How to Boost Your Commissions on Cruise Sales

This is the first of two stories

There’s nothing better than receiving a hefty cruise commission.  But most on-board extras — shore excursions, wine-and-liquor packages, spa treatments — are non-commissionable.

What’s an agent to do?

Savvy agents know how to beat the system and boost cruise revenues. Here are some of their secrets.

Upgrade cabins and cruise lines
“It goes without saying that bumping clients up to a higher cabin category can boost your commission. That’s Sales 101,” said Kathy Burns Lamphier, CTC, ACC, owner of Posh Travel, a Virtuoso agency in Greenland, N.H.  

“I try to upgrade clients’ cabins right away,” said Joanne Corman of Avoya Travel, an American Express-affiliated agency in Miami. “If not, a week or two later, I go back into the booking and see if there’s an opportunity to turn an oceanview cabin into a veranda suite.

“I have a client on a three-week cruise in Asia with her daughter. Before they left, I got an email from the cruise line saying they could upgrade from a balcony cabin to a concierge-level balcony cabin for just $100 per person,” said Corman.

“Recently, I got an e-mail from the client saying, ‘We’re loving the concierge service with all the perks!’”

Picture this
Scott Kertes, MCC, of Hartford Holidays, an Ensemble member in Garden City, N.Y., uses creative visualization to steer clients to cabins paying higher commissions.

“If somebody is trying to decide between an inside cabin or an oceanview balcony, I paint a picture that says, ‘Look, for just another $300, you get all this.’ The client says, ‘Okay, I’ll take the balcony,’ and I get the higher commission.”

In addition to higher cabin categories, Lamphier concentrates on selling luxury cruises.

“I don’t sell mass-market cruises,” she said. “If you sell a $499 cabin, your commission is about $60. It’s dismal, really.”

 But, she added, “Margins are higher on luxury lines like Crystal, Regent, Silversea and Seabourn. On Regent Cruises, everything is all-inclusive, like tipping and liquor, and it’s all commissionable.”  

Lamphier offered some good advice to agents who usually sell mass-market cruises.

“If a customer is buying a big suite on a mass-market cruise, he or she might be ready to take a leap to the luxury lines.”

Shoring up revenue
Shore excursions offered by cruise lines are non-commissionable, but “nobody says you have to buy excursions from cruise lines,” said Kertes.

“There are many shore excursion companies out there that, in many cases, offer smaller tour group sizes and other extras to clients,” he said.

“One tour-operator partner I work with has a customized co-branded website. I send clients through my site to his, and I make money without doing anything.”

Good relations
Corman also has established valuable relationships with tour operators.

“We have relationships with companies we can book through and get commissions from,” she said. “We’re part of American Express, so we can tap into their network of preferred partnerships.”

“We’ve cultivated relationships with tour operators around the world,” said Karen Schinke, CTA, ECC, owner of Chocolate City Cruise & Travel, a MAST agency in Burlington, Wisc.

“In Cozumel last week, our tour operators took clients on shore excursions to a local market, a tequila factory, a bar and a restaurant.”

Activities onboard
Not only does Schinke reap higher commissions from independent shore excursions, but she arranges shipboard activities and sells them to clients.

“We hired a local woman to do a cooking class in Cozumel. We’ve also done culinary cruises,” she said.

“We hired a local chef from our area to do cooking classes aboard ship. The kitchen was set up in the cruise ship’s comedy club. It looked like a set for “Emeril Live” with mirrors, stoves, the works.  We’ve done wine tastings in Italy. We do all kinds of oddball stuff that clients can’t find in the cruise brochures.”