Looking for specific dates and destinations could leave you disappointed, writes Laura Slattery

Tans faded, stress levels reverted to normal and summer colds back with a vengeance: it's not long before the benefits of an early summer break are lost. Could now be the time to do something spontaneous and book a last-minute holiday in the sun?

Only if you don't care which dates you fly, what type of accommodation you stay in and even which country you end up in.

The package holiday industry is claiming that a "buoyant" season is leaving slim pickings for those who are suddenly desperate to escape to a self-catering resort somewhere closer to the equator.

"For the next four or five weeks, there are very few last-minute offers about," says Michael Doorley, president of the Irish Travel Agents' Association (ITAA) and managing director of Cork-based Shandon Travel Group.

"One customer came in looking for a special offer for July 29th, but the flights are all full.

"If they're not fussy, they will find somewhere but, if they have their heart set on a two-week holiday in Florida, they may be disappointed."

People booking last-minute holidays could end up in an apartment complex where the pool is a glorified bath, any discernible nightlife is miles away and a hard hat rather than a sun hat is the most appropriate headgear.

However, it's the full flights out of Dublin and Cork airports during the peak family holiday season of July and August, rather than a lack of accommodation, that is the problem, according to Doorley.

This year, the passenger loads on flights to typical package holiday destinations such as Spain, Portugal, Greece and the Canary Islands have been high, he says.

Buying a package from a UK operator and travelling "ex-London", once a popular option for bargain hunters, is just too expensive these days because of the euro-sterling conversion rate, he points out.

A sidelong glance at the luminous cards in any travel agent window or a search online reveals that there are still holidays available, they're just not all at cheap-as-chips last-minute prices.

According to Leonie Kelly, a spokeswoman for Joe Walsh Tours, every week the tour operator releases details of new deals on its website. Generally speaking, these are snapped up by consumers or by travel agents acting on their behalf.

There are good offers still available to destinations such as Rome and Dubrovnik, says Kelly, and the operator shortly plans to introduce a special offer for Barbados.

But prices only really start to drop when there is only a handful of seats left on the flights that are chartered by the tour operators.

"There might be only two seats left on one of our chartered flights and then we will drop the cost right down, just to fill it," says Kelly.

"That can happen up to a week in advance," she adds.

So holidaymakers won't have to ring their bosses from the airport to tell them they won't be in work on Monday.

Kelly agrees that people holding their nerve to avail of a reduced price are playing a risky game, but that flexibility on dates and locations will help.

"If you want what you want you have to book it early," says Paul Walsh, a spokesman for Budget Travel. "There are still some deals but very, very little over the next few weeks. It's a question of checking on our website."

Availability will remain tight until mid-September, he adds. "After that, depending on where you want to go, there will be holidays on offer at brochure price, or you can hang on and take the risk that you will get something for less."

The cost of a standard two-week sun holiday is falling year-on-year anyway, according to Walsh, at least at Budget Travel.

The company halved the commission it pays to travel agents last year and plans to sever all ties with agents from next January. By selling directly through its website and chain of stores, and not paying any commission, Budget Travel claims it will be able to pass on the savings to customers in the form of lower prices. Consumers keen on trawling the market for cheap holidays may investigate the traditional cost-saving theory of cutting out the middle man and book their own accommodation and flights.

Budget Travel, whose raison d'être is to be the cheapest in the market, features what it calls the "Budget Challenge" in its summer 2005 brochure.

If within 14 days of booking a holiday with Budget Travel, a customer can book the same holiday using flights through a low-cost airline and independently securing the same accommodation at an overall cheaper price, it will refund the difference.

No one has yet taken Budget Travel up on the challenge, according to Walsh.

"A lot of these properties would be exclusively ours, so it is sometimes difficult to make direct comparisons," he adds.

Some 70 per cent of its business is families, to whom services like foolproof coach transfers, hand-holding from tour operator reps and free kiddies' clubs clearly make the gaps between tantrums pass more smoothly.

And not all holidays booked over the internet are pure do-it-yourself, pick-and-mix jobs aimed at independent travellers who want nothing more than a well-thumbed copy of Lonely Planet to steer them from A to B.

Many travel agents and tour operators have successfully migrated online and offer discounts on packages purchased by pointing and clicking. For example, Budget Travel's website claims that a couple can save up to €90 by booking online.

But the ITAA's president says that only 11 per cent of package holidays are booked online.

"What our members with internet sites are finding is that customers are using them for research purposes. When they want to book, they want to talk to somebody face to face.

"It's different than simply going on to the Ryanair site and booking a flight from Dublin to London. With a package holiday, you want to talk to someone and verify what exactly it is that you're getting."

But the fact that one of the few survivors of the early dotcom mania was a site called lastminute.com probably says something about either a severe lack of holiday planning skills or our addiction to getting away as often as possible.

For bored office workers who want to discreetly scroll through lastminute.com's Irish site for somewhere to go this weekend, the best thing about the site could well be its "Look Busy" button.

One click and a spreadsheet packed with statistics on meaningless but impressive-sounding activities like "aggregate ubiquitous applications" and "innovate mission-critical paradigms" will immediately replace the lists of Mediterranean resorts, Greek islands and flight options on their screens.