Episode 2 Rip Off Britain

We asked you who's left you feeling ripped-off

when it comes to your holidays and you came back with a catalogue

of travel disasters.

I was absolutely mortified, I'm upset, I'm angry and I'm frustrated.

It's the inconvenience. It's the stress. It's upsetting.

So, whether it's a deliberate rip-off,

a simple mistake or a catch in the small print,

we'll find out why you're out of pocket and what you can do about it.

Your stories, your money.

This is Rip-Off Britain.

Hello and thanks so much, once again, for joining us

here on Rip-Off Britain, where throughout this particular series,

we're investigating one of the biggest single expenses

that most of us will have in any particular year

and that is, paying for our holidays.

And we've based ourselves on the lovely sunny island of Lanzarote

to do exactly that.

Well, at the heart of all the stories today is how to make

the money you spend - either before or during your break -

go as far as it can.

The last thing you want is to find that you've paid more than

someone else for exactly the same holiday

or, as we will hear, you've paid out more than you really needed to.

Now, that would make you really, really mad,

but you could very easily find yourself in exactly the same

sort of situations as the ones we will be looking into.

So, we'll have plenty of advice, to make sure that, if you do,

you'll have a much clearer idea of how much you need to pay

and exactly what you'll get for it,

before you hand over your hard-earned money.

Coming up - the holidaymaker up in arms about why it's so hard

to bag your holiday at the bargain price you've seen advertised.

I see a deal for £150

and it's gone up to £300 as soon as I click on it.

I just think it's a joke.

And designer shades or bargain-basement sunnies?

Could you guess which would be best to protect your peepers from the sun?

I think these are the best.

They're £195.

They're really cool, really funky, quite light

and they've got really good protection.

I think these are best, cos they seem thicker and stronger lenses.

Get ready for a surprise, when we reveal the truth.

Over the years, a very common gripe that we continue to receive

a steady stream of e-mails and letters about

is the issue of single supplements, with many of you utterly dismayed

at how travelling solo can sometimes cost you as much,

or, occasionally, even more, than if you were going with another person.

And I must say, it is a complaint that I have a lot of sympathy for.

And with over seven million people living alone, plus, of course,

those whose partners can't, or won't, travel with them,

it is an enormous number of people that can be affected by this.

So why is the industry still so keen on those additional charges?

Some of the best holidays I've had have been those

where I have travelled solo.

I've been doing it long enough to know that, should I want to,

I'll soon bump into like-minded people,

with whom I'm going to enjoy spending time.

And there really are an awful lot of people in the UK who, like me,

may well be happy to go it alone.

Which makes it all the more frustrating that we continue to hear

from so many single travellers, who feel they've been treated unfairly

when travelling by themselves and usually having to pay

what they say is an unreasonably high single supplement to do so.

That's certainly the case for Laurie Sorsby,

whose recent trip to the Greek Islands

was an important milestone for her. Whilst she was out there,

she would mark the first anniversary of her husband Pete's death -

an occasion she didn't want to face alone.

She invited her sons and their partners along, as well.

I thought, we'll book and we'll go, all of us, five of us,

and it'll be lovely to have my sons with me,

even though one day was going to be particularly poignant.

But the rest of the holiday, I thought, would be good

and make some new and happy family memories.

So, Laurie searched online and soon came across

what looked like a great package - two weeks, all-inclusive,

at The Princess Golden Beach in Thassos, with Thomson Holidays.

For the whole group, the holiday, which included flights, transfers

and two weeks' all-inclusive board at the hotel,

was going to cost a total of £5,657.

The hotel only had twin rooms, so she booked three of them -

one for her and two more for her sons and their partners.

Satisfied that she'd got a good deal, Laurie paid a £794 deposit

to secure the booking.

I was really looking forward to it,

ready to go, looking forward to a sunshine holiday.

But when Laurie received the booking confirmation and breakdown of costs,

she was shocked to see exactly how the price had been worked out.

It showed that the cost of the holiday, including flights,

accommodation and food was £940.50 per person,

but Laurie had to pay a supplementary charge

of £954.50 on top of this,

which meant that HER holiday was going to cost her just over

twice as much as the individual price for everyone else.

