What is a shortbreak?

I ask the question because Visa has announced the result of a small survey (1000 people). A third of those questioned said they preferred shortbreaks rather than the traditional one or two-week breaks. An astonishing 83% claim that they will take between 1 and 5 shortbreaks this year.
Generally you pay more per day for shorter trips rather than longer ones because you get economies of scale. Which means that those 83% are seemingly prepared to pay more money than they might otherwise spend on a one or two week trip.
From this, Visa concludes we have become a nation of spontaneous mini-breakers.
I’m not convinced by this. Could a short break be a day trip? Could it be a trip into a nearby town or city? Could a shortbreak be staying with relatives? Or do people feel so unsure of their jobs that they don’t want to be away from their work for very long? Will this alter when unemployment starts declining or is there a fundamental change here?
Or should we follow the advice of the political pundits and say, don’t read too much into one survey.

Haggling for Your Holiday

When you buy your holiday do you pay the asking price? Do you shop around first?
The reason I ask is that there is another survey out, this time from Visa, those wonderful credit card people, who claim that from their survey of 1,077 people that 22% of us negotiate on the price and only 11% accepting the first price they are offered.
I am surprised they found as many as 11% who took the first price. Just about everyone I know has a check around to see what is on offer and then compares prices. Then, if the travel trade press is to be believed, quite a lot say that they won’t book with a travel agent because they found it cheaper on the internet. Others will go to a couple of travel agents and see what can be done in the way of savings.
We are talking about a big expense here. Why should anyone accept the first price? Unless you want a certain hotel at a certain week in a certain country because of school holidays or something you have the upper hand. We are always told that flexibility is the key?
As for haggling; you do it with cars, why not with holidays. If you want to go to Majorca or another popular destination, there will be lots of tour operators offering virtually the same but with price differences. The role of the travel agent is to get you the best deal. If you feel they can’t try and put the package of flight and accommodation yourself remembering that an ATOL bonded travel agent gives you protection that you won’t have if you book both parts separately.
So the only surprise in this survey, if it is representative of all of us holidaymakers, is that 88% don’t haggle!