Please sign in to post.

Is it Just Me - Last Minute Travel

I’m not sure where to put this, so hopefully this is ok.

I’m headed to Scotland next week and everything is booked in terms of accommodation and has been for several months.

I’m noticing on a Facebook page I follow, the large number of people travelling this month that are still looking for accommodation. This isn’t even for one person, a lot of the requests are for multiple nights for large or multiple families?

Maybe it’s just me, but I couldn’t imagine travelling to a foreign country and not having accommodation sorted well in advance, especially in rural places where there isn’t a ton of accommodation to start with.

To me, unless your in a big city, the days of rocking up and expecting a room the day of don’t exist anymore. I could be wrong though. Any thoughts?

Posted by
6357 posts

In the last year, I've visited Hawaii, New Zealand, and Belgium, Netherlands, Mosel Germany and Northern France. I'm now planning for Venice and Northeastern Italy for this fall. With the exception of Mosel and Northern France, I would not even set foot in those areas without accommodations booked in advance. Maui is a little different this year with a fair amount of availability due to the Lahaina fire.

I'm hearing stories of entire cities/regions of New Zealand being sold out for certain months. Venice and Dolomite properties were a bit of a struggle to find places five months in advance! For the Netherlands and Belgium, places in our budget tended to book quite early.

Posted by
121 posts

I wonder if it's people who have booked something, but they aren't satisfied either with the price or the place itself and they are desperately looking for something else last minute? For a long time, my method was to book something early and then keep checking back periodically to see if I could find something better or at a better price. Typically, there used to be good deals last minute and I could cancel my previous reservation for the better deal. These days, it doesn't seem to work that way anymore. Things just get more and more expensive the closer you get or even totally booked up. No more last-minute deals like in the past.

Posted by
1900 posts

It's sad but true. My first independent (non-tour) trip to Europe, in 1990, I stopped in at the TI in each place I wanted to spend the night, and they assisted me in booking lodging for that night. That was a car tour around Normandy and Brittany.

Those days are long gone. I even doubt that most TIs offer that service anymore. The internet has made it easy to book your own lodging in advance, and the explosion of tourism has meant that it's going to be very slim pickings if you wait until the last minute.

Trains, too, can get fully booked if you don't have an advance ticket/seat reservation. In 2012 I made the mistake of waiting until the day of to buy a train ticket from Kalmar to Stockholm. The direct express train was completely booked. I had to take a local train that required a change.

I'd love to hear from people who have managed to travel spontaneously in recent years, booking accommodations and train tickets days in advance instead of weeks or months.

Posted by
4589 posts

Some people are not as organized(and OCD) as are many frequent posters on this forum. For example, I always start packing at least a month before my trip and plan my trips 9 mo in advance. I do recognize that I am a compulsive over-planner, but I seldom have difficulty booking the accommodations and tours I want. It does surprise me when people with specific, less common requirements(such as large groups, low budgets) wait to plan until a few months before their trip, but I suspect some of it is ignorance of the scarcity of things that fit their requirements.

Posted by
336 posts

I also wonder if it is people who got burned by cancellations when travel shutdown in 2020 and couldn’t recoup their money. So now they are afraid to book ahead.

I’m a terrible last minute packer, but flights and accommodation are always the first things I sort.

Posted by
748 posts

Because some people are planners and some aren't. I'm like Cala and plan transportation and lodging at least nine months in advance. I don't even travel for a long weekend without reserving lodging ahead of time. And we have spreadsheets detailing our daily itineraries. But that's because I'm a bit OCD and need to have a plan all laid out, but we don't schedule every minute of every day. We do leave time for just wandering.

Some posters have stated that they just got time freed up or they just need a quick getaway and that's why the last minute plans. But then there are others who are planning a graduation trip with the whole family of seven for June or July and they haven't made any plans because they are "overwhelmed". And they come to forums like this asking for help with planning an itinerary for them. "Tell me the MUST DOs in Paris/London/Iceland/Portugal."

