Inclusive Tour tickets / Superbreak alternatives

Does anyone know of any other companies that offer these following the collapse of Superbreak? They involve a packaged hotel and train ticket.

I had booked through Superbreak a number of times as it was surprisingly often cheaper to get such a deal than buy a pair of advances on the same booked trains.

I may be wrong, but I think that hoteldirect.co.uk is the only other online option that sells from live availability.

Most, if not all, the alternatives were using a Superbreak (so-called) white label back-end, rebranded to the the alternative website's colours.

Sad news for all involved, and I would previously have thought that there'd be a good business, still, for a small but focussed rail package provider in the UK.

That they 'only' had 400 customers away at the moment suggests, however, that the business is not currently as large as I had supposed.

Ah cheers for reply. Sadly hoteldirect appears to be quite a lot more expensive. Hopefully something will emerge.

A company called ukbreakaways.com offer hotel breaks in central London inclusive of rail travel.

The company are part of Shearings Holidays/National Holidays, they even use some of the same hotels that Superbreak offered.

Llandudno said:

A company called ukbreakaways.com offer hotel breaks in central London inclusive of rail travel.

The company are part of Shearings Holidays/National Holidays, they even use some of the same hotels that Superbreak offered.

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I’m not entirely sure how ukbreakaways works, but it’s not quite the same as Superbreak was. ukbreakaways seems to sell a hotel with a rail add-on at a fixed supplement, as opposed to a combined price which doesn’t disclose the component part costs.

However, a quick check of a random date shows ukbreakaways selling The Royal National at £139.90 for a given night, when The Royal National public direct rate is only £116. Given agency commission, that means a minimum of about £35 in margin on the hotel alone, with the customer ‘overpaying’ by £24. As is say, I don’t know how they issue the rail tickets and what availability is like, though.

Superbreak packages, of course, effectively included a warrant to travel, with limited restrictions and, I think, no quotas - other than potentially not being able to get a seat reservation.

The ukbreakaways.com prices seem to be fixed and not seasonally adjusted. Whereas I would imagine the hotel directly would flex prices upward at busy times, Saturday nights maybe or when there is a major event taking place in London, football, concerts, test matches etc?

It looks as though the ukbreakaways.com packages which include theatre or concert tickets stay in a different hotel, The Tavistock (I have stayed there, it’s pretty good!) and this seems as though it can only be booked as part of a package not hotel only.

The Tavistock and The Royal National are owned and run by the same company - Imperial Hotels. Imperial also owns The County and a couple of othe properties, and one of the notable things about them is that they’re about the only hotelier of any size in London not to use dynamic pricing.

So, their rates, across all their properties, are fixed - irrespective of day, week or month. This year’s rate for a Double at The Royal National is therefore £116 until they’re fully-booked.

Accordingly, on any given date, if ukbreakaways is charging £139.90, then they’re building-in a significant margin to potentially subsidise the rail fare. As I say, I don’t know how they issue their rail tickets, and whether availability is limited in any way, but on the face of it it doesn’t look like the same model as Superbreak was employing.

Superbreak was my holiday by rail provider of choice, until they let me down badly in Derby when my "guaranteed" and paid for room didn't exist and we were shunted to a hotel miles from the railway station.

Djgr said:

Superbreak was my holiday by rail provider of choice, until they let me down badly in Derby when my "guaranteed" and paid for room didn't exist and we were shunted to a hotel miles from the railway station.

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Never good when that happens. Out of interest, who rebooked you? Was it Superbreak, a travel agent you’d booked through, or the hotel?

FQTV said:

Never good when that happens. Out of interest, who rebooked you? Was it Superbreak, a travel agent you’d booked through, or the hotel?

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A three way conversation in the hotel lobby between me, Superbreak and the hotel "manager"

Djgr said:

A three way conversation in the hotel lobby between me, Superbreak and the hotel "manager"

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Oh dear. Not how you want to start a trip! I can speculate at what had happened, but that's obviously moot now.