Agents have told TTG the lates market is unfolding similarly to last year, with the hangover from the pandemic and subsequent cost of living squeeze forcing consumers to wait that bit longer before committing to a booking.

Oasis Travel managing director Sandra Corkin said Oasis had “a fantastic July”, with lates constituting around half of bookings, while Karen Marin Reyes said her agency La Vida Travel was having "a really good run". "We’re finding 99% of people coming in making late bookings."

Paul Waters, managing director of Premier Travel, said around a third of all bookings made in one of the last weeks of July were for holidays departing between July and September.

"It varies month-by-month, but we have seen a lot of family bookings for July and August, while September has been our strongest booking month and customers are predominantly couples," he said.

Reyes agreed. She told TTG that while families were proving hesitant and booking "a bit more last-minute", they were still keen to get away, with Mediterranean destinations proving popular owing to its proximity.

"A lot are asking for two- or three-hour flights – they don’t seem to want to fly any further," Reyes said, something she put down to recent air travel disruption.

Ponders Travel managing director Clare Dudley flagged the popularity of Greece and Turkey for all-inclusive stays and were preparing to pay a premium for the certainty.

"We certainly don’t have people with silly budgets, everything has been fairly sensible,” said Dudley. “It’s been nice because we’ve managed to make a good margin as they all have been decently priced holidays.”

Karl Douglas, co-owner of Beverley Travel, last year’s UK & Ireland No.1 agency in the Top 50 Travel Agencies by TTG, said people were ending up paying more by waiting as prices have increased throughout the summer period.

“Customers booking now are going to pay more than they would have paid if they had booked in January,” he continues. “I would always say book as early as you can to secure what you want.”

Not every agency has had a stellar lates period, though. Thorne Travel managing director Shona Thorne said many Thorne clients had banked on prices dropping further than they have, and were pivoting to booking ahead for summer 2025 instead.

"We think people didn’t factor in how expensive the lates market was going to be," she said. "Customers thought prices would come down a lot more than they actually have.”