Maybe there's still a need for travel agents or travel planners!

Posted by
7891 posts

Years and years ago, we occasionally only had some accommodations reserved before we left home (first and last places, at the very least), and booked other lodging on the fly. I think the last trip where we didn’t have everything completely reserved was in 2019, on Crete for two weeks, in late September/early October, kind-of off-season. And before that, it was northern Spain, in 2015.

Lodging for every other trip in the last nine years has been completely reserved well ahead of time, and mostly Airbnb, Vrbo, or Gites de France short-term rentals, often for a week at a time. It’s not only important for finding a room in a popular place, but for not paying huge amounts if there’s a place available, but the less expensive places are all booked.

Posted by
16168 posts

It really depends on where you are going and when.

I usually book no more than a month of two in advance because I never know more than that where I will be.

I've just finished booking this month and I'm now starting on next month. During busy times, I stick to larger cities with more options.

But I am finding prices higher and less choice of room types in certain areas.

Posted by
7832 posts

There are people like that who just don't plan ahead. I have several in my own family.

I was talking to my cousin once and reminding him of the time he was leaving for a 3-week Europe trip and 5 hours before he was to leave for the airport, he had not yet started packed. He laughed and said that's his motto—pack light and late. :-)

Posted by
14612 posts

I'll add that this is not just for European travel! I post frequently on the Yellowstone forum for Trip Advisor. While the traffic there has never recovered to pre-Covid posts there are a shocking number of posters who are just now looking at travel to National Parks for this summer, some with large groups. I'm amazed. They rarely come back to say what happened so I canonly assume they decided to travel elsewhere.

Posted by
4499 posts

My husband is a hotel concierge and he is amazed by those who want a
table for 8 at a popular restaurant a half hour before they want to
dine, or want a tour that leaves in the next hour, or want to change
to a different type of room, or want to be on the next cruise shuttle
and are surprised or even angered when these options are not
available.

I'd like to thank all the people who don't plan ahead, you make my life easier and allow me better choices for hotels and sites that I book months in advance.

However....for the first time, this Fall we're taking an extended trip with friends. We're planners and they're not. They thought we should meet in Portugal in September and figure out our itinerary and accommodation once we get there. How are these people my friends? He travels a lot for business around the world and is used to only booking flights and hotels a week ahead. We told them we couldn't roll that way and we booked our flights and hotels and let them know where and when to meet us. We'll let them be wild and crazy for a couple of days in Lisbon and they can choose what to do that morning.

Posted by
336 posts

“My husband is a hotel concierge and he is amazed by those who want a table for 8 at a popular restaurant a half hour before they want to dine, or want a tour that leaves in the next hour, or want to change to a different type of room, or want to be on the next cruise shuttle and are surprised or even angered when these options are not available.”

I blame this on the ability to order from a certain online company and get your order same day or the next. It creates a false impression that everything can be had or done at the drop of a hat. It isn’t realistic.

Posted by
4589 posts

"The idea that everything can be done at the drop of a hat" We also got our tickets to the GA-Clemson game 7 months in advance.

Posted by
848 posts

There's a difference between last-minute/spontaneous travel and travel preparation procrastination. A more useful thread might have explored the mechanics of spontaneous travel.

Posted by
27901 posts

I'm flying to Tirana, Albania, on Tuesday. I don't have a room reservation yet. In fact, my first reservation is for the night of August 22, when I'm meeting a friend in Milan. The last time I checked booking.com, early May in Tirana didn't look like a problem. I hope I don't get an unpleasant surprise when I get around to booking a room in the next few days. It's a good thing I didn't pre-book Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia like most folks would, because about a week ago I decided I wouldn't be ready to get on a plane on April 30 as originally scheduled, so I delayed my departure by a week. And I had no reservations to unravel! It was wonderful.

