Sandals Calls Agent Meeting ‘Constructive,’ Plans More

Sandals executives reaffirmed their commitment to travel agents during a media luncheon in New York City where the resort company announced expansion plans and sustainability initiatives.

Executives called their recent meeting with Sandals’ top agent partners a major success. Sandals is planning another meeting with agents in May at its Turks and Caicos resort.

“Travel agents are the most important part of our travel distribution system,” said Gary C. Sadler, senior vice president of sales for Unique Vacations, Sandals’ exclusive rep.
 
Sandals also announced two major expansions to its portfolio – a new Sandals-flagged resort in Grenada and a 150-plus unit expansion at Beaches Turks and Caicos.

Soon Come Back
The Sandals media event came just weeks after changes to its Soon Come Back Program unleashed travel agent anger. Agents were irked by rules capping commissions at 10% on future bookings made by clients while on a Sandals or Beaches, among other new restrictions.

“We had to bring the model back to where it was originally,” said Sandals founder Gordon Butch Stewart.

“It’s all good,” Stewart said. “We are [still] the only set of resorts that have a program for on-property sales that reimburses travel agents. We started the model.”

Stewart added, “As far as I know, everybody is happy again. I think these things happen because of communication, or the lack of it.”

Sandals sought to calm agent reaction to changes in its Soon Come Back policy by flying a number of its top sellers to the Bahamas for a hastily scheduled meeting March 5 to 7. This week, Sandals execs all agreed that meeting was a stunning success.

“It was probably the single-most constructive meeting we’ve had [with our agents],” said Stewart, after thanking agents for their help.

Point by point
“What made that meeting successful was the structure,” said Adam Stewart, CEO of Sandals Resorts International.

“We went point by point and outlined what Sandals does for the travel agent community.” In particular, he cited advertising programs as a major component of its support for agents.

“It started to dawn on everyone there that Sandals goes beyond [for agents], but if you look at one thing in isolation it can look as if were moving away [from them],” said Stewart.

By addressing agent concerns, Sandals hopes to strengthen its relationship with agents, executives said. The resort company is planning to make meetings with its power agents a regular event.

An admission
Adam Stewart admitted that the company’s focus on new resorts and expansion may have given agents the wrong idea about the company’s intentions.

“It was a little bit of an admission that maybe we’ve been so busy doing other things, that we haven’t been doing enough [agent outreach],” said Stewart.

Related stories
Sandals Holds Firm on New Policy; Meeting Mollifies Agents, (March 11, 2013)
Sandals Calls Emergency Meeting With Top Agents, (March 4, 2013)
Agents Angered by Sandals’ New Limits on ‘Soon Come Back’ Bookings, (Feb.28, 2013)