Travel advice: We all want a good deal when we go on holiday, so lets avoid extra charges.

Tip: Book hotels instead of self catering or DIY your next trip. Prices: Start at just £129 for hotel offers.

For families count children as adults and the cost will come down, for example 2 adults 2 children you would get one free child place and then have extra charges to pay, but it if you put the children in as adults there are no under occupancy charges and can be cheaper…

Book the accommodation and then add flights is the modern way to book holidays..

So what can you do to avoid paying those under occupancy charges and save extra £££’s, well if there are just 2 of you consider a hotel booking instead which can work out cheaper for you.

For eg Thomson holidays offer superb deals, but can be pricey on under occupancy charges for self catering so here are a few examples..

The same rules apply to Thomas Cook Portland Mytravel Jet2holidays.

Thomson Gatwick 06/01/09 7 Paraiso 10 Apartments Spain » Costa Blanca 3T SC from £129pp which for 2 adults works out at £178 per person and increase of almost £50 per person.

Thomson same dates are offering a half board deal for £169 per person bases in 3 star accomodation at Bali Hotel & Studios Benalmadena, Costa Del Sol 7 Nights Half Board Tue 06/01/2009 for a week. and you get breakfast and evening meal

As an alternative you can also book your own holiday by adding accommodation and flight separately.

So to sum up always look for the hotel option to avoid occupancy charges for families it is cheaper at times to count children as adults even with so called free child places.

This is a Consumer travel advice & issues post by Cheaperholidays.com - Cheap holidays from the UK -

Avoid under occupancy charges