Tag Archives: Travel agents

It’s all about relationships

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It’s no big secret that so much in the travel industry is about relationships — relationships between agents and their clients, relationships between suppliers and agents, relationships between suppliers and vendors.

Indeed, relationships are the building blocks that create the foundation for the high-touch world of travel.

So, perhaps it should come as little surprise that on the last evening of the christening cruise for Avalon Waterways’ freshly minted Avalon Tapestry II, when the travel agents at my dinner table were asked by consumer press why they choose to sell certain river cruise lines over others, they responded, “It’s all about relationships.”

Initially, the answer was a bit disappointing to me. I was hoping for some real insight into how the agents choose between the river cruise lines, something more about the vessels themselves or about the overall experience that sets the companies apart. But saying that they choose based on “relationships” felt a bit like a copout; like code for better commissions or enhanced perks for their clients.

Michelle Baran
Michelle Baran

But when I thought about it a bit more, I realized that in a segment of the travel industry that is only just now starting to see more differentiation between the players involved, it can still prove challenging at times to explain what sets one company’s product apart from another. The fact that Avalon has positioned the majority of the beds in its cabins facing towards the balcony; that Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection has invested heavily in its extravagant exteriors; that Viking River Cruises is churning out sleek vessels at hard to beat prices; that AmaWaterways is pushing the themed river cruise envelope; or that Tauck has reinvented the lower deck cabin — these nuances might sway some, but for others these factors might still not seem like explanation enough for why they should book one line over another. Enter relationships.

The two agents at the table worked for two different host agencies that had both selected Viking and Avalon as preferred suppliers, so the decision to book more customers with those river cruises lines had already been pre-selected for them. But what dawned on me after the conversation is that while it’s definitely important for river cruise lines to continue to help us better understand and embrace their tangible differences, perhaps their most important differentiator is just that, relationships — including those between the river cruise lines and their agent partners, group travel leaders, tour operators, and of course their customers. And it will be how they continue to initiate those relationships and what they do to maintain them that will likely decide how the game plays out in the long-term.

The connecting-cabin conundrum

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MSC connecting Balcony Cabin.

One frustration for travel agents is when clients want to book a cruise on short notice with the expectation that they’ll be able to stay in connecting cabins. It can sometimes be hard to find rooms that adjoin or are on the same deck, much less those that connect.

But cruise lines could do more to help the situation, some travel agents say. The issue came to light at a recent travel agent forum on Royal Caribbean International’s Freedom of the Seas.

Agents said that Royal often allows connecting rooms to be booked online as singles, negating the advantage of having the connecting door between the two cabins.

“Royal Caribbean is great for families, but it is a real struggle on some of your popular sailings to find connecting rooms that do not have one already booked,” said Elise Aust, of Custom Cruise & Travel, Omaha, Neb.

Aust suggested that Royal hold the cabins back from full inventory to ensure that people who actually need them get to use them. “The last thing I’d want if I was booking a single cabin is a door to another room if I didn’t need it,” she said. “I think you would get a lot more families.”

Royal President Michael Bayley agreed that the idea made a lot of sense. “We’ll take a look at it and speak to our revenue team and see what we can do.”

Aust’s other suggestion, by the way, was to put magnifying mirrors in the bathrooms, an idea that seemed to confound Bayley.

“Really? That sounds horrifying,” he said. But he added that Royal would take a look at it for its new ships.

The ‘horrible mess’ of shore excursions

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By Tom Stieghorst

Cruise lines are starting to see declines from one of their most important revenue streams, shore excursions. That was one of the admissions made by newly named Royal Caribbean International President Michael Bayley at a forum for agents onboard the Freedom of the Seas.

Bayley gasped in mock horror after asking the group of about 250 agents whether they sold Royal Caribbean’s branded shore excursions or somebody else’s. In unison, they chanted “Somebody else’s.” When he asked for a show of hands, well over half the group responded.

“You know, we do have to change the system,” Bayley said in a half-joking, half-serious tone. “It’s a horrible mess.

“We must spend more time talking about this than I don’t know what else,” Bayley added. “We’re always trying to find the right solution.”

Elliott Finkleman, owner of an Expedia CruiseShipCenter outlet near Ottawa, said both Royal Caribbean and travel agents could make more money if Royal paid a commission on excursion sales.

“You’re losing out because it forces me to sell alternate product,” Finkelman said. “I don’t want to spend a lot of time on shore excursions, going port by port, and get nothing back from that.”

Vicki Freed, Royal’s senior vice president of sales, trade support and service, said that the line does pay commission on group shore excursions and that guests with excursion tickets sold through Royal get first priority in getting off the ship at port.

And Bayley reminded agents that there are some risks with third-party providers.

“If they’re selling at lower prices, they’re paying these commissions, chances are they do not have the same liability coverage and they have not gone through the process of safety for the guest that we go through,” he said.

Bayley said excursions have always been an important part of the cruise revenue pie.

“We all have revenue streams and we all try to protect them,” he said. “We have seen an erosion over the past couple of years, and it’s pretty obvious where that erosion is coming from, after our show of hands.”