Negotiating Group Cruises: What You Can and Can’t Ask For

There’s lots to learn when it comes to selling and booking group cruises. Go to any live conference and there’s probably a session on it. Most of the time the focus is on how to find group clients, an admittedly important piece of the groups puzzle. But there is more to groups than finding the clients, including knowing what you can ask for. What’s negotiable and what’s not? How flexible are the policies?

Travel Market Report reached out to several advisors who sell lots of group cruises to find out where they focus their energy when it comes to negotiating group cruises.

What Can’t Be Negotiated
When it comes to group cruises, not everything can be negotiated.

Prices, for instance, can’t be negotiated. While some cruise lines, particularly river cruise lines, may give you a set discount, most ocean lines expect you to sell your group space at the current prevailing rate (though that can include any current promotions).

Additionally, most group perks are determined by a set combination of factors: the size of the group and the cruise line’s policies, with you getting to decide which of the options you want to include.  

These perks come by way of Group Amenity Points, which your group “earns” by virtue of its size. The larger the group, the more GAPs. Group Amenity Points let you select from a list of perks the cruise line provides, ranging from a bottle of wine per cabin to onboard credit to a private cocktail party for the entire group. You can even choose to turn amenity points into extra commission if you prefer.

The same holds true for Tour Conductor credits, which you earn by selling more cabins. (A tour conductor credit is equal to the average price of one berth in your group.) With most ocean-going cruise lines, the ratio is one TC for each eight cabins. Sell 16 cabins and you’ll get two TCs. Tour conductor credits can’t be negotiated, but advisors can choose how they use the – to sail with the group for free, as an extra commission, to divide up and distribute to the group as extra onboard credit, to pay for extra GAP points to use for a special onboard event or exclusive excursion.

What You Can Ask For
With that said, you may, with some cruise lines, be able to negotiate for extra Gap Amenity Points.

“Group programs are group programs, there’s not a lot of leeway,” Randy Hobday, owner of Daylee Travel, a Cruise Planners franchise, told TMR, but added “I always think that building up a great relationship with your business development manager is supper important because they will go to bat for you to get you a few more amenity points or they might help you cover some of your expenses with co-op dollars.”

In addition to extra amenity points and co-op dollars, you can ask for things like nightly reserved tables of a certain size in the dining room or a lounge to be reserved one morning or afternoon for a get-together.

Remember to be reasonable about your requests. If you’ve never done a group with a line and you ask for the secondary theater or lounge onboard to be reserved during prime evening hours, chances are you’re not going to get it. But if you ask for that same theater to be reserved for an hour from 9am to 10am or 2pm to 3pm, you have much better chance of getting the space. (Reserving space is not the same as having a cocktail party. You can reserve space for people to get together without amenity point but if you want food or drink included, you’ll need the points.)

The earlier you take out your group space, the better your chance of reserving space, as well, Hobday added.

“If you’re going be 30 or 40 or 50 people, talk to the cruise lines 18 or 16 months ahead of time. You have such better chance than if you do it within seven or eight months because the other groups on board that have probably already asked for that space.”

BDM Relationship & Trust Are Keys to Negotiating Power
Nothing is more important when building a group with a cruise line than developing trust with the line and your business development manager. The first time you build a group, regardless of the size, the less pull you’ll have.

That means the cruise line may start reclaiming your group space sooner if you’re not selling it quickly enough. Or they may not let you take out as a large a group space as you initially want.

“When you take out group space, you are making a commitment to sell the space you take,” said Laurie Shuss, co-owner of a Dream Vacations franchise. “Most suppliers will start to take unsold space out at various intervals so they can open it up to FIT sales.”

But if you have a strong relationship with your BDM and have demonstrated in the past that you can fill group space, the line might let you hold onto your space for longer.

According to Hobday, the best way to hold on to your space is to start with a smaller group and fill that space. You can always add more cabins to your group.

“But once you’ve established yourself, as this is what I say I’m going to do and you do it, getting a large group approved is much easier going forward because they know this person does what they say they’re going to do,” he added. “The first one is always the toughest.”

In other cases, a cruise line or BDM that doesn’t know you well may say no if you ask to reserve a lounge for an afternoon meetup.

“Agents need to build relationships with their prospective Business Development Managers to help and guide them,” Shuss said. “Creating great relationships helps give you better negotiating power.”

While it’s not true in every case, it’s your BDM who can pull strings to get you extra group amenity points or guarantee a reserved space for a meetup.

“I think that relationship with the BDM who you’re working with is one of the most important things,” Hobday said. “That’s going to maybe help you get some extra amenities, not guaranteed, but if you have no relationship whatever it’s going to be whatever the group amenities are and that’s it.”

“For some cruise lines, the group amenity points can be negotiated,” added Karen Panzer, owner of a Dream Vacations franchise. “If you have a relationship with your business development manager that truly helps, because you have a track record. But even for beginners, I think if you reach out to the BDM of the cruise lines you are interested in working with, it can make a big difference.”

Shuss agreed. “Sometimes, I think you just have to ask.”