In other words, about the same as a couple would have paid to travel.

And while she could understand the justification for charging her more

for having a twin room all to herself,

quite how her total costs ended up more than double what the others

were paying was a lot harder to get her head around.

How can you justify it?

I've got one backside. It might not be the smallest one in the world,

but it only takes one seat on the plane, it only takes one seat

on the transfers and I can only eat and drink for one person.

Hoping it was all a mistake,

Laurie immediately got on the phone to Thomson.

I asked to speak to managers and double check that they'd got

the figures right, that it was correct.

"Yes, that's correct. You've paid your deposit,

"you accepted the price at booking."

What's more, as she had already paid the deposit

and agreed to the terms and conditions, Laurie had no grounds

for complaint. It was all there in the small print.

When we put all of this to Thomson, the company told us that,

with bookings like Laurie's, it's the hotel that makes up the most

significant part of the total cost of the holiday.

And in this particular case, the company's contract with

the hotel operator required costs to be charged on a "per-room basis".

So, with no single rooms available at Laurie's chosen hotel,

Thomson had no choice but to pass on the full cost of a twin room.

But the company insisted that its holidays are always

competitively priced and it does offer

"plenty of accommodation with single rooms" that ARE priced accordingly.

So, is there any way to avoid the dreaded single supplement?

Jacqui Wright, from Salford, runs a dating website for over-50s

and, though she doesn't mind travelling alone,

she does object to the price that she has to pay to do it.

Because I'm a single traveller, I always have to pay at least

a third more than couples.

I do look for single rooms. If they've not been booked

months in advance and I end up in one,

they are always, always, in my experience,

overlooking the bins or the car park. Not ideal, is it?

Jacqui has come to the Rip-Off Britain office, to pick the brains

of holiday expert and fellow solo traveller Bob Atkinson...

Hi, good to meet you today!

..to find the best ways to avoid those dreaded supplements.

Is there actually a limit that a company can charge

on a sole occupancy?

At the end of the day, anyone who's offering you travel can charge

-whatever they want to charge you...

-Really?

-..cos there's no laws

that stop them charging twice as much for one person using a room,

rather than two. What I would say is, if it's a lot of money

for something and you're not happy, don't pay it.

Am I better off doing a package holiday with a tour operator

or maybe doing it myself on the internet

and doing my own flights and packages myself?

What I would really recommend to do here is to compare it.

If you go with a big package tour operator,

to get the best price, you need to look for the single savers.

There are certain dates through the year where the big companies

will offer no single supplements. Now, those tend not to be

in the school holidays. You need to book those earlier,

rather than later, because they tend to get snapped up.

However, it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get the best price.

So, if you look at doing a separate flight and also looking

for rooms where, either you don't have to pay

a single supplement, or you're just paying a double room

at sole occupancy, you can put those together, and book and travel

-and often make a great saving.

-That's quite good advice, actually.

On top of that, cruising holidays now is an option that a lot

of people are considering, and some of the big shipping companies

have started putting on their newer ships, single cabins.

Now, this isn't a pokey cabin at the bottom of the ship,

with no sea view and a little room. It's a decent-sized cabin,

specifically sold for a single traveller and, therefore,

-no single supplement.

-I'll take that on board.

And if the mainstream operators haven't always kept up with the pace

of single travellers, there are some companies

that can be a little more accommodating.

If, for example, you fancy following Bob's advice of taking

to the seas, then Norwegian Cruise Line ships now have single cabins,

as do Fred Olsen. And back on dry land,

Caribtours also offers single rooms with no single supplement,

as do On The Go Tours.

Meanwhile, although Laurie's Greek adventure did provide

the perfect backdrop for that much-needed family holiday,

she won't be happy until all single supplements are a thing of the past.

There is no justification for doubling and adding to the cost

of a holiday for a single person, regardless of whether they're

widowed, divorced, single or whatever.

Now, the whole point of a package holiday is that it brings together

all of the elements that make up a holiday - that's flight, hotel,

transfers and food - and gives you it all for a single price.

But the eventual price may not always be the one that attracted you

in the first place and you've been telling us that

getting the holiday for the amount you've seen advertised

can sometimes be very tricky indeed.

