Nothing beats paying under the odds for your holiday. Some travel deal sites and clubs are excellent at finding a good price, but, with others, details in the T&Cs can lead to unwelcome surprises later on.
Some sites track down the best prices from airlines and hotels, while others negotiate deals for their members directly with holiday companies.
In both cases, being flexible about dates and destinations will get you the best deal. So, where are the winning deals? Topping our table were Which? Recommended Providers Travelzoo and Luxury Escapes. Our research shows they get you more for your money while keeping their booking conditions friendly and transparent.
At Travelzoo, we found a five-star stay near Buckingham Palace with breakfast and a champagne afternoon tea for £329 (£61 cheaper than anywhere else we looked). Plus, a package to Rhodes from Bristol was nearly £100 more per person with another package provider.
And we couldn’t find a deal as cheap as Luxury Escapes offered to a five-star resort in the Maldives – even without included extras like a free sunset dolphin cruise.
Not everything we found was a bargain. Some sites come with rigid and confusing terms, and others don’t make it clear enough that your holiday is with a third-party company. This is important because it’s the third party you need to deal with if something goes wrong.
We know that transparency of costs is key. That’s why, alongside customer ratings, our scores include an expert assessment of other factors. And here, our expert analysis found transparency was often lacking. Some sites change the final price when you click through to pay, or inflate or obscure how the pre-discount ‘before’ price was calculated. So here’s how to spot real value.
This article first appeared in Which? Travel magazine. We don’t accept freebies from travel companies, airlines, or hotels, so you can be sure that our investigations, recommendations, and reviews are completely unbiased.
What the ‘before’ price really means
The first question when looking at deals is whether the saving is genuine. The best sites are clear and upfront about where the all-important ‘before’ price came from, rather than burying it in the T&Cs – or not mentioning it at all.
For example, Travelzoo explains the saving in each deal’s description. Say a deal offers a discount on a hotel rate compared to booking direct with the hotel, it will tell you. Some prices are more difficult to verify. We couldn’t find an explanation of how Travelodeal’s deals, or some of Voyage Privé’s discounts, were calculated. Even if a site gives an explanation of where the ‘before’ price comes from, big discounts have been found to be misleading before.
In February 2025, the ASA ruled that Secret Escapes broke UK advertising rules because it artificially inflated the ‘standard’ price used for claimed savings. It added the monetary value of extra perks, like a £20 late check-out fee, to the ‘before’ price prior to calculating the discount, which the ASA determined was not the true market price of the room. With flight and accommodation prices constantly changing, it can be impossible to know where the best price is.
Don’t take the deal site’s word for it. For holiday and activity deals, check the price directly, or phone up and haggle. Use Google Hotels to compare prices for accommodation and Skyscanner for flights.
Best flight, hotel and holiday deal sites
Overall score is based on customer score and Which? expert assessment. Customer score is based on a statistical analysis applied to the customers’ satisfaction with the brand and likelihood to recommend it. Star ratings are based on the survey, expert assessment, or a combination of both. Survey conducted in January-February 2026 with 700 adults – members of the Which? Connect panel and members of the public – who told us about 1,064 experiences with deal sites and travel clubs in the past two years. The survey was distributed to a representative sample of people. The final data has not been weighted and may not be representative of the target population.
How to read the fine print on bargain voucher sites
On websites like Groupon, ThingsToDo (formerly Living Social), and Wowcher, instead of paying directly for a travel deal, you buy what is essentially a discount voucher and redeem it against a holiday afterwards. But this leaves the door open for unpredictable surcharges later.
Deals in the form of a voucher appear on lots of deals sites, but these bargain sites often advertise the cheapest possible ‘from’ price. Choosing your preferred dates, departure airport and flight times will often cost more. And, with budget airlines, expect to pay more for luggage and to choose your seats later.
Under the DMCC Act 2024, sites are not supposed to add admin fees at checkout or exclude resort and tourist fees from initial prices. But it hasn’t stopped some from doing so, which can add hundreds to your final bill.
In short, the starting price and the price you pay are rarely the same. The nastiest surprise comes if you’re not happy with extra costs and have booked a non-refundable voucher. You’re then either forced to pay more to book something as simple as dates that work for your schedule – or perhaps avoid an 11pm flight – or lose the cost of the voucher.
We would avoid voucher sites, but, if you do find a deal you like, read the fine print closely.
Travelzoo review 80%
For a £30 annual fee, you get access to the member rates Travelzoo negotiates on everything from short UK stays and long-haul package holidays to days out and theatre tickets. The offers were consistently praised for their value by customers: ‘I’ve always found their deals to be genuinely high quality and better than what I can find anywhere else,’ one told us.
