When do you start planning your vacation?

[hammerfist]

We are helping my parents plan a family vacation for spring break next year. I'm looking for homes on AirBNB and not finding a ton in our budget. Is it too early to start looking for rentals? How far in advance do you book your vacations?

[waverly]

So typically for Spring Break in Florida we would look the end of the summer/ September. A year out might be a little too far out if you aren’t seeing inventory.

[eb777888]

I like to always have a vacation in the works. When we got back from our spring break trip last month, we came home and immediately started planning our summer vacation. So, that’s four months in advance. Other than that, I’d say typically we book six months out at most, usually between four and six months.

[maudefindlay]

Some places in FL start being booked up a year in advance. One place we've gone to people try to get the same rental for spring break each year, so they go on their trip and book it for next year while there.

[ssmjlm]

It depends on the area, some places are a year out if it's highly desirable.

We're usually a 9m to a year on reserving a big vacation like a cruise or Universal.

Weekend trips, maybe a few months depending. I had to book our Feb mountain weekend in summer because it's a busy weekend and pet friendly rentals book up.

[basilosaurus]

lolol. You don't want to ask my advice. So many of my trips have been planned within 2 weeks due to job restrictions. And, even then, I certainly don't have the entire trip planned before getting on a plane. But I always have rough sketches in my head, sometimes for years.

But, I'm fine staying in a dorm hostel. There's nearly always a room or a bed somewhere. Occasionaly my first choice isn't available, but something comparable is. I prefer that flexibility.

For a big family trip that involved grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, my travel agent mom would usually focus on getting details nailed down about 6 months ahead. There were lots of cruises which is good for varied room styles, and we usually could depart from a near taxi ride to a port. We've also done condos within near distance of each other to allow for privacy and different travel prefereneces.

[wildrice]

I am usually in the 6-9 month range. I would think a year would be a little far for a lot of Airbnb type places because they may not have their own plans figured out yet so don't want to commit to having guests stay there yet.

I am just starting to consider our trip Thanksgiving week.

[steamboat185]

If you need a larger rental I’d start looking soon. I know in some vacation hot spots they offer first refusal to the guests that booked the house the year before. When those guests wave their week it becomes available, but they typically go pretty fast.

For normal vacations we typically book lodging 6-9 months out, but can get by with a smaller rental.

[rubytue]

I remember in my 20s and early 30s, it was about 3-4 months. And then I look at now and it’s 9-12 months (sometimes a bit longer, I’m looking at you Yellowstone which has been in the works for 5 years). My ILs want us to come this summer, and despite me begging H for dates for 2 months, they finally gave them. It’s 4 months out and doesn’t work for me. So yeah… I guess this is why it has to be so far off. We booked Christmas back in January.

[redheadk]

It really depends on the location and group size for us. We are planning a trip to Kauai with a group of friends in summer 2024. We will start looking soon for accommodations; it’s an in-demand location and finding a rental that fits our needs but isn’t $1000+/night means starting soon since they book up well in advance. There are some destinations that just require a year or more in advance because of demand.

For an average vacation, I probably book 4-5 months out. I find that normally gives us a good selection of places in our price range. Any closer and the options become limited.

[CurlyQ284]

Is it a touristy spot? Maybe check local vacation rental companies (not AirBnB and VRBO). When I was a kid my mom would get catalogs from Sun Realty at the Outer Banks, and they would reserve a house a year out and that was back in the 90s.

[shauni27]

fun planning I start like a year in advance. For example, I know NEXT April I would like to go to somewhere in the Caribbean and might be willing to do a family friendly AI, but that is it.

Realistic planning a few months out. We leave for PR in 3 days, we booked the house about 5 months ago, the flights and rental cars a month ago and our boat tours and entry tickets into El Yunque like 2 weeks ago.

We will book our summer getaways (2 smaller ones, both within 2 hours) as it gets closer. One in June can be a last minute hotel purchase, the one in August might be a rental property so we will book that in June most likely. We are really "last minute" with these things, lol.

[hammerfist]

Thanks everyone! I think our budget per night is a little low and that could be why we are seeing limited inventory. We are looking at popular destinations in Mexico (and considering Guatemala) so that's why I've already started looking. 

[sonrisa]

Apr 4, 2023 9:55:12 GMT -5 hammerfist said:

Thanks everyone! I think our budget per night is a little low and that could be why we are seeing limited inventory. We are looking at popular destinations in Mexico (and considering Guatemala) so that's why I've already started looking. 

That should be plenty of time for Guatemala. I was considering that for spring break as recently as last month and found good prices for the places we like to stay. I didn't book because of political considerations. But I still see a ton or options for August, which is the next time we are considering (with a few days in Panama  since Copa let's you add without adding cost). 

(As that suggests, I don't plan vacations a year in advance. 3 months is a lot of lead time for me. Many of our trips are booked on much shorter notice, Often under a month. But as a kid and adult, I've moved internationally four times with less than a month's notice so I'm used to quick planning). 

[Roc A Bee]

I just booked our hotel for June. We are driving and not too picky on hotels in a touristy area.

For flying, 4-6 months out. I’m starting to look at Mexico City in December. I’ll probably book in June.

[meanie]

Up here rental houses book over a year out, people will reserve for the next year right after they stay somewhere.

