Pricing inbound holidays for 2023 is proving difficult with suppliers reluctant to commit to prices far in advance amid rapidly rising costs.
The head of one tour operator highlighted the problem, saying: “We do a lot with the US market, so we’re smiling with the exchange rate, but we have hotels that won’t quote for us for the end of next year. They’re working just 12 months ahead.”
She said: “Hotels don’t want to commit to pricing because they don’t know what their energy costs will be.”
The head of a destination management company agreed, arguing: “We’re closing quotes now for 2023 and my base price for quoting is made up because I don’t know the price of hotels, I don’t know the price of guides, and it could be a margin catastrophe.
“We’ve lots of data but it’s no good in this situation. I’m having calls with major clients saying, ‘This is the price, it might go up, it might go down, and if you don’t like it, you can go elsewhere.’”
He said: “There is a fear of missing out. But each of us has to decide what we’re prepared to work for.”
The head of a destination management organisation reported: “A lot of enquiries are coming through for 2024 and 2025 for meetings and events and we’ve had to tell hoteliers, ‘Come up with a price or we don’t quote, we don’t bid and that business doesn’t come in.’”
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