Sure, the days are shorter and the air is chillier, but thankfully travel expert Quentin Long has some money-saving news that'll make winter's arrival a little easier to bare.
Appearing on Today this morning, the Australian Traveller editor revealed the one mistake most Aussies make when booking a holiday.
"Australians, we'll book our flights and then six months later we'll book our accommodation," Long revealed.
In doing so, we're missing out on potential savings reaped by bundling flights, accommodation and add-ons into one package, according to Long — ironic, seeing as though most travellers book flights separately to take advantage of early-bird discounts. This approach royally backfires when it comes time to book accommodation.
"Because we're going for so long to places like North American and Europe, we're actually booking four or five different hotels, and so we weren't getting those [holiday package] discounts," Long said.
Multi-service travel websites, like Expedia, offer holidaymakers more value for money by applying hidden discounts to trips booked as a bundle (including airfares, hotels and add-ons) and paid for upfront.
How are they able to offer these discounts? Airlines and hotel partners negotiate savings which aren't publicly advertised, that are then applied to the final amount of your bundle package — so customers often aren't even aware of which elements of the trip they're saving on.
The problem is, most travellers don't like the idea of paying for any entire trip upfront. If this sounds like you, then keep reading.
This morning, Long announced a one-off travel deal yet to launch by Expedia that he branded "a real scoop", in which customers will have the opportunity to retro-actively purchase accommodation with the bundle discounts.
The offer, called "The Add-On Advantage", will work like this: customers will be able to log into their Expedia account and book a flight, car, or package to any destination. From that point, any hotels they book there-after until the start of their trip will be counted as a 'bundle' package and savings on select properties will be instantly unlocked upon purchase — so long as the hotel stays and add-ons occur within the flight travel dates.
This can be used for multi-stop trips as well, for example if a traveller books a return flight to London for three weeks, they can book hotels throughout Europe during that period and still receive any potential discounts as though it were booked as a package.
The deal launches this Monday, June 18, by which time customers can visit expedia.com.au/addonadvantage to take advantage of the savings.
That's not the only holiday savings you can enjoy this winter — watch the full Today clip above for more amazing deals on flights and hotels.
To catch up on the latest episode of Today visit 9Now.