And for one very musical Rip-Off viewer,

it's become so annoying he's even written a song about it!

# Holidays are not stress free

# Hidden extras They're killing me... #

This is Paul Garrett.

And as you've probably guessed, music is his passion.

But in at number two on his list of hobbies is travel.

Whether in Australia, America or Europe,

he and his guitar have had some great times together.

# Yeah. #

But Paul's days of heading down the high street to book

his trips are long gone. Instead, like most of us,

he now prefers to see what deals are online.

But this particular road well travelled has started to get bumpy.

You have to pay extra for extras, like transfers,

baggage. You know, all this should be free, or included in one price,

and when I see package holidays that aren't, I'm not very happy.

Paul's gripe is that the headline price for package deals,

the one that tempts you to click through to the booking screen,

is often very different from the amount you'll finally pay.

The departure date, airport, the type of room and board,

even where you'll be sitting on the plane, all help push the cost up.

And it can be even more annoying if, as often happens,

you click on a price to try and book and find it's simply increased,

for no obvious reason.

I see a deal for £150 and it has gone up to £300,

as soon as I click on it. When I see those prices on the web now,

I just think it's a joke.

A lot of them are non-existent.

I think that the companies just think we're a load of idiots.

Paul's on the look-out for a good deal on his next trip abroad

and, once again, he's come across what looks like promising prices.

I'm fishing on the internet, trying to find a cheap package.

I'm not too bothered about exactly where, as long as it's a good deal.

But though the offers appear to be good, it is the old familiar story -

getting his holiday at that tempting headline price proves very tricky.

Front page says £249 and I've clicked on it

and it's taken me to the first option, which is £276.

It's not long before Paul discovers even bigger disparities

between the price he's seen advertised

and the one he'll actually get, if he tries to book.

Here's one I've just found. Gran Canaria, from 179.

This sounds good, this one, so we'll give this a try.

Wow. I'm in shock now, cos it's just jumped up to now...

Now, it's 379.

Per person, that is. Not for two.

Well, I'm staggered with that one.

That's one of the worst ones I've seen!

I'd say we were double the price. That's ridiculous, isn't it?!

Determined to get his hands on that headline price of £179

to Gran Canaria, Paul tries the old-fashioned way

and makes a phone call.

I'm calling about one of your holidays.

Gran Canaria, two-star, from £179.

Yeah, I'd like to book that, at that price, please.

It's on your website. I've just clicked on it.

So, that price isn't there now?

I'll leave it for now. Thanks a lot.

Well, it's live pricing and it changes all the time,

she says. Unfortunately, they can't control it at their end,

because they're in a call centre, so...

It doesn't make it right, does it?

Back to the search, then.

Bagging those headline holiday or flight prices is something

that plenty of you say you find a challenge.

Those fantastic deals slip through your fingers

from the very moment you try and get hold of them.

I remember it saying something like £200 for a week

or something and when you went through to book it,

it ended up being something like £350.

After you've spent five minutes clicking through various pages,

you find it's gone up by a third, there's additional charges.

It can be very frustrating. It's a big time waster, to be honest.

Once you're through the door, they can just say,

"Oh, this adds on, that adds on." Before you know it,

the holiday that you want is not there at the price you want.

Holiday and travel advertising is governed by the same regulations

as all other adverts and the body that implements these regulations,

the Advertising Standards Authority, takes a dim view of any company

deemed to be making promises they can't keep.

However, these regulations also state that, as a general rule,

only 10% of the offers have to be available at the headline price

at any one time. So, for the other 90%, the prices don't have to be

anywhere near those that lured you in.

But getting those elusive headline prices, even 10% of the time,

isn't always easy, as we found, when we took a quick look for ourselves.

On one major holiday website, we saw deals to Majorca

being advertised that, apparently, started

at £173 per person, but when we clicked through,

we couldn't find anything under £265. What's more, as soon as

we added any luggage - still quite an essential for most trips! -

it cost at least £78 extra for two people.

Another website boasts of hotel rooms in holiday hotspot

for just £1. But good luck finding them at that price,

because the cheapest room option we found was around £50.

