Long stay budget: five nights for three?

A stay-five-pay-three offer can lower your cost per night, but only if it covers your dates, your room and the costs that matter. Do the arithmetic first. A longer stay also spreads fixed costs such as the boat over more nights.

Read how to choose an island package first for the wider picture. Our island trip cost calculator will run the sums below with your own numbers.

How do you test a five-for-three offer?

Use letters, so the maths works with any price. Let R be the room rate per night and T be the one-off transfer cost.

	Three nights	Five nights, pay for three
Room	3R	3R
Transfer	T	T
Total	3R plus T	3R plus T
Cost per night	(3R plus T) divided by 3	(3R plus T) divided by 5

Look at the last row. With the offer, the same total is spread across five nights, so each night costs less.

Without the offer, five nights would cost 5R plus T. The offer saves you two nights of room rate.

Now test it with real quotes. Ask the resort for the price of three nights and the price of five, and compare the two totals.

If five nights cost only a little more than three, the offer is real. If the gap is large, something is excluded.

Which costs do not shrink?

Some costs stay the same, or grow, with a longer stay:

• Meals, if the plan charges them on every night, including the free ones.
• Marine park fees, which may be charged by day or by visit. See whether the fee is included or paid on arrival.
• Taxes and service charge, which may apply to the nights you would have paid for.
• Activities and drinks, which tend to increase with idle days.
• Leave from work, which is a cost even though it is not on the invoice.

Our guide to hidden costs on island holidays lists more.

What should you ask about the free nights?

• Which dates does the offer cover, and which are excluded?
• Is the free night first, last or in the middle?
• Does the offer apply to rooms only, or to a package where your main meals are included (check exactly which ones)?
• Are meals, tax and fees charged on the free nights?
• Is the offer refundable, and can I change dates?
• Can it be combined with a school-holiday rate or another discount?
• What is the cancellation rule if the boat cannot sail?

Write the answers beside the quotation. Our guide on reading an island quotation line by line will help.

When is a longer stay not cheaper?

A long stay is not cheaper if you add extra costs to fill the extra days. Five nights at a slow resort with lots of paid tours can cost more than three nights with fewer outings.

It is also not cheaper if you cannot take the extra leave. A real budget includes your time. If you can only take three days off, a five-night offer does not help you.

A better fit if…

A long stay may be a better fit if:

• the offer covers meals as well as the room.
• you are happy with a slow week and few paid outings.
• you can travel on dates the offer covers.

A shorter stay may be a better fit if:

• the offer excludes the dates you can travel.
• you are likely to spend on tours to fill the extra days.
• a nonrefundable offer feels risky for your plans.