Tag Archives: cunard

Royal Caribbean switches to automatic gratuities

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Royal Caribbean switches to automatic gratuities

By Phil Davies

Royal Caribbean switches to automatic gratuitiesRoyal Caribbean International is to charge passengers an automatic daily gratuity for crew members in the dining room and housekeeping staff who are traditionally tipped.

The line will join others in including automatic gratuities in bills from March 1. The company confirmed that the new policy will apply fleet-wide.

Royal Caribbean will add an automatic daily gratuity of $12 or $14.25 for passengers in suites to onboard accounts of each guest to be shared by waiters, stateroom attendants and other housekeeping services personnel. This new gratuity replaces the previously optional tipping guidelines.

The line previously recommended a total of $11.65 per passenger, per day or $13.90 for suite guests and they could pay via their onboard account or in cash.

The change brings the company into line with a policy adopted by rivals Carnival Cruise Lines, P&O Cruises, Cunard, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line and Norwegian Cruise Line.

All of the competitor cruise lines allow passengers to go to the guest relations desk onboard and ask to change the automatic gratuity charges if they feel service is not up to the expected levels.

Staff on a number of lines have suffered from a reduction in voluntary tips, with British passengers known to be among the most reluctant to pay gratuities.

Royal Caribbean passengers who have previously pre-paid their gratuities for forthcoming cruises will not be affected by the change.

CCS moots upfront commission payments for cruise sales

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CCS moots upfront commission payments for cruise sales

By Melanie Hall

CCS moots upfront commission payments for cruise salesCarnival UK has revealed it is considering bringing forward commission payments to the time of booking rather than when the final balance is paid.

Giles Hawke (pictured), Carnival sales and customer services director, said the company was looking at revising its systems to implement the move.

However, he added: “I wouldn’t want to set any time scale.”

Hawke was speaking at a cruise round-table debate hosted by Travel Weekly and Carnival UK. Senior agency and tour operator figures at the event welcomed the potential move.

Chris Roe, sales and distribution director at Virgin Holidays, said receiving the commission upfront would make a “100% difference” to his business.

Miles Morgan, founder of Miles Morgan Travel, said: “It’s a step in the right direction from CCS for a change.”

The suggestion followed a discussion about agents being forced to pass customer payments straight to the cruise lines, which hits agencies’ cashflow.

Last year, Complete Cruise Solution, the trade arm for P&O Cruises, Cunard and Princess Cruises, contacted all larger agents whose customers are not yet paying its cruise lines directly to insist a plan is put in place to make the transition to direct payments, to remove any financial risk from its trade business.

“We have seen the collapse of Gill’s and Cruise Control,” said Roe.

“I can see why CCS is doing it, but it is tarring every agent and tour operator with the same brush.”

Hawke said that the company had a ‘bad-debt’ fund worth millions of pounds in case retailers went bust, 
but CCS had made a decision that it 
was not going to carry that financial 
risk any more. “No banks would give you cash for nothing,” said Hawke.

But Seamus Conlon, managing director of Cruise.co.uk, said: “The average agent has to pay staff. I’m increasing cashflow to create your deposits, which you then bank for a year. CCS is screwing up everyone’s income.”

CCS cut base commission to 5% in 2011, sparking cuts by other cruise lines.

Cunard Gratuity Charges

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Information Update
Cunard Gratuity Charges

It has been some time since we have increased the amount we charge our guests on a daily basis for gratuities.  We have benchmarked our own charges against many other leading cruise lines and are confident that by applying a small increase we will not be out of line.  At the same time – and very importantly – this will increase the amount we collect from our guests to be shared amongst those crew on board who earn gratuities.

As such, we will be increasing our existing gratuities as follows:-

Britannia Staterooms:  increasing from US$11 to US$11.50 per person per day
Princess Grill and Queens Grill Suites: increasing from US$13 to US$13.50 per person per day

This increase will take effect from all voyages post World and Exotic Voyages 2013 and will begin from the following voyages:-

Queen Elizabeth : Q308 – Iberian Adventure – Sunday 7 April 2013
Queen Victoria: V304 – Spring Getaway – Friday 26 April 2013
Queen Mary 2: M304 – Westbound Transatlantic – Friday 26 April 2013

This charge will automatically be added to guests’ accounts and all other terms and conditions surrounding the auto gratuities will remain the same.  Guests will be advised of the amount through their pre voyage information and through Voyage Personaliser.   We will be amending all future printed and online information to reflect this.