Meanwhile, a £257 break to Barcelona that we spotted

seemed, on the face of it, to be great value.

But that rate only covered flights from Manchester.

If you want to travel from Southampton Airport instead,

you'd be looking at paying £554 -

nearly £300 more than the advertised price.

But holiday journalist Lisa Francesca Nand says that,

just because those headlines prices aren't always available, it doesn't

necessarily mean we're having the wool pulled over our eyes.

I think, sometimes, we're a little bit suspicious

that companies might put these offers out there

and they're not actually existing, at all.

However, legally, they really can't do that,

so if you have any suspicions that is happening, then do complain.

However, hopefully, the offers are there.

You've just got to be really, really quick and try and get them

and also be flexible about dates.

That's probably the only way you'll get those very good deals.

Of course, this way of marketing isn't confined to any one company

or website. It's common throughout the whole industry.

So, we asked the Association of British Travel Agents,

which represents some of the biggest names in the business,

whether it thinks we're being misled.

It told us that travel pricing is "very fluid and dynamic"

and that, sometimes, especially when there's a good deal on offer,

a price is no longer available by the time a customer

comes to book it.

But it reiterated that, under the rules, this is "acceptable,"

as long as a certain number of holiday or flights

were initially available at the advertised price.

But as far as Paul's concerned, the price you see

should be the one you pay.

My message to the industry is, give us more bargains

and stop trying to rip us off, adding extras.

Include them in one price, so that we know exactly what the price is.

# For my holidays... #

Still to come on Rip-Off Britain... What's the best way to get

the cheapest price on a hotel room?

An online booking site or calling up direct?

We've done a test, to find out.

So for the double room showing at 130, would you do that

at a better price over the phone?

Now, when we're in a lovely sunny spot like this, in Lanzarote,

we may be getting a bit better at protecting our skin

from all the rays. But what about our eyes?

Well, of course, we rely on these, our trusty sunglasses.

But it's not always easy to work out

which ones will be the most effective.

And while you might think that, when it comes to the safety of your eyes,

it pays to shell out a little bit more,

to get the best protection you can afford,

in fact, as you'll see, that's not necessarily the case.

Round frames, butterfly,

ribless, aviator... You name it, there's a pair for you.

And with looking good in the sun a real priority for some people,

it's no wonder that the real job of sunglasses

sometimes gets overlooked.

What do you look for in a pair of sunglasses?

Quality, really. You know they're not going to break.

Reliability. Hopefully, they'll last a long time.

I like them quite dark, because I suffer with migraines,

so like to have them nice and dark, so the sun's not glaring in my eyes.

Style. I like that type of style, so I do. Nice bulky lens.

But however high the fashion stakes,

President of the Association of British Dispensing Opticians,

Peter Black, says the most crucial role of whatever shades you buy

is protecting your eyes from harmful ultra-violet rays, even in the UK.

So, UV protection's very important for the eye.

We know that UV causes sunburn.

We protect our skin and we also need to protect our eyes.

Not wearing shades on sunny days can do serious damage to your eyes

and speed up the development of conditions such as cataracts

and macular degeneration.

So, how much do you have to pay to find a pair of specs

that properly protect your peepers?

Well, we've brought five pairs of differently-priced sunglasses

to Liverpool Airport, where Peter's on hand to ask holidaymakers

which shades they reckon will provide the best protection

from the sun's UV rays.

These ones, they may look cool.

They may make you look like you're from Top Gun,

but then, they're not very good protection,

because you can see through them easily and it's not very dark.

The darker they are, the better it is, I reckon.

These are awesome.

They're really cool, really funky, quite light

and they've got really good protection.

I think, for the price, £20, that's pretty good.

Because if you don't want to burn your eyes out,

then these are perfect - and you look cool while doing it.

So, win-win.

Oh, £195!

-They feel... They don't feel...

-You look like Lara Croft!

Now, these are very light, indeed.

And also, looking at the lights, it really does block it out.

So, which sunglasses do our travellers think are

the top of the range for UV protection?

I think these are the best. They're £195.

They're super-lightweight, very comfortable and nice, dark lenses.

So, I think it offers really good UV protection.

195 is quite steep for them,

but you get what you pay for, in my opinion.

