TRAVEL agents keen to package up holiday components for holidaymakers for next summer are discovering there is a dearth of accommodation.
They claim they are able to organise flights, car hire, insurance and other ancillary items, but there are not enough properties available on accommodation websites to meet customers’ demands.
The move comes as agents increasingly put holidays together themselves – called dynamic packaging in the trade.
Kinver Travel owner Sue Foxall said many suppliers have told her not to expect large amounts of room stock until next month, and she claims agents and suppliers are losing bookings because of the problem.
She said: “This is where dynamic packaging is falling down – we are beginning to see the limitations of it.”
Midconsort chief executive Charles Eftichiou blamed the accommodation-only websites for not securing long-term deals with hoteliers, adding: “Hoteliers should look at two-year contracts but they are reluctant to do so because they are trying to manage the market and their yield.
Some brokers are not organised enough, as it’s a free and unlicensed area.”
Hotels4U.com sales and marketing director John Harding said hoteliers are playing a waiting game.
He is attempting to overcome the problem by having a “token number of hotels” bookable in all resorts for the next year. Prices are set at 5% ahead of the existing year.
Apartmentsabroad.com managing director Ian Thirlwall said the company has 20,000 properties on offer this summer, but just 1,000 are currently on the site for next summer.
Some contracts won’t be signed until World Travel Market, he admitted.
He blamed hoteliers for waiting too long to set next year’s prices but added agents should book each component of a dynamic package as it becomes available at the best price, rather than doing it in one go.
Thirlwall said: “Agents have got to decide if they’re servicing the customer or sorting out their own needs by going for the highest value booking.”