Not through a discount. That is the honest starting point and everything useful on this page follows from it.
What people assume
That thirty people get a better per person price than four do. They do not.
The quad rate is £499 per person whether you are a family of four or a mosque group of forty, because the quad rate is what a hotel room costs divided by four.
Where a group genuinely saves
Three places, and none of them is a percentage off.
- Filling rooms. Party sizes divisible by four pay £499. Everything else carries a premium.
- The leader place. A complimentary or reduced place for the organiser is standard practice in this market.
- The month. Worth up to £700 per person, which is more than any negotiation could ever be.
And where it does not
Volume. If an operator offers you ten per cent off for a group of thirty, ask what the pre-discount price was.
Who this page is for
The organiser. Whoever agreed to run the trip and now has a list, a WhatsApp group and thirty people expecting them to sort it out.
The short version
There is no volume discount. Forty people pay the same per person as four.
The saving is filling rooms, the leader place, and choosing the right month.
Take individual deposits, never cash. Handling thirty people’s money personally exposes you.
Five to six months for a group booking, and nine to twelve for Ramadan.
Multiples of four. A group of twenty-one pays more per person than twenty or twenty-four. |
Ask us about a group booking
Where a group actually saves
1. Filling rooms
The largest and least understood. Because rooms hold four, the cost steps rather than scaling.
Group size | Configuration | Per person |
|---|
20 | Five quads | £499 |
21 | Five quads plus a single | £520 |
22 | Five quads plus a twin | £515 |
23 | Five quads plus a triple | £509 |
24 | Six quads | £499 |
What that shows
Multiples of four are the efficient sizes. A group of twenty-one pays £21 more per person than twenty, which across twenty-one people is £441.
The practical point
If you are at twenty-one and somebody is undecided, getting to twenty-four is worth real money to everybody. Tell them.
2. The leader place
A complimentary or reduced place for the group organiser is standard practice across this market, usually on the basis of one per a set number of paying passengers.
What to do
Ask any operator you approach what their arrangement is and at what threshold. Terms vary and it is a normal question.
And the honest note
It is not free money. It is payment for the work of organising, and any organiser who has run a trip will tell you it is earned.
3. The month
The biggest saving available and the one nobody thinks of as a group decision.
The same trip runs from £499 to £1,199 depending on the window. Moving a group from a peak month to a quiet one is worth more than any negotiation with any operator.
What that means for planning
If your community is flexible on dates, ask us which weeks are cheapest before you announce anything. Announcing a date and then pricing it is doing it backwards.
What does not save money
Negotiating. Our margin runs at roughly eight to thirteen per cent and it does not vary by party size, so there is no volume discount hiding in it.
What we do instead is check comparable UK packages every month and sit £20 under the lowest we find, for a group of forty exactly as for one person.
What the organiser is actually taking on
The section nobody writes, and the reason a lot of well-intentioned trips fall apart.
The job
- Holding the list and keeping it current as people join and drop out
- Collecting money, or arranging that somebody else does
- Chasing thirty passports for validity and expiry
- Chasing thirty vaccination appointments
- Explaining the same six questions to twenty different people
- Being the person everybody contacts when anything goes wrong
How long it takes
More than people expect. An organiser on a group of thirty should assume several hours a week for the last two months, and considerably more in the fortnight before departure.
The single most common failure
One person’s passport. Six months validity from the travel date, and somebody always has one expiring in four.
What to do about it
Collect passport expiry dates at sign-up rather than at booking. It takes one message and it prevents the commonest problem in group travel.
The second most common
Vaccinations. The ACWY certificate must be dated at least ten days before arrival and GP waits lengthen at busy times.
What to do
Tell everybody to book their appointment the week they pay their deposit. Not later, and not when you remind them again.
The thing that surprises people
How much of the job is repetition. Twenty people will ask you the same question about luggage, and answering it twenty times is most of the work.