All right, which one's best, then?

They're £60, so you'd expect them to be quite good.

I would probably go for that one, maybe being the least,

just because it's got blue, tinty stuff.

We thought, as they were the most expensive, they must,

in some way, protect your eyesight even more, because of the price.

But not everyone thought the sunglasses with the designer

price tags would better protect their eyes from UV.

What do you think? What'll I go with?

-I want them ones.

-As the best? We'll go with that one for the best,

that one for second.

I think these are the best, cos they seem thicker and stronger lenses.

Flimsier ones, sort of, to the end. See if that's any good.

Although we heard lots of theories about which sunglasses

would best protect our eyes from UV rays,

there was total agreement on one pair.

No-one thought that this £1 pair would cut the mustard.

But, in fact, they were all wrong. Whatever the price,

every pair was as the good as the others.

-Are you joking?

-No way.

-How is this?

-These.

-I'm pleased, because I always buy cheap sunglasses,

because they either break in my handbag, get scratched or get lost.

# Go get yourself some cheap sunglasses. #

And it's not just these five pairs that will protect your eyes from

the UV rays hitting them, because every pair of sunglasses

on sale in the UK has to do that, whether they cost £1, £100

or even more.

-Right!

-So, you're just paying more money for the design.

It goes to show, doesn't it?

You think, "Oh, £1 - they wouldn't be up to much."

Of course, that's not quite the whole story.

While, in theory, you should be confident you'd get great

UV protection from any pair of sunglasses you buy in the UK,

that doesn't mean that any old pair will do.

Can I have a look at the fit of them?

Some sunnies really should still be left in the shade,

-because they simply don't fit properly.

-They're a great fit.

They wrap all the way round, so you're not going to get sunlight

round the side, either. So, that's really good.

If sunglasses are too small or don't fit well,

UV light can get to your eyes around the edges.

-They're a nice fit.

-Yeah.

Nice round the bridge and they give good coverage.

I've got an ear that's lower this side, as well.

So, they do fit and feel quite nice.

And just like their skin,

children's eyes are more sensitive than adults',

so making sure kids have sunglasses that fit well is really important.

Can I just check the fit of your sunglasses?

The sunlight can come in over the top of those.

So, it is always advisable to wear a hat, as well,

if your sunglasses fit that way. Let's have a look at yours on.

They're slipping a little bit, so they could be better.

-An optician may be able to adjust those for you...

-OK.

..so that they sit a little bit higher.

-Yours fit pretty well, actually. So, they're very good.

-Excellent.

Just about everyone who's been through Peter's sunglasses clinic

so far has owned a pair of shades that they bought from

a high street shop in the UK, which means they should comply with

the rules and provide proper protection against UV rays.

But next, he meets a holidaymaker with somewhat-suspect sunnies.

Can I ask you where you got them from?

-Some beachfront, somewhere.

-On a beach, OK.

-And how much did you pay for them?

-Three euros, at best.

About three euros, OK.

Frames manufactured and sold outside Europe don't have to comply

with EU rules. And whilst you might think they're doing their job,

they could offer dangerously low levels of UV protection.

What we're going to do now is test them for UV protection, OK?

To check out these fake designer shades out properly,

Peter shone an ultraviolet torch through the lenses

and onto a UV reader, so he could measure how much UV passed through.

If they were doing the right job, the reading should show zero,

with no UV getting through the lenses.

This meter shows we've got about 234 units of UV coming out the torch.

With your lenses, we've still got 150. We should have zero.

If they were to British standards, they would give 100% protection.

Uh-oh. And worse still, wearing ineffective sunglasses

like these could be more dangerous than not wearing them at all.

If you have dark glasses and they don't give you UV protection,

what happens is, your pupils dilate and it lets through more UV

to the back of the eye. So, although they may make things

a little more comfortable, because they're dark, actually you'd

be well advised not to wear them and to treat yourself to some others.

So, when it comes to sunglasses, it seems that a good pair

needn't be an expensive pair. And as our holidaymakers depart,

with all the knowledge they need to protect their eyes,

Peter's pleased that his tests have had such positive results.

It's been a really successful day here at Liverpool Airport.

