ages or expectations, it is important to ensure nobody gets a raw deal. Choose the resort carefully and this is where we can help – Choose a resort with good facilities for everyone in the Group. In fact perhaps half of all resorts we feature meet these diverse needs, so it isn’t a great problem, just something to be careful about.

Holiday Dates

A final point on groups make up is that you need to decide how flexible everyone is on the date you want to travel. The more flexible the better for maximum discounts (see below), but it may be that some group members have restrictions on when they can travel, and it may be a juggling act and, in some cases, impossible to accommodate everyone’s preferred dates, in which case a decision has to be made that favours the majority.

For this reason, to allow group members to budget as painlessly as possible and to maximise what we have available for your group, the sooner you get organised the better. Many operators now publish their brochures at the start of the preceding Holiday season, so you can plan and book as much as 16 months ahead in some cases. But first things first; once you’ve got your group right, it’s time to think about when to go? Groups can travel any time, just like other Holiday makers, but if you’re trying to keep costs down you’ll find the biggest discounts for groups are usually offered in the lowest season, when you might get two free places for every 12 people booking if you travel before Christmas week or avoid the Peak School Holiday Travel dates such as Easter and the Half Term breaks in October and February.

Destination

Of course, if you travel at the low season periods the weather can be a factor and perhaps some facilities in resort are closed too, so you need to decide as a group if that’s a risk you’re prepared to take for maximum savings. If you decide it is, the best thing to do is look for the destination or area that meets your criteria, depending on your group make up.

Outside these ‘cheapest’ times, you are likely to get still quite good discounts through most of January (after New Year’s week) and the last week of February and first half of March. Christmas, New Year and Easter – all busy times in fact, simply means that group discounts are there to be had, but they’ll be less generous. The worst time of the year to get a good saving is February, the schools’ half-term holiday period. Or Late July & August.

BORN2Travel Top 10 Resorts and Destinations

Top 10 group Holiday resorts

• Paris , France
• Palma , Majorca
• London, England
• Barcelona, Spain
• St Anton , Austria Skiing
• Disneyland Paris, France
• Amsterdam, Holland
• Berlin, Germany
• Corfu Crete or Greek Islands, Greece
• Rome, Italy

Types of Accomodation

In terms of accommodation the best group discounts are usually offered when you fill an apartment, apartments also offer good value, hotel discounts are generally the least generous.

Discounts offered by Born2Travel usually take the form of a number of free places (the number increasing depending on the number in the group) and you can choose to share the savings on the free places as a discount for all in the group.

On holidays to North America the savings are more commonly provided as a percentage discount on the overall group booking cost, so that’s another way to do it.

Sometimes we may be able to offer the option to change names of group members on your booking up to 6 weeks before departure (useful if anyone needs to drop out – but it’s also wise to get insurance organised for all as soon as you book, to cover cancellations at short notice).

Solo Travellers

We can arrange for solo travellers to join Group Trips And walking or Trekking Group Holidays are becoming more popular to places such as Limone in Italy & Grindelwald in Switzerland group trips are perfectly suited to those of you travelling solo,

BORN2Travel The Group Holiday Specialists

Call Mike our dedicated group specialist to discuss any of the above points with him, and he may find you a better deal than you expected was available.

Born2Travel will ensure the whole process goes smoothly and we can also be flexible on how your group discount is delivered – offering things like free Excursions or private transfers instead of, or as part of, your savings.

We can also offer great rates on Airport Car Parking or Pre-Departure Hotels and Pre-Booked excursions in most resorts and also recommend visits to local attractions.

To arrange your group quote now, please complete our booking enquiry form or call Mike on 01723 671592 OR email travel@born2travel.co.uk