The fix
Write it once. A single document with the dates, the hotel, the luggage allowance, the vaccination requirement and the passport rule, sent to everybody, removes most of it.
Ask us for the details and we will give you everything you need to write it.
Do not handle the money
The most important practical advice on this page and the thing that protects an organiser completely.
The risk
If you collect £15,000 in cash and transfers from thirty people and pay an operator yourself, you are personally exposed.
What that means
If somebody drops out, you are the one refunding them. If a payment goes astray, it went astray from your account. If anything goes wrong with the trip, you are the person who took the money.
The answer
Individual bookings, individual deposits, paid direct to the operator. Every person pays their own £99 and their own balance, and you never touch anybody’s money.
What that changes
| | You collect the money | Individual payments |
|---|
If somebody drops out | You refund them | They deal with the operator |
If a payment is late | You chase it and cover it | The operator chases it |
If something goes wrong | You are the one who took the money | Each person has their own contract |
Your exposure | The full amount | None |
Your workload | Substantial | Much smaller |
What we do
Take individual deposits and individual instalments from every traveller, and give the organiser a single point of contact who can see the whole booking.
You get the overview. You do not get the liability.
What to ask any operator
Whether they will take individual payments. If the answer is that they need one lump sum from the group, that is a reason to look elsewhere.
And on cash
Do not accept it. Bank transfers leave a record and cash does not, and a record is what protects you if anybody ever queries what they paid.
The one exception
A properly constituted mosque committee with its own bank account, its own accounts and its own governance is a different situation to an individual with a WhatsApp group.
Even then, individual payments to the operator are simpler for everybody.
Dropouts
Every group has them and planning for them is the difference between a small problem and a large one.
Why they happen
Illness, work, family, money, and occasionally somebody who signed up at Jummah without thinking it through.
The room problem
This is what makes a dropout expensive. A quad configured for four with three people in it is no longer a quad rate.
What that means
If one person leaves a quad, the remaining three either move to a triple rate, or somebody else fills the place.
How to manage it
- Take individual bookings. A dropout affects one room rather than the whole group.
- Keep a reserve list. Two or three people who would come if a place opened, which usually solves it in a day.
- Configure in fours from the start. A group of twenty-four is more resilient than a group of twenty-two.
- Set a clear deadline after which the configuration is fixed, and tell everybody what it is.
- Understand the cancellation terms before you announce, so you can answer the question when it comes.
The reserve list point
The single most useful thing an organiser can do. Announce that the trip is full and keep taking names, and a dropout becomes a phone call rather than a crisis.
What we do
Tell you plainly what a dropout costs and what the options are, and help you reconfigure rather than simply repricing the whole group.
And the honest note
Some dropouts cost money and there is no arrangement that makes that untrue. What you can control is whether it costs one room or thirty.
The timeline
When | What should be happening |
|---|
9 to 12 months | Decide the month and the length. Ask us what is cheapest |
6 to 8 months | Announce, take names, collect passport expiry dates |
5 to 6 months | Book. Rooms held, individual deposits taken |
4 months | Everybody has booked their ACWY appointment |
3 months | Configuration fixed, reserve list in place |
6 to 7 weeks | Visas submitted |
4 weeks | Information document sent to everybody |
2 weeks | Permits, final questions, final checks |
The deadline that matters
Five to six months for a normal month, and nine to twelve for Ramadan. Block rooms are harder to secure than single ones and there is no way round it.
Why mosque groups run late
Said plainly, because it is the commonest reason a group trip does not happen.
Committees decide slowly. A trip is discussed, then announced at Jummah, then a sign-up sheet goes round, then deposits arrive over several weeks. By the time the numbers are firm, the window has moved.
What to do about it
Set a date by which you need commitments and hold to it. Announce the deadline at the same time as the trip, not afterwards.
The other structural problem
Committees turn over. A trip planned by one committee is frequently delivered by another, and the handover is where things get dropped.
The fix
One named person owns it from start to finish, regardless of who is on the committee.
