Travel advice: the cost of package holidays When I have investigated this sort of pricing before, I have found that single supplements by tour operators do tend to reflect the hotel's published rates. But this wasn't the case for the hotel where Mr Marks stayed, the two-star Nostos. A seven-night holiday in September was priced on the Sunvil website at £1,019 b & b for a single traveller, and £824.50 per person b & b for a couple. In effect, the extra cost - or supplement - which a single person had to pay was £194.50. Single rooms are usually more than half the price of a double However, as Mr Marks pointed out, the cost of rooms quoted on the hotel's website - which are the prices which independent travellers have to pay - suggests this supplement is too high. September rates for a double room at the hotel are €95 (£86) a night. This works out at £602 for the room, or £301 per person for seven nights. The rate for a single room, meanwhile, is €65 (£59) a night, and so a week would cost £413. By that calculation, the difference in price for a single traveller should be £16 a night, not the £27 charged by Sunvil. I put this to Sunvil, and it said that although my calculation may be correct according to the hotel's published prices, the rates it has to pay are not the same. It wouldn't confirm the actual rates it pays - that would be commercially sensitive - but it did say that it had to pay £27 a night more per person for a single room. I was surprised that an operator should be offered a worse differential than a private customer, but Sunvil assured me that this was the case in this situation. It also pointed out that single travellers are often upgraded to a double room free of charge, if space is available, and this had happened to Mr Marks after the first night at the hotel. The second issue which arises is whether Mr Marks would have been better off booking independently than through a tour operator. If Sunvil's package price was £1,019 and the cost of the room booked privately directly with the hotel was only £413, Mr Marks was effectively paying £606 for the flight and transfer to Ithaka (which involves a ferry from Cephalonia, the nearest airport). There are lots of ways of getting to the island, but you can currently book a return flight with easyJet from Gatwick for £219 (including hold baggage) for travel next September. The flight arrives at noon. From the airport to the port (Sami) is £45 by taxi (or £2.50 by bus - but this risks missing the ferry, which leaves for Ithaka at 3pm on Saturdays). The crossing is about £5 for a foot passenger each way. So all in all, you will probably pay about £100 for the return transfers if you are travelling alone, or about £55 each if there are two of you. Total cost of travelling independently - about £300; total apparent saving on the package price for a single traveller - about £300. Sunvil justifies its price by saying it offers a seamless, risk-free service - a private transfer to Ithaka via coach, boat, and taxi - and includes free soft drinks during the trip. It emphasises that the arrangements mean there is no risk of being stranded on Cephalonia for a night if the flight is delayed. It also points out the financial protection included, the rep service and the assistance it offers at no extra charge, should anything go wrong. For example, the company recently had to pay £3,000 to get four of its clients home after they had been stranded on Karpathos by a strike. The 2010 ash cloud crisis alone cost it £100,000. It is also fair to say that, like most tour operators, Sunvil is not making huge profits at the moment - so its prices seem to be reflecting its costs, which include administration, advertising and marketing. I don't have any beef with the fact that if you book a package holiday you get all sorts of advantages not available to an independent traveller. Everything is booked and organised for you, transfers will wait for you and you will be looked after should anything go wrong. In fact, I have often pointed out these advantages before. The issue is, on any holiday, how much extra are you paying for that protection and care? Is an extra £300 or so on a £1,000 trip too high a premium? After all, it would be enough to pay for quite a few nights in a two-star hotel like the Nostos if things did go wrong. For the consumer, the important thing is to be clear, and to research the cost of independent travel as well as asking for a package price before booking. It strikes me, however, that a lot of the problems with this particular example of package pricing comes down to the destination - Greece. If awkward connections between the islands and the costs of working around strikes mean that operators must charge £800-£1,000 for a one-week package holiday in a two-star hotel, then Greece simply isn't competing effectively with other destinations in the Mediterranean. Clearly the country is desperately short of money, but most of its foreign exchange comes from tourism, so failing to address these issues and make it easier for operators and individuals to get to their destination will cost it dear. Those of us who love the Greek islands have long been prepared to overlook the relatively basic standards of accommodation, the tired infrastructure and the inconveniences of getting there. We want to support them through difficult days. But most of us don't want to have to pay a significant premium for the privilege. About Nick Trend Nick Trend trained at the Consumers" Association and has been an editor and writer for the Telegraph Travel section since 1995. Our consumer editor offers insider tips to make planning a trip easier - and suggests innovative ways of making more out of your holidays. Email: nick.trend@telegraph.co.uk Twitter: @travellingtrend