I don’t think So!

A few weeks ago I wrote about a £1 a night Cheap Hotel Deal being offered by HotelConnect and I decided that if the hotel location was right for me, I would take a look and see If I could purchase a few nights at a hotel myself, thinking that this offer may be just too good to be true. I set myself a reminder on my calendar to take a look at the website a few hours before the deal was set to go live.

In due course, I found out that the £1 a night deals were to be for hotels in Prague. Now I know that it is not a beach holiday location, but I have never been to Prague and I thought that a weekend city break would make a nice change and heck the hotels were only going to cost me £1 a night right?

The time for the deal to begin was at 10am, as that time arrived I went to the page and immediatly you could tell that there must be something up as the whole of the HotelConnect website had really slowed down, infact in some cases it had stopped. An offer like this must generate a huge amount of interest and I guess that their servers were just not able to handle the huge increase in traffic.

Anyway, with patience I could see that there were indeed hotels available and through trying a few times (their booking system crashed twice) I can confirm that I have now booked 2 nights at the Botel Racek Hotel Prague and it cost me exactly £2 fantastic! (see booking confirmation below)

According to HotelConnect I will be staying at “cosy comfortable boat hotel, close to the castle and within easy access to the old town of Prague. Rooms at the Botel Racek Hotel Prague are simple and functional cabins and are all en suite with a shower. You can enjoy Czech food in the restaurant or have a drink on the deck with great views over the river. ”

I have to admit that the Botel Racek Hotel was not my first choice, but as the £1 a night sign up page on their website says, all their 400+ £1 hotel rooms in Prague were sold out in 2 hours and so they were going fast and for the dates that were suitable for me, this was my only choice, but staying in a boat hotel could be fun.

I have to say that even though their site was really slow on the morning of the deal, it is usually great and I was even before booking this hotel deal, a big fan. A few days after booking the hotel, I got the conformation in the post, with a nice little map of the city of Prague… I can’t wait!

I hope that the promotion was a success for HotelConnect.co.uk and that they have another ones soon, but even if you missed it, they have many other offers on fantastic hotels, including 50% off in over 200 destinations, so go and check them out.

It is almost as if a mini tourism tsunami has hit the Caribbean this year, so much has gone wrong for this group of islands that are so dependant on sun-seeking holidaymakers visiting them. But because of this there are plenty of excellent Caribbean holiday deals to be had as tour operators begin either slashing their prices or offering what’s called “added value” so for example free nights (ten for the price of seven), or adding the meals at no extra cost when they normally charge on the basis of room only or bed and breakfast.

Example Caribbean holiday deals
I took a quick look at some of the most popular tour operators and here are some of the best deals on Caribbean holiday packages in 2009 that I could find:

Virgin Holidays: Virgin Holidays Special Offers
One of Virgin Holidays specialities are holidays in the Caribbean and they currently are offering a site wide deal saving you 10% if you book you Summer 2010 holiday on-line. If you are after something a little sooner they still have some good deals including:
Barbados
7 nights at the 3 star Silver Sands hotel in Barbados in September for £549 (was £ 649) Departing from London Gatwick or Manchester airports.
Located in Little Bay which is quiet and secluded with 14 acres of gardens beside the beach.
Facilities include: Weddings, Hot tub, Frequent Virgin Club, Tennis, Scuba Diving, Swimming Pool, Fitness Centre and Windsurfing.

Kuoni: www.kuoni.co.uk
Kuoni, the luxury holiday tour operator have extended their beach holiday sale up until March the 16th, as well as offering a further 5% off for on-line purchases:

St Lucia
7 nights at a 3 star St Lucian By Rex Resorts hotel from £624 (Save up to £575)
This holiday is being offered at almost half price and is right on famous Reduit Beach, located in the Rodney Bay area of St Lucia.
The price quoted is if you fly from Manchester in February or march. prices rise a little if you fly from London.

Lastminute.com: Worldwide holidays on Lastminute.com
Lastminute.com are one of my favourite Tour operators and they almost always have some sort of a deal on, so why not try something a little different:

Caribbean Cruise
A 4* Full-Board Ocean Village Caribbean Cruise that departs from Barbados, arriving back 7 nights later that includes flights from London Gatwick or Manchester from only £795 (this includes a 5% discount), is incredible value.