What we can do to help
Hold rooms on a provisional basis while you gather names, within reason. Tell us what you are planning early and we will tell you what we can hold and for how long.
What to check before recommending an operator
You are putting your name to this in front of your community. That is worth taking seriously.
The checks
- The company registration. A registered company number you can look up on Companies House.
- Financial protection. Ask what protection applies to your booking and ask for the licence or membership number, then check it against the issuing body’s register.
- Written confirmations. Hotel names, distances in metres, gate names, flight numbers. Not categories.
- Individual payments. Whether they will take money from each traveller rather than a lump sum from you.
- A named contact. Somebody who knows the whole booking rather than a general enquiry line.
- The cancellation terms, in writing, before you announce anything.
On financial protection specifically
Do not accept a logo on a website as evidence. Ask for the number and check it yourself against the register of whichever body issued it.
It takes five minutes and it is the single most useful check an organiser can make.
Why this matters more for a group
Because thirty people are trusting your judgement rather than doing their own research. If something goes wrong they will ask you what you checked.
What a good quote contains
The property name in both cities, the distance in metres, the nearest gate by name, the flight numbers, what is included and what is not, and the total per person for your actual configuration.
Full checklist on the flights and hotel page.
What a poor one contains
A star rating, the phrase near Haram, and a price. If that is what you receive, ask the questions above before you go any further.
And the test worth applying
Ask a hard question and see how it is answered. An operator who tells you honestly that they cannot get you within four hundred metres on your dates is more useful than one who says yes to everything.
What a group actually gets
Rooms held together
The same hotel, and where possible the same floors. A group split across two properties three hundred metres apart is a genuinely annoying trip and it happens when bookings are made late.
The same flights
Everybody on one booking on one itinerary, which matters more than it sounds. A group arriving in three separate waves needs three transfers and three sets of check-ins.
Dedicated transfers
A group of twenty or more usually travels on its own coach rather than a shared one, which means you leave when you are ready rather than when the last stranger arrives.
Ziyarat to yourselves
Larger groups frequently get a vehicle for the group alone in both cities, so you set the pace and the stops rather than waiting for twenty people you have never met.
Why that matters
With older members in the party, being able to shorten a stop or skip one is worth a great deal.
A named contact
Somebody who can see the whole booking and answer a question about any traveller in it, rather than an enquiry line that treats each call as new.
Individual deposits
So you are not collecting money. Covered above and it is the single most valuable thing on this list.
What a group does not get
A better per person rate than a family of four. Both get the quad rate, because the quad rate is the quad rate.
What a group gets is the logistics handled, which is what a group actually needs.
Mixed groups
A mosque group is not a uniform party, and that shapes the booking more than the numbers do.
Older members
Almost every community group has them, and they change what you should book.
What to do
Book closer than you otherwise would. Under four hundred metres, and ask about the terrain rather than only the distance, because a steep or stepped route is not a route for somebody who struggles to walk.
Full detail in our elderly and disabled guide.
First-timers
Frequently a large share of a mosque group, and they need the rites explained rather than assumed.
What helps
A leader who knows what they are doing and a session before departure. Twenty minutes explaining Tawaf and Sa’i at the mosque saves a great deal of confusion at the Haram.
Mixed genders
Entirely normal. Separate rooming within the same booking, same hotel, same flights.
The thing to plan
People pray in different areas at both mosques, so agree numbered gates as meeting points before every visit. It is the single most useful instruction to give a group.
Families within the group
A family of four is a quad on its own and it does not need reconfiguring. Tell us who is with whom at the enquiry rather than sending a flat list of thirty names.
Language
A group with older members frequently needs Urdu as well as English, both from the leader and from the operator. Ask.
Different budgets
Common, and manageable. Some travellers take four star and some take three, in different hotels or different rooms, on the same flights and the same transfers.
Tell us that is what you need rather than forcing everybody into one tier.
