All that you need to know about diy-hols.com

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The history of diy-hols.com

diy-hols.com were established in 2001 to offer airport transfers throughout Europe. As more and more people began to make their own independent travel arrangements we identified the need to offer clients the opportunity to book their airport transfers in advance of travel. By booking their transfers online our clients avoided the need to join the long taxi queues on arrival at a strange foreign airport. We also aimed to offer our clients a fixed fare at the time of booking so they knew exactly what fare they would be paying on arrival.

From commencing operations from Malaga in 2001 we now have partners in over 30 European destinations and carry around 2000 clients per month for a number of tour operators and independent travellers.

How to we keep our fares so low ?

Various companies offer airport transfers over the internet. In order to offer our clients the best possible rates we operate to a different business plan than other operators.

The majority of companies that offer transfers over the internet are travel agencies. They operate with selected transfer companies at the resorts and generally take payment at the time of booking from the client.

diy-hols.com are transport brokers. We understand that various transfer companies at one destination can offer better rates for different sized vehicles or to different holiday resorts. Certain companies can at times have offers which we are advised of, we then inform any of our potential clients of these deals. We generally do not take payment at the time of booking, the client pays on arrival at resort, or their credit card is charged directly by the transfer company at resort a couple of days prior to arrival.

Compare our fares with other similar companies and you will discover that in the majority of cases our transfers are around 10-30% cheaper. This is how competing companies generally form their fares.

• They source a taxi/minibus company at the resort. They negotiate a set of fares to the popular holiday resorts served from that particular airport.
• The travel company then add around 10 % commission for their own profit
• Most of the other travel companies also work with airlines or large travel agencies who also take a large cut of the fare. A further 10-20 % is added to the fare to cover this commission payment.
• The other travel companies take full payment at the time of reservation over the internet. Payment is generally made by credit card from the customer. The credit card companies charge the company between 2-5 % commission on this sale. A further 2-5 % is therefore added to the cost of the transfer.
• At the end of the month the travel company must transfer all of the payments (minus their large commissions) to the taxi operator concerned. The payment is generally made by bank transfer. The bank usually charges a fixed percentage supplement for making this transaction. This supplement is generally added to your fare.
• When you make a reservation with other companies you pay the full fare at the time of booking. Obviously your money is making the company extra income through interest whilst it is sat in their bank account prior to your arrival at resort ! Where possible we try to negotiate deals for our clients where in many cases you pay only or small deposit, or the full fare on arrival.

diy-hols.com are brokers rather than agents therefore your fare will be lower because

• We generally source a number of companies at each resort. Each company specialises in a certain type of vehicle for each price range. With each taxi or coach company we generally negotiate a discount of 10% from their public rates which is the way that we make our profit. The taxi company are happy to give us the discounted rate as we make "bulk" bookings through them, they also know that they must offer our clients an excellent service as we send them a lot of business.
• We do not generally need to add any commission onto the base fare as the 10% has already been discounted of the published fare for us.
• Most of our sales are direct to the client. Where we do work with tour operators and agents they generally share the 10% discount with us, we take 5% and they take 5%.
• In many cases we do not take payments direct from the client. The payment is made by the client direct to the taxi or coach company, usually in cash on arrival at resort. For this reason there is no need to add any further amount to the fare to cover credit card costs.
• At the end of the month we have no payments to make to the taxi operators as we do not take payment from the client. There is therefore no need to add a further supplement to the fare to cover bank transfer costs.

Watch out for these other hidden extras !

• You may see companies advertise very cheap looking fares for example 5 euros per person. These fares are usually based on 16 passengers sharing a minibus. When obtaining a quote always ask for the cost of the vehicle, not per person.
• Some companies will let you almost complete the booking process before dropping the bombshell that there is a 30% night time or weekend supplement to add, or a 5% credit card charge.
• You may be charged a large supplement in the event that your inbound flight is delayed.
• The transfer company may charge you a large supplement for carrying golf clubs, skis, snowboards etc.
• You may be charged extra if you require a child seat.

diy-hols.com will make it clear on the relevant resort page is any of the above charges apply to your journey before the booking process begins.