How to Find Last-Minute Vacation Deals

Who doesn’t love going away at the last minute? The excitement of a spontaneous getaway just adds to the overall experience. However, finding last-minute deals can be tricky. If you want to have a spur-of-the-moment getaway without breaking the bank, here are my top tips for finding last-minute vacation deals.

Use Skyscanner’s Everywhere Tool

Skyscanner is one of the best places to find cheap flights and is one of the most flexible flight finders out there. If you want to find a last-minute flight and aren’t worried about where you end up, use Skyscanner’s Everywhere feature for the most possible results.

This feature allows you to put your home airport in, select “everywhere" as the destination, add your dates, and see what’s going out on those days. It means that you can find a cheap last-minute option easily with just a few clicks.

If you’re flexible on dates as well, you can also use “month view" on Skyscanner along with the Everywhere feature to show the cheapest days to fly. This combination can show some truly outstanding cheap flight deals and inspire you to go somewhere new that you’d have never considered.

Sign Up For Travel Newsletters

If you want to be kept in the loop about last-minute travel deals, you need to sign up for travel newsletters. Pick your favorite brands, companies, and independent spots, and sign up for their email newsletter - pretty much every travel-related brand has one. This way, you’ll be the first to hear of any last-minute deals, and they’ll be delivered to you rather than you having to search for them.

Last Minute Sales

It’s common for hotels and airlines to offer last-minute sales for flights leaving in the next month or so. This is because they’ve realized they’re not filling to capacity and are willing to sell at a lower rate to recoup some of the cost.

In the past week, I’ve had last-minute summer sale emails from brands like EasyJet, Virgin Holidays, Flight Centre, and more. The prices are usually even cheaper if you’re flexible enough to leave within the next couple of weeks.

Cancellations

If you sign up for independent holiday companies like cabin accommodations, small boutique B&Bs, or small group tours, they’ll send out email blasts if there’s a cancellation with a last-minute deal to fill it. This is great for staycations or if you just want to pack a bag and get away from it all.

Last Minute Club

There are plenty of travel companies that have dedicated “Last Minute Deal" sections on their websites. Most of the time, these are package holiday websites like Love Holidays or Lastminute.com that have special deals with hotels and airlines, and cut their rates closer to the travel date.

If you want more adventure, outdoorsy tour companies like Much Better Adventures have dedicated last-minute club emails each month with reduced rates for last-minute underbooked tours.

Check Social Media

If you have specific independent accommodations, resorts, or tour operators that you prefer, follow them on Instagram. If there’s a last-minute cancellation or gap in their schedule, they’ll likely post about it first on Instagram to see if they can get it filled.

With this being the case, they’re usually willing to do a deal to secure a booking at the eleventh hour. Make sure to check Instagram stories, as most brands won’t want to advertise cancellations on their grid!

Look For Flash Sale Websites

Flash Sale Websites are a little bit of a travel oddity. They usually offer luxury or high-end travel experiences for a lot less, but you have to book nearly straightaway to capitalize. Sites like Secret Escapes and Voyage Prive are well known for having flash deals.

These are third-party travel sites that have a mix of hotel-only, package, and tour-related deals. Usually, they’ll be given a selection of last-minute or unbooked dates by the hotel or tour company to sell quickly. As a result, these are often a lot cheaper.

You do need to be flexible with these deals to get decent prices and dates. It’s also worth noting that you have to book as a pair, as they’re based on two people sharing. Sadly, there aren’t many flash sale websites catering to solo travelers at the moment.

Try Repositioning Holidays

If you want a last-minute holiday for less and don’t mind where you go, check out repositioning holidays. This is kind of a weird one and mainly applied to cruises or RV travel. Repositioning cruises are at the end or start of a season when the boat needs to move from one area to another, rather than operating in a loop. As it’s inconvenient for people to have to fly back from another port, the cruises are often a lot cheaper.

Similarly, there are plenty of RV companies that do repositioning deals around the world. You simply drive an RV from one city to another, sometimes crossing multiple countries for a massively reduced rate, up to 95% off. They’ll give you a date to get there, which usually gives you a couple more days than you’d need to drive straight through between the two stops.

You get an almost free RV for a number of days, and of course, free accommodation along the way. The RV company gets free transport for its fleet. You have to be flexible about locations and itineraries, and you can always get these last minute.

For example, you can get a campervan relocation from Venice to Florence in Italy for two days, and it costs you just 2 Euros. Contextually, this drive takes just 3 hours and 13 minutes, so you have time to explore stops along the way.

This is all around the world, too. There’s a relocation from Halifax to Montreal in Canada with an allotted time frame of 11 days to get there. For each day, you just pay $99 CAD and get a $250CAD fuel rebate at the end. The scenic journey time is 12 hours, so even if you take a leisurely five days, that’s $495 CAD for car rental and accommodation for up to six people!