I think the overriding message is that all of the sunglasses

we have tested from reputable dealers - from shops,

from opticians, from chemists - have all been really good

and have given 100% protection.

The ones that have failed the test have all been fake, you know,

and I think there's a lesson there that we need to buy

our sunglasses from a shop that we can trust.

Our travel expert Simon Calder is sharing his top tips

on favourite destinations across the globe.

This time...

India.

India's attracting more Brits than ever before

and most will start their trip with a stopover in the country's capital.

But watch out. The squeeze on your wallet could start straight away.

Arriving at Delhi Airport can be completely bewildering.

There seem to be 10,000 taxi drivers and you can't really work out

who is trustworthy and who isn't.

Instead, though, take the new metro system,

which will whisk you into the heart of the city.

It's swift, it's safe, it's clean, it's comfortable

and it's cheaper than a taxi.

If you're short of time, it may not be the obvious sights

you should try and squeeze in.

It's tempting to think, "Oh, I'll go across to the city of Agra

"and visit the Taj Mahal". But that's a journey that can take

up to six hours. Instead, I recommend you visit the wonderful

Lotus Temple, just a few miles from Delhi Airport

and on the city's metro system. It gives the Taj a run for its money.

It's a great place to escape the hustle and bustle

of the Indian capital and, unlike the Taj, it's completely free.

After the chaos of the capital,

you may be planning to see what else India has to offer.

But make sure you're on your guard, as you set off.

India, in my experience, has about one billion friendly,

helpful people...

..and a few hundred rascals,

who tend to congregate around New Delhi railway station.

They're trying to trick new arrivals into thinking that their train

is fully booked or cancelled. They want to sell you, instead,

an overpriced, slow and less-safe car transfer.

Sometimes, they'll even try it on on the platform.

It's a scam. Don't fall for it!

And if you're off to the country's breathtaking beach resorts,

there's another scam to keep in mind.

Thieves on motorbikes have been known to ride the coast road,

dazzling tourists with full-beam headlights,

before snatching their bags.

So, stick to well-lit areas and keep your wits about you!

These days, when it comes to booking a hotel,

it's very easy to find yourself spoilt for choice.

The internet is awash with deals, offers and discounts.

But does that really mean we're getting the best possible price?

Or could it be that the old-fashioned way of actually

ringing up a hotel direct may still be the best way to bag a bargain?

Well, on your behalf, we've put that to the test.

If there's one thing that the Welsh seaside towns know how to do

-it's bed and breakfast accommodation.

-Good morning, Langland Road.

And Giles and David are a good example of how to get it right,

as their B&B is ticking over nicely.

-Some tea...

-A good chunk of their bookings used to come

via referrals from the local tourist information centre,

but when they heard that was due to close in December 2014,

they started to wonder if they were missing a trick.

We chatted to the ladies in the tourist information centre

and they told us that everyone books online now,

so people don't book through them. But when we looked into it,

we realised that a lot of people will book through booking agents.

The booking agents in question are the sort of accommodation websites

that many of us immediately turn to, when looking for somewhere to stay.

So, to make sure they were attracting the highest possible number

of bookings, Giles and David decided it might be worth their while

signing up to some of these sites, as well.

But that came at a price.

The booking agents took 15%, plus VAT, of the total cost

of the stay in the bed and breakfast, yes?

Which meant that, for five rooms let,

one room was given over in commission,

paying to the booking agents.

As they thought about it further, they realised that,

in addition to them paying out for being on these sites,

the customers using them to make a booking might not always

be getting the best deal, either.

We always knew that, if someone phoned us direct,

asked us a direct question, "How much can you do a room for?"

we knew that the booking agents would be charging us money

to get that booking, so we could offer the customers directly

a discount, thus saving the customer money and, thus, saving us money.

Their worries didn't end there.

They became concerned at the way people booking a room through these

sites might be encouraged to believe they were getting a special rate.

When we were working with the booking agents, we noticed that

our guests would arrive in the B&B and they'd show us

their booking confirmation and, often, that booking confirmation

would show the word "deal" and we could never understand

why it would mention the word deal, because there was no deal.

They were paying the same price that everyone else was paying.

Unclear as to what these "deals" were, the owners went online,

to check out their own listing.

