Holiday booking diy
 

Ok which sequence do people tend to book the DIY holidays in

Esta
Holiday insurance
Flights
Accomodation
Car hire
Park tickets
Glass of wine

For us, holiday insurance is always in place, as we have a policy through the bank.

I tend to book the villa 1st, then the flights/car (usually do fly drive with BA). If ESTA is out of date, get that done next, and then wait a bit for park tickets, in case there are any offers on.

We’ve done DIY for the last 8 trips, but for next year I’ve booked it all with BA, mainly due to the uncertainty around Covid.

My ESTA is rolling, I get another one as soon as it expires. I have an annual insurance policy, can't drive and don't drink wine. Flights are the last thing I book.

Holiday insurance is annual so constantly renewed, ESTA is also constantly renewed when it expires.

I book the room(s) at 11 months but often change them at 7 months through DVC.

Flights are generally booked in December for an August trip, for any other time of year, I just strike when the prices look good, I watch them for a while to get an idea of the trend and how much they fluctuate.

Park tickets are usually pretty last minute, but we buy APs so unless renewing there's no point getting them too far in advance.

Car hire - whenever I think of it!

Annual policy so insurance already in place , but yes agree once anything chargeable is in place it’s essential.
Main accommodation first for me , where I stay is more important than how I get there usually however if a great flight offer pops up first then that is first (we usually split stay So can tweak accommodation as needed. )
Car hire is usually with DFCH who will honour price drops so we tend to book that early .
Airport lounges deals are usually better booking early so as soon as flights are booked, , likewise Pre departure airport hotels.
I usually have a clear idea of the price on each part so timing is far more about when price hits my number than the order though.
Park tickets in normal years are booked on Black Friday deals with just deposits , we won’t do parks again until it’s business as usual so it isn’t a consideration for next year .

Next year is a bit different, we have a (Florida) cruise booked for May with separate flights (our original flights booked for this month) , the cruise will be amended to 2022 and the flights moved to September 2021 to fit another cruise that was rebooked from 2020 to 2021 but the ship and departure point has now been changed so we got a free upgrade from Ocean view to balcony cabin at no charge plus some extra onboard credit .
We had originally planned Florida for May next year but I’m less confident of that now so we have booked Greece for June instead and the flights to Florida for May can be shunted to September at no cost.
If I’m honest I don’t have complete confidence either trip will happen until vaccines are released but DIY has given us more flexibility if things change again.

Insurance is always in place, the esta is nearly always in place too. Order for me is:

Accommodation
Flights
Tickets (if I am not buying resort / ticket package)

We don’t hire cars in Florida, we do elsewhere and in that case it would be the last thing we book.

This is the first time we have booked a DIY holiday, I think depending on how often you go and how many times you have down a DIY holiday will depend on the order you do it.

My order was:
Accommodation
Esta
Insurance
Flight
Hotel for the night before.
Apart from Disney tickets, other tickets will be the last to be booked.

We normally drive but this year we have decided to stay on site so not hiring a car, then a nice large glass of wine, or sometime I did have the wine while I was planning lol.

It's interesting to read that a lot of people book their accomodation prior to booking their flights.
Is this mainly to do with accomodation becoming available well before flights are at 11 months out.
We always tended to book the flights then knowing the dates we could book the accommodation. ( Suppose it's easier to amend accomodation than it is flights

For a WDW holiday, yes the reason I book accommodation before flights is because the accommodation is available sooner. Also there are offers that are only available at certain times of the year and availability can vary so I have found it is best to book a resort when I see it available at the right price.

Thinking about it, for holidays elsewhere in the world, I would book flights first and then look into hotels.

We normally rent a villa direct from the owner, and like to book something that ticks all our requirements. We generally find that the villas we prefer book up quickly, as we are limited to summer school holidays.