New group policies for RCCL/Celebrity

Heard this at a town hall meeting on Celebrity, but it went into
effect May 1 and applies to Royal Caribbean, as well.

An agent can get no more than 4 groups in a year, or twice the number
they booked the previous year, whichever is greater. Only one group
per cruise.

You have to sell inventory within 90 days of opening the group. No
more sitting on inventory for a year. After 90 days, you can sell a
number of cabins which matches the number you have already booked, up
to the limit of 50 cabins per group. ie, if you have a group of 50
cabins and have 15 booked by the 90 day window, you can only book
another 15 and the rest go back into inventory. After the 150 days,
everything unsold goes back into inventory. There is no requirement
for deposit until a berth is booked.

They've eliminated the GAP for price reduction.

You can not use the TC credit to lower the price of the berth.

You can not offer anything of specific value (such as a gift card) nor
anything of "great" value. The example was that a pair of movie
tickets would be okay, but 12 pairs would not. The question came up
when someone asked about one of the big engine companies
(Travelocity?) offering a six months subscription to Netflix. The
comment was "hmm, we'll have to look into that". Gifts such as wine
delivered to the stateroom are still okay. I didn't understand the
question nor answer about shipboard credits, but I haven't booked a
group on either line so I don't know what the point was.
--
dillon

Women should be obscene and not absurd.

kuki wrote:
> And human nature being what it
> is, I think MANY customers are going to think to themselves... if the
price
> is the same booking directly with the cruise line, what do I need a
middle
> man for.

And, in your opinion, what's the answer to the question you posed? What
do we need the middle man for?

Lee

Thus spake Chrissy Cruiser <doublebreasted@mail.com> :

>On Mon, 16 May 2005 19:45:29 -0400, George Leppla wrote:
>
>> In both cases, these ships will sell out whether people buy from groups or
>> individually. The demand is that high.
>>
>> In the travel business, nothing is constant.... except change. Travel
>> agents will either adapt to the new marketing structure or they will fall by
>> the wayside. Agencies used to have "5 year business plans". Now, my idea
>> of long range planning is buying green bananas.
>
>Drove us right out of the group travel business, George, Hubby and I saw it
>coming even with CCL which has been aggressive in the group business. I
>asked our CCL rep about it last year and she calmly looked at me and lied
>through her teeth.
>
>"CCL is committed to the group travel business, Chrissy, so, yes, go right
>ahead and spend a gazillion $$$ advertising in your niche."
>
>Like hell we did.

Carnival is limiting groups to 61 per agency, effective for groups
made after January 1, 2006. Expect the big discounters to book loads
of groups (which means virtual sell outs until 71 days out).

--
dillon
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.