It is half term this week, meaning lots of families will be enjoying their first break of the school year.

It’s safe to assume this because despite the fact we now all carry devices which allow us to book flights, hotels and holiday deals whenever we like, our holiday booking patterns are surprisingly predictable.

We’ll book our summer holidays in the middle of January, when sun seems like a far off dream. Whereas April and May is the time to cash in on last minute deals after our first taste of spring warmth.

For holiday booking websites, this means a regular battle for your holiday cash, but it also means sudden surges in demand that they need to handle. For example, Sunshine Saturday, which falls on the first weekend of each year, is the holiday booking equivalent of Black Friday.

Between its stores and online bookings, Thomson and First Choice saw over one million visitors in a single day on Saturday 9th January 2016. Travel companies face a huge challenge in making sure that their computer systems can handle this kind of surge and ensure that everybody walks away with the holiday they want.

More specifically, this is a data management challenge and as the way businesses use data becomes more of a game changer, keeping up with demand is no longer enough. Travel websites must use the data they have at their disposal to ensure they are recommending and targeting the right deals at the right people at the right time – providing an experience that people will remain loyal to and a holiday to remember.