This does not mean I'm not a planner. I plan my sightseeing options very, very intensively. I'm low-maintenance where hotels are concerned, though price-sensitive, so hotel bookings are made farther ahead or less far ahead based on availability and price level. Rural Scotland (availability), Norway (cost), Italian lakes and Dolomites in season (both) are examples of places where I pin down hotel rooms many months ahead of time. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland (not Krakow or Gdansk) and this year's Balkan countries are examples of places where I'm willing to risk a bit of rate inflation in order to retain flexibility.

I find it very difficult to anticipate how many days I'll want to stay in cities of any significant size on a first visit, and I do not like being forced to move on with things unseen and undone. It gets a great deal easier when you're revisiting a place you've been before.

Posted by
14896 posts

It depends where. ....as regards to big cities travelling in the summer, I almost (99% ) always plan and reserve on accommodations and likewise with smaller towns. One reason is I'm picky.

In Germany especially in North Germany and in the eastern region, not travelled and swamped by foreign visitors, you stand a good chance of popping up and getting a room in a decent hotel and price as a walk-in. Numerous places like that fit the bill.

Last summer in Paris I did just that in my go to 2 star hotel. The owner knowing me all these years was surprised that I had not reserved. I told him I took a chance since his place always had room, which is also true.

Posted by
2465 posts

We are just back from a short 10 day trip to Italy.

We had booked train tickets to Florence, and 5 nights in an Airbnb in the old town two weeks before departure. The airbnb was in a great location, right in the middle of everything, so that we even returned if we needed a loo, or just to have an afternoon nap.

We had a great time in Firenze, but had not decided on what our next stop was going to be. So on the third day we checked the weather forecast and on a whim decided that next stop was going to be Elba. Booked train and ferry tickets and an airbnb for three nights there.

Then in Elba we decided to add in Genoa on the way back, because we had never been there. So got train ferry and train tickets for the trip back, an airbnb for two nights and train tickets back to Switzerland...

So yes, last minute works just fine for us.

Posted by
2602 posts

I think a lot depends on the destination, although so many places do tend to book out far in advance now.

For instance, Iceland tends to book about 9-12 months in advance. Last year by March, the entire south coast was completely sold out for the summer months. Nothing, nut just leftovers, but nothing was available. It is shaping up to be the same way this summer.

We know better since we go there often, but I had a trip come up on a whim for late September. We booked our flights on March 28, and then started in for hotels. There was very little availability, even for 5 1/2 months in advance. I cannot imagine trying to find anything now!

I see many people trying to plan a trip like this for in a few weeks or a month and they are surprised that they can't find anything.

Posted by
1945 posts

OP I like nothing more in Europe than loading my luggage on my bicycle, starting to pedal some interesting direction, and not picking a place to stay until late afternoon.

What's the worst that could happen? Pull an all nighter outside I guess? I've never even come close to having this problem, but I wouldn't die.

And if you're traveling in more normal ways, it's easy enough to just get on the next train go somewhere else.

I have nothing in the least against planning! But the reasons I plan are not for fear of what would happen if I didn't :)

Posted by
349 posts

We are headed for Tuscany for part of September and all of October. We have flights, start hotel and a B&B in Cinque terre. Looking at Siena right now but letting my credit card recover. The rest of the trip will be on the fly. We had to do this unexpectantly in 2021 as we were preparing to go from London to Paris. France shut the door to England (Covid) and we had to rebook the rest of the trip. It took me a few days to adjust but we really feel like this is our travel style.

We did the same the next year in France (Paris/Strasbourg) and it was great. We were drinking a local wine in our hotel in Strasbourg. As I do I looked it up. It was nearby so we extended our stay & went to visit the tasting room & talked with the 10th generation owner. Earlier on that trip we booked a rooftop Air BnB in a small town outside Paris. No real tourist activities. After we went to a local farmers market we picked up some treats. we ate them in the little square. The words I love these croissants came out of my mouth...then I looked across the street to a boulangerie with national awards plastered on the building.

We would not have picked that town if we were at home in the states. Now I want to go back there!