A cruise is an excellent way to see a variety of the Caribbean islands, without adding more travelling costs to your holiday:

A Typical itinerary:

• Day 1: Fly from the U.K to Barbados where you will be met and transferred to the Ocean Village ready for embarkation and set sail from Bridgetown at 20.00
• Day 2: Enjoy a day cruising
• Day 3: Arrive in Tortola at 08.00, departing at 13.00
• Day 4: Arrive in St Barts at 08.00 departing at 18.00
• Day 5: Arrive in Antigua at 08.00 departing at 17.30
• Day 6: Arrive in Martinique at 08.00 departing at 17.00
• Day 7: Arrive in Grenada at 08.00 departing at 18.00
• Day 8: Arrive back in Barbados at 08.00, ready for disembarkation and a return flight back to the UK.If you are on the 14 night cruise, you have the day to discover Barbados.
• Day 9: Enjoy a day cruising
• Day 10: Arrive in St Kitts at 08.00, departing at 18.00
• Day 11: Arrive in St Maarten at 08.00 departing at 18.00
• Day 12: Arrive in Guadeloupe at 08.00 departing at 18.00
• Day 13: Arrive in St Lucia at 08.00 departing at 18.00
• Day 14: Arrive in Dominica at 08.00 departing at 17.00
• Day 15: Arrive back in Barbados at 08.00, ready for disembarkation and a return flight back to the UK.

You can also add on nights in Barbados before the start or after the end of your cruise.

For more details on this Caribbean Cruise

Cheap Caribbean Holiday Tips:

Other than these deals here are a few points to keep in mind to make sure that you keep the cost of a holiday to the Caribbean as cheap as possible:

Travel outside of the Peak Holiday Season
The summer here is the low season in the Caribbean and this is when holiday prices much lower than that during the peak winter months. Because the prices are already being reduced, who knows what is going to happen this year, but because the islands are struggling for business even now during high season, they are probably going to be really desperate during the off-season months, so chances are there will be even more incredible Caribbean holiday deals to be found.

Avoid the islands when they are playing international cricket
Cricket is huge in the West Indies and not only to the local fans. Travelling fans will fill up the local hotels and thus drive up the prices of not only accommodation, but also flights as well. So try to avoid an island that is hosting international cricket during your stay, that is unless you wish to watch it! England are currently touring the West Indies until April 2009 so take a look at the England in West Indies 2009 – Schedule before you book.

Book your Caribbean holiday through an on-line tour operator
The major on-line tour operators are likely to offer the best rates as their overheads are less than their shop front versions. They are also geared up to offering deals to entice holiday seekers. They also often make it much easier to compare the prices at different times of the year, for example Kuoni’s website, www.kuoni.co.uk, who have a beach holiday sale up until the 16th of March and are offering a further 5% off on-line also has an excellent calendar showing the prices of a specific holiday on different departure dates. You can see at a glance that, by staying at Sandals Whitehouse European Village & Spa in Jamaica on April 21 instead of April 4, you would save over £500. Lastminute.com also have this great feature.

That’s right, HotelConnect.co.uk are offering hotel rooms for sale from £1 a night from Thursday 26th of February and the offer will continue until they run out.

You can really grab yourself a bargain and get a great cheap hotel deal that definitely won’t break your budget!

If you miss this offer on Thursday, HotelConnect.co.uk, have many other offers on fantastic hotels, including 50% off in over 200 destinations.

HotelConnect who?
HotelConnect were established in 1993 and are an independent award–winning accommodation specialist offering over 2000 handpicked and honestly reviewed hotels in 200 destinations and specialise in quality hotel accommodation at excellent rates. They frequently feature great promotions on their website including “2 nights for the price of 1″, “Winter Sales” and “Summer of Free Nights” being regular favourites in the calendar. Furthermore, we always have up to 50% off hotels in top destinations worldwide.

50% Off Hotel Sale – This Friday Only:

As well as the fantastic offer from HotelConnect.co.uk, Lastminute.com are also offering an incredible 50% off selected hotels including this:

4* Barcelona 50% off if you book on the 20th Feb

As well as Barcelona they have a 50% off on a 4* hotel in Madrid, Amsterdam, Prague and a 3 star hotel in Paris. The only catch is you have to book on Friday the 20th of February.