Buy someone's unused holiday

Can I legally buy someone else's holiday booking?

Yes, where the supplier permits the transfer and processes it themselves. What you are buying is a specific booking somebody already paid for, moved into your name through the airline, hotel or operator's own system.

Article 9 of the EU package travel directive lets a traveller transfer a covered package to someone who satisfies all the conditions applicable to the contract, by giving the organiser reasonable notice on a durable medium. Notice at least 7 days before the package starts is always deemed reasonable; shorter notice can still be reasonable, and the transferee still has to meet the contract's conditions — a visa or an age requirement does not disappear because the name changed.Source: EUR-Lex — Directive (EU) 2015/2302 on package travel, Article 9 (checked 2026-08-29)

For flights and hotels there is no equivalent right, so the answer is whatever the carrier or property permits. Several European carriers publish a name-change fee and will move a booking for it. Most legacy and long-haul carriers correct a spelling and nothing more.

What never works is travelling on a reservation still in somebody else's name. Identity is checked at the gate and at reception. A purchase here is made on the basis that the supplier moves the booking properly, and if it will not, the sale does not complete.

Which bookings can actually be transferred?

A booking transfers when its supplier permits it, and a published name-change fee is only half the answer. It shows a procedure exists; the supplier's conditions of carriage still have to allow the transfer. easyJet is the awkward example — it charges to change a name and separately prohibits reselling the ticket.

Work out which category you are looking at before anything else, because the category sets the odds far more than the individual listing does.

• Flights: a handful of European carriers permit a paid passenger name change. Most legacy and US carriers permit spelling corrections only.
• Hotels: many properties will change the lead guest name, and a booking made directly with the property has fewer parties who can refuse than one made through a platform.
• Packages: usually transferable, and in the EU backed by a statutory right rather than only by an operator's goodwill.
• Vouchers: often the simplest, though some issuers tie a voucher to the person who bought it and will refuse it at redemption.

What happens to my money between paying and travelling?

The buyer's card is charged in full at checkout. The payment is split immediately by Stripe: the seller's share goes straight into the seller's own Stripe account, and SpareHolidays receives only its fee. SpareHolidays does not hold the seller's money, but it does control the payout date — the seller cannot withdraw their share to their bank until the confirmation window closes. The seller is paid out only after the buyer confirms the transfer, or the confirmation window closes without a dispute. If the transfer never happens, or the purchase is cancelled before that point, the buyer is refunded.

The seller reaches the money after you confirm the handover, or after the confirmation window closes with no dispute raised — not when you pay. So a seller who abandons it does not get paid, and you are not left chasing somebody for money already banked.

The Terms set the payout clock: for a booking with travel dates the seller is scheduled to be paid 2 calendar days after the buyer's trip ends, and for a voucher without dates 7 days after the buyer confirms the transfer.Source: SpareHolidays — SpareHolidays Terms — payment handling and fund release (checked 2026-08-29)

Where a transfer goes wrong the outcome is decided under those Terms rather than automatically. A transfer that never starts and times out is cancelled and refunded; once it has progressed or a dispute is open, the evidence is reviewed and the result can be a full refund, a partial one, or release to the seller. Keep everything the seller sends you.

What is checked before a listing reaches me?

When you submit your listing, it enters our review queue. A person checks it, and it becomes public only after approval.

Identity verification with Stripe is required before a seller can accept an offer or hand over a booking.

Neither check tells you whether the supplier will permit the transfer, because no marketplace can decide that on an airline's behalf. They are a filter on people, not a warranty on bookings.

So the division of labour is simple. Review and identity are ours. Reading the supplier's own transfer policy is yours, and it is the failure mode neither check can catch for you.

Questions buyers ask