But when they did, as well as finding so-called deals that,

as far as they were concerned, were just the standard tariff,

they were also baffled by references to apparent bookings

they knew nothing about.

Often, we'd click on our listing with the booking agent

and a little message would come up and it would say, last booking was

-for example, three or four hours ago.

-And we'd look at our e-mails

and we hadn't had an booking. It was just some kind of marketing spin,

-to encourage the customer to book it.

-And many times, guests would

turn up and say, "I booked your last room. I'm so pleased I booked it."

-And there'd be a vacancy sign in the window.

-Yeah, because they

-hadn't booked the last room.

-You may have seen such messages yourself

and perhaps been spurred on to book, because of them.

So concerned the world of the online booking sites

wasn't doing their business the favours they'd hoped for,

-the B&B boys made a decision.

-We decided to take ourselves off

the booking websites and take only direct bookings

for this summer, 2015.

And it's worked out very, very well.

We've had the best summer we've ever had.

David and Giles say they've been able to offer their best price to

more customers, because their guests haven't had to pay the middleman -

these internet booking agents.

And they're so evangelical that booking direct with the hotel

is the best way to go, that we asked them to test it out.

They're checking out the prices of several UK hotels

on some of the big booking sites. But will they be able to book a room

at a better rate by calling those hotels directly?

I've got one here now. Chain hotel in Central London,

advertises a three-star deal, with the last booking one hour ago,

for £77, for two people, However, I've just looked

direct on their website and, for the same date,

they've got a room available for £59.

A saving of...£18.

And on the phone, it's not long before they're ringing up

more savings at the other hotels they've been looking into.

So, for the double room showing at 130, would you do that

for a better price over the phone?

So, you'd take £10 off, for a double room, for two nights?

Aw, there we are. Thank you very much for that. I'll think about that

and phone you back. She'd take £10 off for a two-night stay.

Excellent. That's a couple of pints!

It seems our B&B owners' theory is proved right,

as they very quickly discover there are savings to be made

by the direct approach or, indeed, other benefits, too.

So, I've got one night here, at a chain hotel in lovely Swansea.

On the booking agent's site, it's £95.

However, if I go direct to the hotelier's own website...

..it, yet again, is £95, but they're offering a direct £10 credit

to spend on extras, per room.

-Oh, some free wine.

-Excellent. Let's go.

Oh, hi, I'm just looking online at coming to stay with you.

If I book over the phone, can you do a better rate?

So, for 58.

So, what's that? That's 116.

Well, that's a £2 saving.

Oh, I'll have half a lager!

-OK, where shall we go next, then?

-Shall we go north?

-Yeah, let's try Llandudno.

-Oh, Llandudno.

Right, I'm looking on a booking agent's website

and a price has come up for £140.

Would you be able to give me a better price over the phone?

-He'd take £10 off, for a two-night stay.

-Excellent. Another result.

Back at Rip-Off Britain HQ, we decided to test this out

a little bit further.

Using several of the best-known accommodation booking sites,

we checked the price of a two-night stay in a double room for two people

at 39 randomly-chosen hotels and B&Bs. We then compared that cost

with what we'd pay contacting the hotel directly.

And there were some significant differences.

A B&B in Kent quoted a price of £30 cheaper,

when we called them up ourselves.

A guesthouse in Edinburgh was £20 cheaper, if you booked direct.

And our biggest saving was on a central London hotel,

where the price on its own website was a massive £309 cheaper

for a two-night stay than it would cost with the online booking agent.

But not every place we looked at offered a better price direct.

The online booking sites did also have some genuine deals.

One central Manchester hotel was £60 cheaper if you booked

with the online agency. And the cost of booking

a hotel in York was almost £36 lower with the third-party booking agency

than on its own website.

But overall, while the results of our little test were rather mixed,

booking direct with the hotel did work out cheaper

in the majority of cases. 12 of the places we tried offered

the same price, no matter which way you booked.

Ten of the 39 were cheaper through the booking sites,

but 17 of our 39 rooms proved better value

if we contacted the hotel direct.

We put our test results to some of the best-known online booking sites.