We found our current rental house by working directly with the company, they owned a lot of properties in the area we wanted to be in, and not all of them came up when we searched on our own

[mrsslocombe]

Usually it's only about 4-6 weeks out, due to a variety of factors. But we aren't ever booking things during high seasons or in high demand areas. If we wanted a beachfront home on Cape Cod it would be a year out.

For Mexico/Guatemala I would look up local real estate agents, or locally-based travel agents-they often have access to vacation rentals that are not on a major US site and you can get a better deal.

[wanderingback]

Usually 1-3 months in advance.

Most of my vacations were via plane so I’d usually find flight deals a few months out because I generally don’t have a preference of where to go and book based on budget. Then after flight is booked, book accommodations.

If something is fully refundable then can book way ahead of time.

[dreamcrisp1]

Usually about 3ish months in advance. We booked at the end of January for our April/May trip and mid-February for our June trip.

[hammerfist]

Apr 4, 2023 10:48:49 GMT -5 mrsslocombe said:

Usually it's only about 4-6 weeks out, due to a variety of factors. But we aren't ever booking things during high seasons or in high demand areas. If we wanted a beachfront home on Cape Cod it would be a year out.

For Mexico/Guatemala I would look up local real estate agents, or locally-based travel agents-they often have access to vacation rentals that are not on a major US site and you can get a better deal.

Thank you for this tip! I had not considered going local but it makes a lot of sense.

[underwaterrhymes]

I start fantasizing about what I want to do a year out, but then I realize that my fantasies exceed my budget lol. So usually 6-9 months.

[mcmel]

I also always have the next one going. I’m currently planning an August 2024 Alaskan trip because things are so scarce up there.

[springchick32]

We usually plan airplane vacation trips 8-12 months in advance. We lock in the hotel first then flights once those dates become available because I find the price keeps going up over time. We will book any excursions within 2 months or so. Planning early gives us time to save up $

[mrsukyankee]

It depends. Summer plans to a beach to rent a house (pretty much anywhere in the world), anything between 1 yr to a bit longer (beach houses sometimes rent a year or more out). Summer plans to a beach hotel - between 9 mo to a year. City visit - depends on the season. Anywhere between a week to 9 mo. Local (UK) - depends on the season. Anywhere between 1 week to 6 mo.

[mpm]

Usually like a month out lol.

[4speedy]

We have had really good trips planned 10-14 days out. I know that’s not for everyone, but it has worked for us. But we’ve always approached it from a standpoint of “we’ll go anywhere, let’s see what the good deals are.” We had an extraordinary trip to Bohol in the Philippines that way. Cambodia was pretty much last minute, too. BUT…that works for us and I realize not everyone else can stand that level of uncertainty. I have a super chill family and they are very adventurous and adapt well to making changes on the fly. When I am traveling with people outside my immediate family, I would plan 6 months for a smaller group. If it was a larger group, say over 8-10 people or if I had any special requirements, I would probably try to book about a year out.,

[dancingirl21]

Totally depends on the trip.

Carolina beaches - a year out. Everything oceanfront books super early.

Skiing in Colorado - 9-12 months ahead of time to make sure we get a condo near the slopes.

DH and I are going to Europe in September. We booked our flights in January because we saw prices rising, and hotels in February because we are moving hotels every 2 nights. I haven’t booked any tickets or excursions yet.

Weekend trips/places that aren’t as popular or have large hotel availability- anywhere from 3-6 months in advance.

[sent]

Since kids, I used to plan anywhere from 1 month - 3 months prior to the trip. I realized I was paying much higher prices for what I wanted by booking so close but that was how planning our lives was playing out so I was ok with it. Pre-kids I would have sometimes looked earlier since I was more keen on getting the most out of our miles & points to go to various places in Europe.

Now that we're restricted by DD's school breaks, I'm planning much further out. This November we will do Disney and I had my Disney travel agent book our hotels last month. Before deciding to do the Orlando trip, I thought about doing a Disney cruise. As soon as I confirmed when the break would be so like February, I was looking at a cruise itinerary that fell during the break week. I saw the rooms getting booked up right before my eyes. Everyone in our state is going to be on that cruise and it is going to be so crowded so I switched to going to the park instead.

That's just Disney but for other places, I'll be doing the same. Looking out for stuff as soon as I know when their breaks will be.

[yellow23]

It depends on our destination. We know if we want to go to a national park cabin near us on an October weekend we have to book as soon as reservations open 13 months in advance. They fill up in just a few minutes. I tried to look for rentals around Yellowstone last year 9 months in advance and there wasn’t much left that interested us so we will do that another year and plan further in advance. When we went to Acadia we only booked 8 months in advance and there was very little left to choose from, but we did find a place. Typically we aim for 1 year in advance to at least know where we want to go and start looking, but with COVID we weren’t always sure if we would go anywhere so plans were delayed at times. We book as soon as we find a place we like and always pick a place we can cancel in case something changes in the year leading up to the vacation.
If we stay in a hotel, we book much closer to the trip, but we almost never stay in a hotel more than 2-3 nights unless it’s a location without many rentals. We have 3 kids and many hotels only sleep up to 4 so rentals are often easier to find as long as we book far enough in advance.

[macmars45]

For a bigger family vacation (with extended family) we start looking for rentals a year in advance. My extended family is 18 people though. For my nuclear family (3 people) maybe 3-6 months out.