Each listing is clear on what’s included in the offer and how to book, although some customers found the deals that can only be booked by ringing up a travel company or hotel were less convenient. Five stars for clarity of deals and four for pricing transparency is perhaps why one loyal member has booked over 100 deals and only ever encountered one issue.
Verdict: It works hard to get members real savings.
Discover bargains on Travelzoo
Luxury Escapes review 75%
Luxury Escapes seeks to provide high-end experiences with negotiated discounts and freebies. Browsing deals is easy and you can often build a package with flights. Although listings look glossy, holidaymakers said ‘pictures were unedited’ and were a ‘real representation’.
The included extras stood out to travellers, often going well beyond free drinks to things like free seaplane transfers and spa treatments. Customers felt taken care of and members can contact Luxury Escapes 24/7 for assistance. You can book deals for free, but the paid membership provides higher discounts and more extras. It’s £129 a year plus a £250 joining fee (waived if booking a trip), but you might offset the cost after a few bookings.
Verdict: High-end travel with exclusive perks and prices
Find a holiday deal with Luxury Escapes
Jack’s Flight Club review 72%
With Jack’s Flight Club, you don’t have to hunt for deals on the site yourself. It emails out price drops, early sales and error fares on flights for free – you get more if you pay for membership. We checked three of its deals – all were available for the advertised price and seemed genuinely good compared to other fares, including a £320 return to Montreal. Its best deals are usually on long-haul journeys like this, and often with lesser-known or budget airlines that may involve connections. Price drops to Europe crop up regularly, too. You get six to eight tips a month for free, but these aren’t personalised to your departure airport. For premium, pay £1 for a 30-day trial, which then rolls over into the annual £48 plan (unless you cancel) – and you can set preferred airports. You’ll get 25 to 40 tips. Finding Jack’s tip-off fares on the actual airline websites can be a bit fiddly, but it does give incredibly detailed instructions.
Wowcher review 71%
There are some good discounts on Wowcher, but our checks left us less impressed than we were with other profiled sites. Plus, it added an admin fee to all the deals we checked, so beware of the upsell. Wowcher tells businesses looking to join its platform: ‘Most customers will spend more with you than the cost of the original voucher.’ A mystery holiday is an example of where you might be upsold. ‘Maldives, Barbados, Thailand, Las Vegas…’ Wowcher’s headline reads – all from £99 per person. But its T&Cs say just six couples in 2,000 get to visit those destinations. Most end up in European cities such as Cologne or Riga. Want to fly from a nearby regional airport? You may incur a fee of up to £40 per person. (Groupon’s mystery deal we looked at also incurs a fee of £40 if you don’t fly from London.) And don’t forget that only an under-seat bag is guaranteed, potentially leaving you having to pay for hold baggage.
Search travel offers on Wowcher
Groupon review 63%
Groupon, like Wowcher, acts as a marketplace for businesses. On Groupon, companies can post their own offers to members, which means they can write their own adverts and claims, although Groupon says on its website that it verifies deals before they’re set live. Despite this, could the lack of control have dragged down its customer service and transparency of fee ratings to two stars? Check which company you’re booking with, as not all listed on a voucher site may be ones you’d trust with your holiday. The three Groupon deals we analysed were good, though, including a swanky four-star hotel, The Alan, in Manchester, which was £63 instead of the £114 direct. It even showed when and where it sourced its ‘before’ price from. Despite a few gripes, customers still felt that they got a good deal overall, awarding Groupon a four-star rating for value for money.
Scour Groupon for holiday deals
How to check flight and hotel deals are genuine
No matter how good a deal looks, always do your sums to work out whether you’re making a genuine saving. If it’s a package deal, for example, check what it would cost to book the same airfares and hotel directly. But remember, if you book it this way, you won’t be protected by Package Travel Regulations, which we’d highly recommend. See what protection this provides in our Package Travel Regulations guide.
When sense-checking hotel-only deals, ensure you compare like for like. Check the room type, board basis, plus any extras that may have been thrown into the deal, such as afternoon tea.
How to get 10% off your next holiday booking with cashback sites
Can’t find a deal you want or stuck with particular travel dates? Save instead by using a cashback site, such as Quidco or Topcashback. These essentially offer you a percentage discount on many popular holiday and hotel sites, including Jet2, Kayak, Trainline, Virgin Atlantic, plus a variety of UK airport car parks and hundreds of other travel brands.
You pay the full amount upfront, then the cashback site will issue you with a saving recouped from the booking as cash in your account. This can take up to a few months. There are no hidden tricks here but, before committing to buying through a cashback site, shop around for the best deal, including with airlines and holiday companies not linked to cashback sites.