Group prices
Group size | Configuration | 3 Star per person | Group total |
|---|
12 | Three quads | From £499 | From £5,988 |
16 | Four quads | From £499 | From £7,984 |
20 | Five quads | From £499 | From £9,980 |
24 | Six quads | From £499 | From £11,976 |
40 | Ten quads | From £499 | From £19,960 |
Seven nights, adult rates, off-peak, quad sharing. Children two to eleven pay a reduced rate. Includes return flights, both hotels named in writing with the distance in metres and the nearest gate, the Saudi Umrah visa, all three transfers and guided Ziyarat in both cities. Held with a £99 deposit per person.
The per person figure does not change
£499 at twelve people and £499 at forty. That is the honest position and it is the same one every operator faces.
What changes the total
The configuration and the month. A group of twenty in the last ten nights of Ramadan pays over twice what the same twenty pay in January.
Longer trips
Ten nights at £545, fourteen at £625 and twenty-one days at £789. For a group with older members, ten nights allows a slower pace than seven.
The deposits
£99 per person, paid individually. A group of twenty is £1,980 in total and none of it passes through your hands.
The instalments
Interest free across the months to eight weeks before departure, when booked four or more months ahead. On a £499 package booked ten months out, that is around £40 a month per traveller.
Why that matters for a community group
Because £40 a month is affordable for a great many people who could not find £499 in one payment, and it widens who can come.
How we price
We check comparable UK packages every month and sit £20 under the lowest we can find for the same nights and the same hotel tier.
What to do now
- Ask what is cheapest before you announce a date. The month is worth up to £700 per person and it is the biggest decision you will make.
- Aim for a multiple of four. Twenty-four is a better number than twenty-two.
- Take individual deposits and never handle cash. It protects you completely.
- Collect passport expiry dates at sign-up, not at booking. Six months from the travel date.
- Set a commitment deadline and announce it at the same time as the trip.
- Ask any operator for their financial protection number and check it yourself against the register.
- Keep a reserve list. A dropout becomes a phone call rather than a crisis.
The one that protects you
The third. An organiser who never touches anybody’s money cannot be held responsible for it, and that is worth more than any other arrangement on this page.
And the one that saves the most
The first. Announcing a date and then pricing it is doing it backwards, and it is what most groups do.
The summary
There is no volume discount
Forty people pay the same per person as four. Any operator offering ten per cent off for a group is discounting from a higher starting price.
The saving is rooms, the leader place and the month
Multiples of four, a complimentary or reduced place for the organiser, and choosing the right window. The month is worth more than everything else combined.
Do not handle the money
Individual deposits paid direct removes your exposure entirely. If an operator needs one lump sum from you, look elsewhere.
Five to six months, and nine to twelve for Ramadan
Block rooms are harder to secure than single ones, and mosque committees decide slowly. Set a commitment deadline and hold to it.
And check the operator properly
Company number, financial protection with the number checked against the register, written confirmations, and cancellation terms before you announce.
Ask us about a group booking
Related reading
Tell us the numbers early
Even before they are firm. Tell us roughly how many, roughly when, and whether there are older travellers or families in the party.
We will tell you which weeks are cheapest, what we can hold and for how long, and what the leader arrangement is. Then you can announce a date you have already checked rather than one you have to price afterwards.
Packages Umrah
WhatsApp or call: +44 7737 144 335
Office: 7 Huxley Avenue, Manchester, M8 0SJ
English and Urdu. Same-day quotes.
From £499pp on quad sharing. Individual £99 deposits, so no money passes through the organiser.
Trading name of Uraan Travel Ltd. |
Ask us about your group
Organising a group: 70 questions answered
Grouped by topic. Direct answer first. Written for the organiser rather than the traveller.
The money
Do groups get a discount?
No. Forty people pay the same per person as four, because the quad rate is what a room costs divided by four.
What about operators who advertise one?
Ask what the pre-discount price was. Ten per cent off a price ten per cent above the market is not a discount.
So where does a group save?
Filling rooms, the leader place, and choosing the right month.
