CruiseCompete Draws Carnival Warning, Agent Praise

Norwegian Cruise Line made waves last week by severing ties with the consumer-bidding website CruiseCompete – and issuing a strong warning to its agent partners to do the same. Now Carnival Cruise Line is also urging agents to use caution.

“Carnival Cruise Lines does not engage directly with CruiseCompete nor does it encourage travel agents to do so as a marketing opportunity,” Joni Rein, Carnival’s vice president of worldwide sales, told Travel Market Report.

“The nature of CruiseCompete encourages rebating, which Carnival doesn’t view as a viable strategy and has strongly discouraged since introducing our anti-rebating policy in 2010.”

Great for bargains
CruiseCompete is a decade-old website that allows consumers to choose a cruise and seek bids from agents. The site has been top-rated by consumer publications. The Wall Street Journal called CruiseCompete “a great place to begin looking for bargains.”

While critics charge that CruiseCompete encourages discounting, travel agents who use the site see it as a valuable tool for getting business, including from groups.

Selling service
Faye Siegel, MCC, ACC, LC, a home-based agent in Maryland, said that about 95% of her business comes via CruiseCompete. Most of that is group business, according to Siegel, whose business is called Anchors Away With Faye.
 
“I wouldn’t be in business without them,” said Siegel.

Siegel, who has been selling travel for 10 years, said she competes on the site based on her service, not price.

When she first started bidding for business on CruiseCompete, she would give customers a little onboard credit to sweeten the pot, but she has stopped doing even that, she said.

Siegel said that when shoppers ask, “What can you offer? I say, ‘Service.’”

“The people I work with are looking for good service and a top agent. I answer anyone’s questions 24/7, within minutes.”

Some consumers do come to CruiseCompete to price shop, she said, but her attitude is, “If they want to go with $25 less, okay, let them.”

Competing on price
Not all agents who bid for business on CruiseCompete take the same approach.

Chris Bandy, an agent with Orlando-based Cruise Vacation Outlet, said he is on CruiseCompete every day competing for business – and that includes offering price savings to consumers.

“The cruise lines that allow us to discount, we discount. Some allow us to offer only onboard credit,” said Bandy, adding that he sells a lot of Princess.

He said that consumers who go to CruiseCompete are nearly always price-driven. “To me, it comes down to two things: What are we able to offer as a perk and the service.”

Repeat business
Bandy, who has been an agent for 15 years, said that once he makes personal contact with a client – after they respond to his bid – he has a good track record of getting their repeat business.

“Once you book someone, you gain their confidence, and they refer people too,” he said. “I always just do the best I can, because I take care of my people.”

For agents who are considering working through CruiseCompete, he said, “There are guidelines we have to stay within, but beyond that you pretty much market yourself.”

Trying it out
Clint Bales, owner of Go Travel in Kissimmee, Fla., which recently acquired Cruise Adventure Travel in Orlando, said his agency has been experimenting with CruiseCompete as a way to attract leads.

But whether consumers who use the site are a good match for his 35-year-old full-service agency remains to be seen.

“On the Internet, there are more people looking for some kind of advantage than there are looking for great full service,” Bales said.

“We’re experimenting with how to best approach the national market and take care of people with a combo of service and certain advantages we are able to negotiate because of our buying power, primarily value-added,” he said, adding, “If you’re looking for a discounter, that’s not us.”

Dedicated team
Steven Gelfuso, president and CEO of Cruise Brothers in East Providence, R.I., said his firm has been working with CruiseCompete for a decade. Cruise Brothers has a team of four or five agents specializing in bidding on the site.

“They are really good at it. They look at the prices, are experienced agents and get good business from it,” he said.
 
Gelfuso is not shy about using price as an advantage to grab business.

“The lowest price is the idea and gets people to the site. They want good prices, and the biggest companies with the sharpest people have the best prices,” he said.

“We have a lot of group space, so hold advantages and manipulate it that way.”

Some consumers do stalk the CruiseCompete site, Gelfuso said. They know the players and play them off each other.

“There’s incredible competition on the site, especially among the big players,” Gelfuso said. “It’s definitely not for everyone.”