I’m getting good at booking last-minute vacation packages to tropical destinations – especially now that I know that people who make travel reservations during business hours don’t enjoy their vacations or hotels as much! So when you book your cheap all inclusive vacation to Mexico, make sure you wait until you get home from work.
“We speculate [people are less happy with travel bookings] because they are either more fatigued at work and tend to buy more expensive items or that vacations seem more appealing while people are at work,” says Ajay Kalra, the Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Marketing at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business, in Don’t Shop for Travel at Work. They used data from a major online hotel reservation website to examine the quality of the hotel that consumers chose for their vacations and how satisfied they were after their stay. These researchers found that people who traveled farther and made reservations during business hours were more likely to select higher quality hotels, but were less satisfied after their stay. If you’re booking your cheap all inclusive resort vacation to Mexico at work, maybe you should think about waiting until you get home.
10 Tips for Booking a Cheap All Inclusive Vacation to Mexico
1. Go further than Expedia.com. When I booked my cheap all inclusive vacation in Hawaii, I was told that Expedia is the best way to find a cheap vacation package to Mexico – but it’s not. I found Red Tag.ca and West Jet Vacations far less expensive. Of course, booking the cheapest flight depends in part on where you live. The best thing to do is search for cheap vacation packages to Mexico on the internet, and compare days, flights, hotels, and prices.
2. Be prepared for sudden price differences. It’s frustrating, but you need to accept that you’ll see a $999 all inclusive vacation to Mexico – and it’ll turn out to cost twice as much. The original price is based on the number of people in the hotel room, hotel availability, flight availability, and taxes. The more research on cheap all inclusive vacations to Mexico you do, the more you see that the price isn’t always what it first appears to be.
3. Clear your cached cookies on your computer often. Your computer might remember prices, days, and flight options – and that may not work in your favor. When you’re searching for cheap vacation packages to Mexico, make sure you delete your cookies so you can get the freshest, most recent deals. It might also be smart to research cheap all inclusive resorts on different computers, to see what results you find.
4. Search for travel deals at different times of the day. I found Saturday afternoon to have the highest prices on even the cheapest online booking websites. First thing Monday morning, the prices had come down. I don’t know the exact best times to book, but I suggest searching for vacation packages at different times of the day and night. Read The Best Time to Book Airline Tickets to learn more about getting cheap Mexico vacation packages.
5. If you call the online vacation package website, don’t expect miracles. I called the travel agents at Red Tag.ca, West Jet Vacations, Air Canada Vacations, and Expedia.com, and they all said the same thing: our search engines are the same, so they can’t get a better flight and hotel price to a Mexican resort hotel than I could. If you call a travel representative, don’t expect to get a better deal.
6. Consider booking a hotel and flight separately. Most vacation packages – such as all-inclusive resort vacations in Mexico – that include both airfare and hotel accommodations are cheaper than booking flights and hotels separately. But, it depends on the hotel. I’ve learned that calling the hotel directly and talking to the in-house reservations department can help you book a less expensive hotel room. This tip for booking a cheap all inclusive vacation to Mexico costs you time, but could save you money.
7. Don’t forget about transportation from the hotel to the airport! One of the cheap all inclusive vacation travel websites I used for my resort in Hawaii provided a hotel shuttle option. It’s an extra fee, of course, but there’s nothing worse than getting of the airplane after a long flight, and having to figure out how to get to the hotel. Try to negotiate a hotel shuttle as part of the all inclusive vacation when you go to Mexico.
8. Call the hotel directly for prices and availability. As I said in a previous tip for booking a cheap Mexican vacation, it is surprising how often this doesn’t work. I keep calling hotels directly, though, because I know that sometimes they do offer a cheaper room. If they can give me a break on my vacation package, it’s worth it.
“Tips for Booking a Cheap All Inclusive Mexican Vacation” image via Pixabay, CC license
9. Make sure the vacation website is secure before you book your trip. When you get to the “book and pay for your vacation package” page, make sure it’s a secure site. Secure websites have a [https://] beginning (not just [http://]), and are often in green. Don’t pay for a vacation package to Mexico – no matter how cheap it is – unless you know it’s secure.
10. Consider a budget youth hostel. When we went to Europe a couple years ago, my husband and I stayed in a youth hostel. It was awesome — and I know Mexico has them, too. Youth hostels are a whole different world than an all-inclusive resorts, especially in Mexico, but they are cheap. And they’ll expose you to a whole different side of Mexico than you’d see at an all inclusive resort vacation.
Don’t forget to pack well, because even the best all-inclusive resort in Mexico doesn’t have everything! In What to Pack for an All-Inclusive Vacation, I provide a list of essentials, as well as extras that come in handy.
If you have any thoughts on how to find a cheap all inclusive vacation to Mexico, please comment below…
