Next time, book ahead

Surprisingly, Las Vegas isn’t the only place where you can find people willing to play high stakes poker. Viator recently asked 2,500 travelers if they’d ever been disappointed on a trip by finding something they wanted to do was sold out or unavailable when they needed it.

One-third of them said “yes,” which meant they had to change their plans on the fly – something that isn’t always easy to do in an unfamiliar city where the locals may, or may not, speak the same language as you.

The lesson here? Don’t gamble with your trip.

Planning your trip activities before you leave home can save time, money and… headaches.

Now that Memorial Day has come and gone in the USA, summer travel season is in full swing. Whether staying near home or traveling abroad, travelers should expect crowded and oversold planes, limited hotel capacity and more people on the roads. This also means more people will be booking activities, events and tours in advance so we suggest you plan ahead and book the things you want to do early – preferably before you leave.

Since it’s what we do, it’s no surprise Viator has been monitoring traveler behavior around booking trip activities for years. In my recent travels, I’ve been having discussions with local tour operators on different continents who’ve shared how the internet has increased advance bookings and squeezed some availability for walk-up sales.

We decided to look a bit closer than our customer surveys and conversations with operators by commissioning two surveys – one for each of these segments. In short, we found what we’ve anecdotally known: more travelers are booking activities in advance than recent years and this has, in turn, limited capacity of many attractions. What we didn’t expect was just how many travelers have been shut out of doing what they wanted while on vacation. Some survey highlights (click here for full press release):

Tour operators are seeing more advance bookings, limiting on-site availability

• About 50% of tour operators said advance bookings have increased during the last year
• 3 in 4 tour operators (77%) said advance bookings has limited walk-up availability

More travelers are booking in advance as 2 in 5 say they’ve found “sell outs” while on vacation

• One-third (33%) of travelers say they are “more likely” to book trip activities in advance than they were three years ago
• More than one-third of vacation travelers (39%) say they have tried to purchase tickets for a local activity but were forced to change their plans or skip the activity because it was sold out on the day/time they wanted to go
• Those once burned have learned a lesson: Of those travelers who previously missed out, 42% are now more likely to book their trip activities in advance of travel, more so than those who haven’t experienced the same disappointment (25%).

Saving time (54%) and money (54%) tied for the most important reasons for booking in advance. Other reasons cited by travelers for planning ahead were:

• To budget accordingly (52%)
• To not miss out on interesting activities they may otherwise not find out about at the destination (48%)
• To know their itinerary before they go (46%)
• To avoid waiting in line (45%)

At Viator, we’re all travelers and understand the significant investments made in vacations. Why gamble on missing the activities you want to experience at a destination? It’s simply not worth it.

Setting aside some time to research and plan before you leave home can help save valuable vacation time since you won’t have to do the research while on vacation or wait in line to buy tickets. What sells out fast, has limited availability or long lines if you wait until you arrive to book? Lots of things, including iconic, “must-see” activities like:

• Helicopter tours in general, but especially helicopter tours in New York and Las Vegas helicopter tours
  
• Anything to do with the Moulin Rouge in Paris
• The British Airways London Eye
• Viewing Da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ in Milan
• Vatican and Sistine Chapel Tours in Rome

Researching before you depart can also help you uncover interesting things to do on your trip you might not otherwise know about. And, don’t forget the strain on your wallet as experts predict more crowds and higher prices this season. In advance, you can easily comparison shop online and get the benefit of Viator’s low-price guarantee.

Have you ever experienced “vacation disappointus?” Sold-out events or activities? Long, seemingly endless lines? Share the tale with your fellow travelers.

–Rod Cuthbert

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 10:07 am and is filed under Departure Lounge, Destinations, Musings from Viator's Founder, News & Alerts, Press & Publicity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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