“We are changing our advertising price policy to prohibit any travel partners from reducing the published price,” said Jodi Rein, vice president of worldwide sales for Carnival. Rein said the cruise line is acting after hearing from its travel partners that rebating continues to cause confusion on the part of consumers. She said rebating agencies are offering prices that are anywhere from 15 percent to 80 percent lower than published rates.
The new policy comes five years after Carnival introduced an advertised price policy that banned cruise sellers from advertising rates lower than its published rates on websites or printed media. As part of the new policy, Carnival is introducing monitoring mechanisms that it says will put some genuine teeth into its effort to provide a level playing field for all agents.
“Our goal is to have stabilization of pricing,” Rein said. “So we reached out to agents and partners to get their reaction – and they are all very excited. We will be very diligent in controlling price. We have our own audits and compliance monitoring system, as well as information from our valued partners if their competitors are violating the policy.”
For their part, agents welcomed Carnival’s new policy but said they aren’t sure the cruise line will truly be able to enforce it enough to end rebating and heavy discounting by other agents. “I welcome the policy change that Carnival Cruise Line is putting into effect on Aug. 1,” said Lynn Edwards, owner of Destination Café in Orlando, Fla. “I believe it will stabilize cruise pricing somewhat, but I do not feel it will be very effective in fighting rebating.”
Edwards said Royal Caribbean and Celebrity have both been supporting a similar policy for several years now. “Although it seems on the surface to put more money back in the travel agent’s pocket,” she said, “savvy agency owners have maneuvered around this policy from the onset by offering shipboard credit, wine and other such ‘gifts’ as an incentive for booking with their agency.
Edwards also noted that Carnival’s program and policy change relies solely on its ability to put a team in place to report policy offenders and deliver quick and harsh reaction to those that violate the policy, such as a stop sell or reduction in commission as a penalty. “The discounting, rebating and other such ‘gifts’ will continue until they do,” she says.
“I think it is a strong statement in support of our distribution system,” said Matt Cervone, president of Expedia Cruise Ship Centers/Just Cruises in Clinton Township, Mich. “I believe it will deter the discount houses and call centers for awhile — until they find another loophole in the system…the true ‘test’ will be if Carnival has the courage to enforce the new policy on the agencies who are giving them multi-million dollars of business, thus cutting them off if necessary.”
Source: travelpulse.com
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