Martin Lewis says ‘cancel it’ to people with hotels booked this summer | Personal Finance | Finance

Money expert Martin Lewis has shared a key tip to people going on holiday this summer which can save you big money on your hotel or car hire.

The Money Saving Expert founder returned last Tuesday with a one-off Summer Special of his ITV show, The Martin Lewis Money Show Live, in which he shared a range of top holiday tips for this summer that could save you big money. One tip which helped one of his audience members save a lot of money is about rebooking and cancelling your hotel – which Martin stressed must be done in that order.

Usually, booking early is the cheapest way to get a hotel, car hire or other holiday related booking, Martin told his ITV1 viewers. But sometimes, perhaps due to unsold allocation, last minute deals can be even cheaper than early deals. 

And with many holiday bookings offering free cancellation, it’s sometimes cheaper to rebook your hotel or car hire again at a lower price, and then cancel the original, Martin said.

He stressed, though, that you must rebook first, then cancel, and not the other way around, because sometimes the new price might not be valid or might have hidden fees, so you need to make sure the new deal is actually going to save you money before you scrap your first booking.

Martin Lewis said: “The rebook trick. If your hotel or car hire is cheaper now than when you booked it, that’s what you need to be checking. Now this is crucial if you have free or cheap cancellation… Keep checking the prices, and then if it’s dropped, really weirdly early booking is generally cheaper but if they don’t sell then late booking is really cheap or really expensive so you just need to keep checking. If the prices drop, rebook and cancel. 

“Really important you do it this way round, because you might have found a false price, or as you go to pay for it, it’s suddenly a lot more expensive. If you don’t want it and you’ve already cancelled then you’re in the poo poo, so you don’t want that to happen.”

Martin then heard from Lisa, who took out a two week car hire in Spain. The price started at £405, she cancelled and rebooked a staggering eight times, picked up an SUV on May 6 for £94, saving £311, and a free upgrade.

The Martin Lewis Money Show Live Summer Special episode is still available to watch via catchup service ITVX.