Which of those is biggest?
The month, by a distance. Up to £700 per person between the cheapest and most expensive windows.
How much does room configuration matter?
A group of twenty-one pays £21 more per person than twenty, which across twenty-one people is £441.
What is the leader place?
A complimentary or reduced place for the organiser, standard practice in this market on the basis of one per a set number of paying passengers.
How do I find out the terms?
Ask any operator you approach what their arrangement is and at what threshold. Terms vary and it is a normal question.
Is it free money?
No. It is payment for the work, and any organiser who has run a trip will tell you it is earned.
Can I negotiate the per person price?
Our margin runs at eight to thirteen per cent and does not vary by party size. There is no volume discount hiding in it.
Handling payments
Should I collect the money myself?
No. Handling thirty people’s money personally exposes you and it is the most important advice on this page.
What is the risk?
If somebody drops out you refund them. If a payment goes astray it went astray from your account. If anything goes wrong you are the person who took the money.
What is the alternative?
Individual bookings and individual deposits paid direct to the operator. You never touch anybody’s money.
Do I lose oversight?
No. We give the organiser a single contact who can see the whole booking. You get the overview without the liability.
What should I ask an operator?
Whether they will take individual payments. If they need one lump sum from you, look elsewhere.
What about cash?
Do not accept it. Bank transfers leave a record and a record is what protects you if anybody queries what they paid.
What if we are a proper committee with an account?
A different situation to an individual with a WhatsApp group, and individual payments are still simpler for everybody.
What does a group of twenty deposit?
£99 each, so £1,980 in total, and none of it passes through your hands.
The organiser’s job
What does organising actually involve?
Holding the list, chasing passports and vaccinations, answering the same questions repeatedly, and being the person everybody contacts.
How much time does it take?
Several hours a week for the last two months on a group of thirty, and more in the fortnight before departure.
What is the commonest failure?
One person’s passport. Six months validity from the travel date, and somebody always has one expiring in four.
How do I prevent that?
Collect passport expiry dates at sign-up rather than at booking. One message, and it prevents the commonest problem in group travel.
What is the second commonest?
Vaccinations. Tell everybody to book their ACWY appointment the week they pay their deposit.
How do I reduce the repetition?
Write one document with the dates, hotel, luggage allowance, vaccination requirement and passport rule, and send it to everybody.
Will you help with that?
Ask us for the details and we will give you everything you need to write it.
Who should own the trip?
One named person from start to finish, regardless of who is on the committee.
Dropouts
Do groups always have dropouts?
Every one does. Planning for them is the difference between a small problem and a large one.
Why do they cost money?
A quad configured for four with three in it is no longer a quad rate. The remaining three move up or somebody fills the place.
How do I limit the damage?
Take individual bookings, so a dropout affects one room rather than the whole group.
What else helps?
A reserve list. Two or three people who would come if a place opened usually solves it in a day.
Should I announce the trip is full?
And keep taking names anyway. It is the single most useful thing an organiser can do.
When should the configuration be fixed?
Set a clear deadline, tell everybody what it is, and hold to it.
What should I know before announcing?
The cancellation terms, in writing, so you can answer the question when it comes.
The timeline
How far ahead should a group book?
Five to six months in a normal month, and nine to twelve for Ramadan.
Why longer than an individual booking?
Block rooms are harder to secure than single ones. Ten rooms on the same dates in the same hotel is a materially bigger ask.
When should we decide the month?
Nine to twelve months out, before you announce anything.
Why does that matter?
Because announcing a date and then pricing it is doing it backwards, and it is what most groups do.
Why do mosque groups run late?
Committees decide slowly. A trip is discussed, announced at Jummah, a sheet goes round, and deposits arrive over weeks.
What is the fix?
Set a commitment deadline and announce it at the same time as the trip, not afterwards.
What about committee turnover?
A trip planned by one committee is frequently delivered by another, and the handover is where things get dropped. One named owner throughout.