Not all of them wanted to comment, but those that did, told us that

it is the hotels themselves that set the prices on their sites and agree

whether or not a rate is advertised as a "deal".

The booking sites pointed out that, in return for their commission,

they provide invaluable marketing services to accommodation providers,

targeting "a wide-ranging consumer base" that the individual hotels

"wouldn't otherwise reach".

And one major site was keen to emphasise that it doesn't take

any money from its hotel partners until a booking is actually made.

So, the hotels, essentially, benefit from free marketing.

And as for those times when customers are told that rooms are running out,

the booking sites explained that this refers to the limited number of rooms

they have been allocated, rather than what might be available

in the entire hotel.

But perhaps the best advice is to not take what you see on these sites

at face value or assume it's the best available price.

Always compare the cost they show with what you'd get from

the hotel direct, which is certainly what David and Giles will be doing.

My golden rule would be to use the booking agent,

look for availability and then go direct.

Whenever you've got a middleman, the middleman needs paying, doesn't he?

Earlier in the programme, we revealed that,

when it comes to sunglasses, it really doesn't matter what you pay.

Provided they fit properly, any pair bought in the UK

should properly protect your eyes from harmful UV rays.

But it's not just sunglasses where paying more makes very

little difference to what you end up with.

There are a whole host of holiday health essentials

you don't need to blow the budget on, as Dr Jane Wilson explains.

Paracetamol. It's a brilliant drug.

It's very good as a basic pain reliever.

It gets fever down and it's an absolute travel essential.

Not only that, paracetamol is a particularly cheap drug

and it's particularly good value if you don't buy into big brands.

For example, the smallest packet

can cost you anything from 19p to £1.29, with the same

active ingredients and the same number of tablets.

Traveller's tummy - it's very common.

As much as one-third of people travelling to southern Europe

in the summer can be struck, so it's important to know how to treat it.

A lot of people use oral rehydration salts.

These work really well, but you can save a packet, by learning

to make your own solution. So, here's how...

You take a spoonful of sugar, level it with a knife,

Another one. And then a third one.

Then, next, a little bit of salt -

about a quarter of a teaspoonful. You put that in.

Then, if you can, you go to the bar and get some lime to squeeze in.

So, stir it up...

..and drink it down. Cheers.

Hand sanitizers. People have them in their handbags.

We see them in hospitals and quite a lot of people pack them

when they go on holiday.

This little bottle costs £1.49,

but if you want good cleaning power, travel with a humble bar of soap.

You can pick them up for free in hotels. You get better

cleaning power for less money than an alcohol gel.

Antihistamines. They're very good to pack when you're going on holiday.

They're not only good for hay fever, they're really good if you get stung

or bitten or have a reaction to something weird you've eaten.

Astonishingly, if you buy the top brands, it can cost you

as much as 49p for one antihistamine tablet,

whereas other brands can be as cheap as 5p a tablet.

There are two very effective antihistamines -

one is loratadine, the other, cetirizine.

If either of those are in the packet, they will work

extremely well and you don't need to buy the top brands.

And now you have saved all that money, you will be able

to treat yourself to another ice cream on the beach!

Well, I hope you'll agree that we really have packed

a tremendous amount of advice into the programme today.

We certainly very much hope some of it can save you money in the future.

I'm going to be keeping in mind that tip about calling up hotels

in person, to see if you can get a better price,

because it is all too easy to be swayed by all those websites

that claim to offer "a very special rate, just for you".

And while I'm absolutely with you, Angela, on the business of those

single supplements, what really stuck out for me today

was the bombshell that spending more on sunglasses doesn't mean you're

getting any better protection.

That should really give you something to think about

and save you some cash, leaving you more to spend

-when you get to your destination.

-We're all for that. And we certainly

hope that, wherever you are going on holiday this year,

whether it's as sunny as here in Lanzarote or closer to home,

that you'll be able to get the best holiday you can

for the best price you can.

And can find a reminder of some of today's money-saving tips

on our website, at...

Or, of course you can always share

your own holiday advice on our Facebook page, as well.

But that's where we have to leave it for this time.

We'll see you very soon, with more of your stories. In the meantime,

-from all of us, bye-bye.

-Bye.

-Bye.