“Package holiday” is the everyday term. The Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 simply say “package”, and unlike the old 1992 rules they do not require the trip to be pre-arranged, so tailor-made and dynamically packaged trips are covered too.

The four types of travel service

• carrying passengers, such as flights, trains and coaches

• accommodation that is not part of the transport and is not residential

• car hire, and the hire of certain other motor vehicles and motorcycles

• other tourist services, such as excursions, event tickets, ski passes and spa treatments

When they become a package

Two or more of these make a package when one business puts them together before a single contract is made. They also do so, even under separate contracts, when they are bought from a single point of sale and chosen before the traveller agrees to pay, sold at an inclusive or total price, advertised or sold as a “package” or something similar, chosen later under something like a gift box or booked through linked online booking processes. In that last case the first business passes the traveller’s name, payment details and email address to a second business, and the second contract is made within 24 hours of the first booking being confirmed.

Why it matters

The organiser of a package is responsible for every part of it, must make sure the traveller gets set information before they book (a retailer selling the package can provide it instead) and must protect their money against its own insolvency. Government guidance confirms that bespoke packages put together by travel agents are covered, so an agent who tailor-makes a flight and hotel at one price is the organiser.

Common confusion

• A single service, such as a hotel on its own, is not a package.

• A tourist service added to a single flight, hotel or car hire only creates a package if it is a significant proportion of the value or an essential feature of the trip.

• Transfers between the airport and the hotel, and meals that come with the accommodation, are part of another service rather than separate travel services.

• For bookings made from 6 April 2027, services for the same trip that are chosen and paid for separately during a single visit to, or contact with, the same business will also count as a package. That includes one visit to its website or one phone call.