Tour operators have begun slashing prices to unprecedented levels, with accommodation in some resorts now going for just 49p per person per night, as frightened travel industry bosses fight to fill thousands of unsold rooms.

The best deals right now are accommodation only — so you need to buy flights separately — but if you’re concerned about the lack of protection offered by this so-called “dynamic packaging”, the inside advice from the travel industry is to hold on.

“Putting your own itinerary together is definitely the cheapest option at the moment,” said a source at First Choice, “but if you wait until after the Easter holidays, you’re going to see some serious price-cutting on package deals. It’s as though we’ve been in a staring match with the public, and it looks like we’re the ones who blinked first.”

Back in January, holiday companies warned customers to book early or face disappointment as industry consolidation and precision forecasting meant the late deal would become a thing of the past.

But it now seems that reports of the death of the last-minute bargain were somewhat exaggerated, with a week’s accommodation in the three-star Kaan Hotel and Apartments, in the Turkish resort of Marmaris, in May going for a ludicrous £3.46pp with Thomas Cook.

Elsewhere the company has a week’s B&B in the Al Diwan resort in Sharm el Sheikh for £37, and rooms in Las Vegas’s four-star Circus Circus property for £11pp per night.

Thomson has similarly attractive accommodation-only deals, with the Santa Monica hotel, in Goa, going for £10 a night, and Mallorcan villas, such as the C’an Moreno, in Pollensa, which sleeps six, for £265, or £44pp.

Even with air fares it’s easy to build a bargain. Return flights to Dalaman in May, for example, are just £155 with EasyJet, and Ryanair has returns to Palma, Mallorca, for under £50.

Over-capacity in the market is being driven partly by holidaymakers waiting longer to book, and partly by a surge in domestic reservations.

With resorts such as Weymouth reporting a 78% increase in inquiries on last year, and some camp and caravan sites warning they’re already booked for the school holidays, it seems while the last-minute bargain is thriving in foreign climes, it could be noticeably absent from British shores this year.

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