Will you hold rooms while we gather names?
On a provisional basis, within reason. Tell us early and we will say what we can hold and for how long.
Checking an operator
What should I check?
Company registration, financial protection with the number, written confirmations, individual payments, a named contact, and cancellation terms.
How do I check financial protection?
Ask for the licence or membership number and check it yourself against the register of whichever body issued it.
Is a logo enough?
No. Do not accept a logo on a website as evidence. Ask for the number.
Why does this matter more for a group?
Because thirty people are trusting your judgement. If something goes wrong they will ask you what you checked.
What should a good quote contain?
Property names in both cities, distance in metres, the nearest gate by name, flight numbers, inclusions and exclusions, and the total for your actual configuration.
And a poor one?
A star rating, the phrase near Haram, and a price.
Is there a test?
Ask a hard question. An operator who tells you honestly they cannot get you within four hundred metres is more useful than one who says yes to everything.
What a group gets
Will we all be in the same hotel?
Yes, and where possible the same floors. A group split across two properties is a genuinely annoying trip.
The same flights?
One booking on one itinerary. A group arriving in three waves needs three transfers and three sets of check-ins.
Do we get our own coach?
A group of twenty or more usually travels on its own transfer rather than a shared one.
And for Ziyarat?
Larger groups frequently get a vehicle to themselves in both cities, so you set the pace and the stops.
Why does that matter?
With older members, being able to shorten a stop or skip one is worth a great deal.
Do we get a named contact?
Somebody who can see the whole booking and answer a question about any traveller in it.
What does a group not get?
A better per person rate than a family of four. What it gets is the logistics handled.
Mixed groups
What if we have older members?
Book closer than you otherwise would, under four hundred metres, and ask about the terrain rather than only the distance.
Why the terrain?
A steep or stepped route is not a route for somebody who struggles to walk, and it appears on no listing anywhere.
What about first-timers?
Frequently a large share of a mosque group. They need the rites explained rather than assumed.
What helps them?
A session before departure. Twenty minutes on Tawaf and Sa’i at the mosque saves a great deal of confusion at the Haram.
Can we have a mixed gender group?
Entirely normal. Separate rooming within the same booking, same hotel, same flights.
What should we plan for?
People pray in different areas at both mosques. Agree numbered gates as meeting points before every visit.
How do families fit in?
A family of four is a quad on its own. Tell us who is with whom rather than sending a flat list of thirty names.
What about different budgets?
Common and manageable. Some at four star and some at three, on the same flights and transfers. Tell us rather than forcing one tier.
What about language?
A group with older members frequently needs Urdu as well as English, from the leader and from the operator. Ask.
Prices
What does a group of twenty cost?
From £499 each in five quads, so from £9,980 for seven nights at three star.
And forty?
From £499 each in ten quads, so from £19,960.
Does the per person figure change with size?
No. £499 at twelve and £499 at forty.
What changes the total?
The configuration and the month. Twenty people in the last ten nights of Ramadan pay over twice what the same twenty pay in January.
Should we take longer than seven nights?
For a group with older members, ten nights at £545 allows a slower pace.
Can everybody pay monthly?
Interest free when booked four or more months ahead. Around £40 a month per traveller on a £499 package booked ten months out.
Why does that matter for a community group?
Because £40 a month is affordable for people who could not find £499 in one payment, and it widens who can come.
Related reading
Tell us the numbers early
Even before they are firm. Tell us roughly how many, roughly when, and whether there are older travellers or families in the party.
We will tell you which weeks are cheapest, what we can hold and for how long, and what the leader arrangement is. Then you can announce a date you have already checked rather than one you have to price afterwards.
Packages Umrah
WhatsApp or call: +44 7737 144 335
Office: 7 Huxley Avenue, Manchester, M8 0SJ
English and Urdu. Same-day quotes.
From £499pp on quad sharing. Individual £99 deposits, so no money passes through the organiser. |
Ask us about your group
