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Travel packages
Introduction
How short is too short for a package holiday? Some advertised deals seem to be just 'teasers' to get you in the door so a more expensive holiday can be sold.
Virtually all of the travel agents we looked at used the same method of operating - advertising ridiculously short holidays at apparently bargain prices and then selling longer stays. Is this fair?
What we found
We got in touch with agencies offering 3, 4 and 5-day holidays in their newspaper and website advertising. We said we were looking at a Fiji getaway and asked how long families usually went for:
The GO Holidays booking office recommended 7 nights.
Flight Centre recommended 5 to 7 nights on the mainland but said 7 nights was the "way to go" if we wanted to go to an island resort.
United Travel told us: "You need a minimum of 7 days for your holiday - but 10 days would be better. Normally it'll all come down to cost and where you want to go."
House of Travel advised 7 to 10 nights: "Most people extend their stay unless the trip is for business. Some stay 4 nights. However, for a good relaxing Fijian holiday we recommend 7 nights." (While the House of Travel's website had 5-night holidays, its brochure also offered 7-night breaks - one of the few that did.)
Holiday Shoppe replied to our online enquiry and recommended 8 nights at a mainland resort.
Some straight-talking
The only large agency we found that differed was new company Mondo, which is expanding in New Zealand. The company's website listed a number of Fiji and Pacific island holidays, none of which was less than seven nights.
Gordon Bayne, the marketing manager for Flavour Travel (which owns Mondo), said that most travel agencies advertised a low number of nights to make the price look cheap and then expected agency staff to "up-sell" further nights to those customers.
"I even wonder where the idea of seven nights came from," Bayne told us. "We now have 4 weeks' holiday a year in New Zealand and most people want to take a holiday for 10 or 14 days."
Short breaks are a hassle
The sheer amount of travelling makes short breaks to the islands a hassle. Even if you live in one of the main centres, it's going to take you one day of your holiday each way just for travelling. On a three-night break, that'd leave you just two nights and one full day at your holiday resort.
Don't believe us? Then think about the hour or so travelling to the airport; waiting the required three hours before the flight; flying for another three hours; spending at least an hour getting through customs, collecting baggage and waiting for your transfer; then another 90 minutes to a nearby resort such as the Outrigger on the Coral Coast or the Sheraton Denarau Villas in Denarau.
It might be possible to take short trips to the Coral Coast and Denarau - both of which can be reached by land from Nadi airport. But three- to five-night packages become even more ridiculous when it comes to islands off Fiji's mainland. Unless you're lucky with connections you'll need to overnight in Nadi for one night in each direction.
One United Travel quote for a five-night package to Fiji's Mana Island, advertised on the company's website, had only three nights on the island. The remainder of the holiday was spent travelling or overnighting at an airport hotel.
Another branch of United Travel also replied to our enquiry. It suggested a speedboat trip to the island to avoid overnighting in Nadi. But this would have added more cost.
Selling longer stays
As soon as you increase the number of nights on a Pacific holiday you're up for hundreds of dollars more for each person.
We emailed Holiday Shoppe about a 4-night deal listed on its website for $1449 per adult. Unfortunately that holiday was "no longer available to sell" the Holiday Shoppe told us - but our "family" of two adults and two children could have a 4-night stay at the same hotel for $1595 per adult and $553 per child, which added $300. This came to an all-up cost of $4296.
Curiously, to stay 8 nights (as recommended by Holiday Shoppe) we would have had to pay only $5180. That's just another $884 for doubling the stay of the holiday, thanks to a "free" fifth and sixth night.
When we rang Our Pacific about its Fiji On Sale deals, which were showing on its website at the time of the call, we were told that the 3 nights at the Sheraton Denarau Villas for $1099 per adult and $479 per child were no longer available. In place of this $3136 deal, we were offered a holiday priced at $1274 per adult and $615 per child - which added up to $3778.
The salesperson told us that most families went for 1 or 2 weeks, but that some did take shorter holidays. She quoted our family $4802 for a week (7 nights), which is around $1700 more than the 3-night holiday advertised on Our Pacific's website.
We noticed the same "deals" that were no longer available were still being promoted on the website 8 days later. We checked with the Commerce Commission, but Our Pacific probably wasn't breaking the Fair Trading Act, because the ad did state the date when the offer closed and had the words "more deals coming soon".
Once the travel agent's "teaser rate" has you committed psychologically, it's easy for the agent's sales staff to push you up into spending more - a few hundred dollars, or even a thousand or so. And the full rack rate for some of the hotel rooms can be very expensive. At the Shangri La, for example, the standard rate for its most basic rooms is NZ$633 a night.
A fair deal?
Teaser advertising isn't just limited to Fiji. The story is often the same for the other Pacific islands and elsewhere. We saw holidays to Samoa, Vanuatu, and Rarotonga being offered at 3, 4 and 5 nights.
Travel agents tend to be more honest about Australian holidays, mostly advertising 7-night holiday packages.
The Travel Agents Association's code of ethics says that advertising should not make "false, misleading, deceptive or dishonest statements". But many travel agents' advertising certainly isn't giving a realistic picture of the cost of holidays that their staff are selling.
A down-under problem?
Australian travel agents also offer short (3-5 day) packages to Fiji.
But we also looked at practices in the UK. On its home page, mega travel agent Thomas Cook offers packages to Spain - just 2 hours away by plane. All its deals when we checked were for a minimum of 7 nights.
What the travel agents say
We put our concerns to the travel agents mentioned in this article as well as the Travel Agents Association of New Zealand. One agent told us that it offered "packages tailored to suit individual needs" and that not all its offers were for short periods. We were also told that shorter holidays were "a popular option with couples and families who can't afford a week-long stay".
These comments didn't match what the agents we contacted were telling our "family".
Our members' experiences
We asked members about their experiences with travel packages. Many spent more on their holidays than they initially expected.
- When Lania Jones (pictured, with husband Graham) booked for a 10-day July holiday in Samoa, the cheap room she'd seen advertised was no longer available: "It was booked up. So we had to go up a grade - which increased the price by around $200 per person".
- Jenni Davies booked a cheap package to Vanuatu with a friend. She wanted to stay longer than the number of nights advertised, but found the extra cost was more than expected: "When I queried this I was told that the cheap seats on the later flights had all gone".
- Shawn Curtayne bypasses travel agents, saving money by booking direct. "Why book through a travel agent when you can do it yourself and save money? Use websites such as Expedia.co.nz, Expedia.com, Wotif.com, or Octopustravel.com. Or email the hotel yourself".
Our view
- We think the travel industry is being sly in advertising these "teaser" deals.
- Some people do take up these offers, but the agents told us that 7 nights or longer is more popular and we think these are the deals they should be highlighting in their advertising.
- Teaser advertising doesn't break the Fair Trading Act because the packages are available. But we don't believe many people go to Fiji for a 3-night family holiday. If they do, they probably end up exhausted from the travel and disappointed at the shortness of their stay in "paradise".
- We see no reason why most of the major travel agencies are offering 7-night packages to Queensland yet much shorter packages to Fiji.
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Report by Diana Clement