Agents to Resorts: Why Not Mirror Cruise Lines’ Return-Trip Promos?

This is part one of a two-part series.

It’s not often that one hears travel agents say they wish resort companies would be more like cruise lines, but here’s one instance where they do––return-trip promotions.

According to agents, cruise lines today do a good job of crediting agents when clients book their next cruise onboard to take advantage of return-trip offers. Now some industry members are saying they wish resort companies would follow suit.

“It should operate just like they do on the cruise lines, that if they are offering customers a return trip to the resort or another within the same chain, then that booking should be credited back to the booking agent who brought them the client,” said Scott Koepf, CTC, MCC, senior vice president of sales for Avoya Travel/American Express.

Destination wedding specialist Michelle Bouzek, ACC, also holds up cruise lines’ return-trip policies as a positive example. The cruise line programs “work great,” said Bouzek, owner of Vacations in Paradise, a NEST agency in Pflugerville, Texas, that specializes in all-inclusive tropical vacations.

Bouzek said she wants resorts to respect existing agent-client relationships in the same way.

“All I ask is that the property give clients the opportunity to make the choice at the time of the booking if they would like to keep the same travel agent. I should not have to pry information out of my client and then put them through hoops to get the trip reassigned to my agency.”

Sandals stirred the pot
The issue of resorts’ on-property offers surfaced in a big way in early 2013 when Sandals curtailed agents’ ability to earn commissions on direct bookings made through its Soon Come Back program.

Sandals began requiring that clients themselves inform Sandals’ booking rep, Unique Vacations, when they wanted a Soon Come Back booking transferred to their travel agent. (Commissions on such bookings also were capped at 10%, among other restrictions.)

What irked agents then, and still riles some today, was the requirement that the client send Sandals an email releasing their booking to their agent. That puts agents in an awkward position, some said.

Lack consistency
It’s not certain how many resort companies currently have standing on-property return-trip programs comparable to those offered by cruise lines. “The resort side does not seem to have a consistency that cruise lines do in terms of what they offer, how they offer it, and who they offer it through,” Koepf said.

(Some resort companies are likely more focused on time share and vacation club sales, which some agents said is a far more vexing issue.)

Karisma Hotels & Resorts, for instance, said it does not promote return-trip offers to guests while they are on-property. (A spokesperson for AMResorts and its parent Apple Leisure Group said the company was unable to respond to Travel Market Report’s questions on the issue.)

Lisa Sheldon, CTC, executive director of Destination Wedding & Honeymoon Specialists Association and owner of I Do Island Weddings in Janesville, WI, said she was unaware of resort companies other than Sandals and Disney that have ongoing future-booking programs.

Disney’s program
Disney’s Future Stay Offers, promoted to guests via in-room fliers, typically offer room or dining discounts that vary by season. Under the program, future bookings must be made prior to midnight on the last day of a guest’s stay at a Disney Resort-owned hotel.

The program is “trade-friendly and inclusive,” Joann Delgin, director of sales support and integration for Disney Parks, told Travel Market Report.

“Guests are free to have their travel agent contact the Travel Trade line at the Disney Resort Reservation Center and make the future booking for them. The agent need only supply the associate package code and recent reservation confirmation number,” she said.

According to Delgin, if an agent is listed in the original booking, the Disney associate taking the guest’s booking will ask if the guest wants the agent included on the Resort Future Stay Offer.

Even if there is no record of agency involvement and a guest makes what Disney calls a “consumer” booking, the guest still has 30 days from the date of booking to transfer the booking to a travel agent, she added.

Wholesaler involvement
One reality of travel agents’ resort bookings that complicates the issue is the fact that agents frequently book resorts through wholesalers.

Sheldon said she uses wholesalers for 100% of her resort bookings so she can take advantage of wholesalers’ buying power, added benefits, and favorable commissions through preferred supplier arrangements.

In those cases, a resort company may not even have a record of the agent who made the booking. “They don’t see the agency coming through. They see Travel Impressions sending 28 people to the resort today,” Sheldon said.

Sheldon would like to see that change. “There has to be a chain of where that booking comes from, whether directly from the agency or through a wholesaler, so it can be credited back to the particular agency.”

Koepf agreed. “That’s the piece that needs to be addressed if they [resorts] move into this book-your-next-stay area. We would want to make sure the retailer is the driver of track-ability.”

Next time: Client relations are key to protecting future bookings.