Agents Irked by Sandals’ Refusal to Share Customer Info

When agency owner Connie Skrine heard unexpectedly from Sandals Resorts that she would be credited for a booking her agency didn’t make, the news was not quite the boon she initially thought.

Skrine is owner of CM Travel in Abbotsford, British Columbia. The notification from Sandals was for a booking made by a consumer via a co-branded link on the CM Travel website to Sandals’ booking engine.

Though Skrine gets a commission on the booking, she was unhappy to learn from Sandals that the company would not give her the customer’s contact information so she could follow up.

Sandals’ policy of keeping private consumer information on bookings made via co-branded links is not new. But some travel agents, Skrine among them, are surprised by it – and they wish the policy were different.

Drops the link
Skrine was so upset by Sandal’s policy, which she says was not mentioned in information sent to her about the program, that she removed the co-branded link from her agency’s website. (A copy of the Terms & Conditions, provided to Travel Market Report by Sandals, includes the following: “Due to Privacy laws, you are NOT to attempt to contact the guest or manipulate the reservation in any way.”)

“We felt it was unfair that we would have virtually no chance of earning their future business, even though it was our marketing efforts that had brought them to our site,” Skrine told Travel Market Report.

Sandals: It’s a privacy matter
Sandals cited privacy concerns and past customer complaints as the reason for its policy.

“There are issues related to privacy, and there are some complications,” said Kevin Froemming, president of Unique Vacations Inc., the worldwide representative for Sandals Resorts. “We’ve gotten into trouble when we’ve released that information, but the customer didn’t know they actually made the booking with a travel agent.”

According to Froemming, Sandals received consumer complaints about its releasing their information to agents more often than it has heard from agents displeased with its refusal to share consumer contact information, Froemming told Travel Market Report.

Agents: Hinders customer service
But Skrine said that without contact information for the customer, she could not “follow up and establish a relationship with the client, offer insurance and generally provide customer service.”

Penny Sheldon, owner of Penny Sheldon Travel in Boise, Idaho, and an elite member of the Sandals Chairman’s Royal Club, said she too feels that Sandal’s rule makes it difficult for her to service clients properly.

“It can be confusing to the client. I have had a client call me after they booked wanting more info, because they thought they had booked with me directly.
 
“I wish it were different,” said Sheldon.

Stays with co-branded program
Even so, Sheldon said she planned to continue with Sandal’s co-branded link program. Her reasoning: “Some people don’t understand the value of having an agent behind the booking. They come to you for your expertise and then still want to book online.

“Without the co-brand they would go directly to Sandals website. I would be foolish to lose that booking,” Sheldon said.

Requesting the booking
Sheldon pointed out that when she does learn of a booking via the co-branded link, because a client calls her, she can ask Sandals to release the booking to her, and the resort company will comply.

Froemming stressed this policy rule. “If a travel agent is aware of a booking and wants to take over that booking, we’ll always release that booking to the agent.

“A lot of our great travel agents are very aware [of the bookings]. Even though that booking is made online, those customers are speaking to people from that agency. They’re aware of the booking, and once they’re aware of it, it’s a non-issue.

“At the end of the day, it’s about making sure that customer at the end of the line is getting the best-possible servicing. And in most cases, that’s possible through the travel agent,” Froemming added.

Such bookings are rare
In any case, bookings via the co-branded web link program are few and far between, Froemming said. “We’ve got this in place with several thousand travel agent websites, but the amount of business that’s transacted is a fraction.”

Sheldon said she gets perhaps three such bookings a year. The booking that alerted Skrine to Sandal’s policy was her agency’s first since posting the co-branded link on her site about a year ago.

Irked by another policy
Another Sandals policy that Skrine objected to is its “Soon Come Back” program, which encourages guests to book a future stay while on-property. Travel agents are not automatically notified when clients take advantage of the program.  

This “puts the onus on us to discover that our clients have booked a future vacation at the resort,” Skrine said. “I feel this is a deliberate pirating of our clients.

“We feel strongly that if our clients book while at the resort, we should be given the booking without having to discover the booking, jump through hoops and meet their requirements.”

Sandals: supports agent-client ties
Froemming refuted the suggestion that Sandals is trying to steal agencies’ clients. The program is designed to make relations between agents and their clients even stronger, he said.

“We encourage our travel agents to call their customers the minute they get back; ask them how the trip was. It’s just good customer service. If they’re engaged with their customers and making that call, a natural question is, ‘Did you make a booking while you were down there?’”

If the customer says yes, Sandals will readily transfer the booking to the agent, upon request, he said.

Agent: policy is burdensome
Cathie Lewis-Hardy of TRAVELSAVERS Canada, the marketing group to which Skrine belongs, agreed that Sandal’s policy about onsite reservations puts too much of a burden on agents.

Lewis-Hardy, vice president, international marketing, shared that sentiment recently with a Sandals executive, telling them: “When taking a guest’s Soon Come Back booking onsite, Sandals should use a script similar to the cruise lines, where the booking guest is asked for their travel agency of choice and whether they wish to book through them.”