Zero-Risk Booking? How Advisors Are Leveraging Suppliers’ Flexible Policies

Without suppliers’ relaxed booking and cancellation policies, retail travel sales would be all but dead in the water amid the ongoing pandemic. But how travel advisors should deploy the Covid-era policies in client communications, sales and marketing is open to debate.

“Generous booking and cancellation policies are the lifeblood right now. It’s everything we need during this pandemic,” said longtime travel advisor Anne Scully, partner of agent development at Embark Beyond, a high-end agency in New York City. “There’s no question that relaxed cancellation policies close the sale. Without them, most clients would not make advance reservations.”

John Rees, owner of J5Travel in Davidson, NC, said the lenient policies help him to tell his clients, “‘There’s no harm in you booking this. If we have to move it, we can move it.’ For the ones who are thinking of travel, it’s making that small difference.”

Jill Romano, co-owner of Dimension in Travel in Novato, CA, said the relaxed booking policies are “definitely keeping interest alive for those not quite ready and driving bookings for those that are ready.”

Talking with clients
Advisors differ in their thinking about how prominently or aggressively to talk up suppliers’ lenient booking and cancellation policies with clients.

At Embark Beyond, travel advisors call 10 clients a day­ – to stay connected, open up a dialog about favorite past trips and future dream trips, and address client objections to traveling now.

“If the client said, ‘I was thinking about going to Mexico. Do you think it’s safe?’ I would say, ‘Here’s something you might want to know: People are waiving cancellation policies, so we can at least hold space for you,’” Scully said.

“We really encourage them to get something on the books so they have something to look forward to. We have clients on their third rebooking still hoping to go. They tell their friends, ‘I didn’t have to worry about it. My advisor took care of it for me.’”

Advisors to clients: ‘Take advantage now’
When advisors at Dimensions in Travel tell clients about suppliers’ lenient cancellation policies, they also “stress that they are somewhat temporary, so take advantage now,” Romano said.

At J5Travel, Rees said that while he isn’t pushing sales right now, when he does sense a client is interested in traveling sooner rather than later, he’ll mention flexible cancellation policies early in the conversation. “We certainly wouldn’t send a quote without the exact policies and terms. It’s extremely important right now. It’s establishing trust in us.”

If a client wants to book a trip with components that are not fully refundable, such as local tours, Rees simply holds off on booking those components. “We’re working on an Italy trip for late spring that probably won’t happen. We’re booking the stuff that’s flexible and saying to the client, ‘We don’t have to book the local tours until two weeks before you go.’”

Cautious conversations
Some travel advisors are hesitant to leverage supplier flexibility to spur bookings.

Debra Harris, founder of Life’s Journey Travel in Myrtle Beach, SC, said she won’t use the policies to help close a sale. “If someone is reluctant, I am not going to push them over the edge.” Nor does she lead with suppliers’ flexible policies in her client conversations. “It is not out-of-the-gate the first thing, ‘If you book this Viking cruise right now it’s risk-free.’”

Such policies only enter into the conversation if, after a thorough qualification process, the client seems ready to book, Harris said. “When the itinerary is presented, that’s when I present it. That should not be the sole selling point. It should be the added benefit of booking now.”

Avoiding a mess later on
Kristi Lewis, founder of Travel by Pathfinders in Grosse Pointe Woods, MI, called suppliers’ relaxed booking policies “extremely important” in helping clients overcome hesitations. But she’s not actively promoting the low-risk policies.

Lewis said she is reluctant to tie up clients’ money in bookings that might get cancelled or postponed. “All we can do is give the client all the facts and let them make the decision. I don’t want to just sell something for sake of selling it, knowing it’s going to be a mess to untie later on.

“I’ve got one set of clients who have $25,000 tied up in a Regent Cruise, and I don’t know when they can use it. It’s not bothering them at all, but it bothers me.”

Lewis said she’s hesitant to promote travel at all right now. She’s scheduled to host a Silversea cruise in June, and normally she would be advertising the cruise at her private social club. But not this time. “I’m afraid to. I’m afraid that the day after I do it, they’re going to suspend cruises.”

Policies affect choice of supplier
The relative leniency of cancellation policies is also affecting which suppliers advisors recommend to clients, sometimes at the expense of longstanding preferred supplier relationships.

“If all suppliers are equal in their offerings, those with relaxed booking policies go at the top of my recommendation list, because it benefits my clients,” Harris said.

Faced with a choice between booking a client with Delta Vacations, her usual preferred, and booking direct with a hotel whose 24-hour cancellation policy is far more flexible than Delta Vacation’s policy, Kristi Lewis booked with the hotel. “You don’t need insurance, and you can cancel 24 hours prior. Why wouldn’t you go that route?”