TravelResearchOnline.com Blog

A big THUMBS UP for Jeremy who works in the group dept. at Royal Caribbean. The agent randomly got him when she inquired about the pricing for her group, he answered all the questions and pointed out some irregularities using cruise certificates. He suggested the agent look through the payments and call back. The agent was surprised when two hours later Jeremy called her and said he worked on it, himself, without being asked to, and found where the problems were. Now that is truly customer service!

Staying with Royal Caribbean, and Celebrity, another THUMBS UP for still providing luggage tags for our clients with e-docs. Many agents, including me, refuse to print out the paper luggage tags from cruise lines. I tell them to request the tags from the porters at the pier. I don’t want the responsibility of giving them something that, without tons of tape, can fall off causing them to lose their luggage. Sturdier tags are always available at the pier.

And speaking of e-docs – a THUMBS DOWN for Carnival. If you pre-register your clients and try to e-mail them a boarding pass – you can’t cut and paste it. When I called Carnival and asked them to send it to me via e-mail, they refused to. I was told they could send it to the client directly – Helloooo- who brought them the client. After much discussion, they did send out something in an attachment. But it wouldn’t open. Another bit of wasted time on the phone to find out they were using a new computer program that couldn’t be recognized by my middle aged HP. They suggested I buy a new computer. Is anyone else out there having problems opening Carnival’s attachments?

A THUMBS UP for Costa – and the wonderful West Florida BDM, Monique Ross. She is a prime example of their slogan – G.U.E.S.T. – Generating Unique Excellent Service Together! Both she and Costa really live up to that commitment. When an agent got a phone call from her already boarded clients sailing on a Christmas cruise, she e-mailed Monique about their shipboard credit problem. A mishap had shown only half the pre-arranged credit for two cabins. Super woman, Monique, responded immediately on her own holiday time and arranged for gift cards to be sent to the client. She also took the time a few days later to check on the clients while they were still onboard.

Maybe Holland America should learn something from Costa. A THUMBS DOWN for how they handle correspondence about onboard problems. Three couples reported very serious substantiated problems they had experienced. The agent e-mailed the client’s letter directly to HAL. A form letter was e-mailed back, only to the agent, stating they would look into the matter and respond. Over one month later, no communication. Possibly they have a big backlog. But since the clients mistake the delay for apathy, they told the agent to book their next cruise on a different cruise line. If Holland America had responded sooner, they could have had the sale. Now the clients have told their friends about the bad experience onboard as well as the neglect afterwards and their friends have cancelled a future cruise with HAL.

Hey- a THUMBS UP for Princess- for realizing that travel agents need to know what offers are being sent to our clients. Now, on the Polar website, we can bring up the special offers that our clients are entitled to receive. No more having the client read the mailer and find the promo number. Thanks, Princess, for doing something that makes it easier for the travel agent to make the sale. Maybe Princess learned from the success that Insight and Tauck have when they alert the agents that brochures have been sent to their clients. Since these tour operators actually give the names of the clients – the agents can easily do a follow-up. And hand in hand, we skip down the road …to the bank.

Bill Furman from Boscov’s Travel in New Jersey has THUMBS UP praise for his Contiki rep, Jennifer Demucci. When talking about events they’ve worked on together, he states “ Not many out there nowadays that will do this.  Yesterday was my 3rd such event with her and we sit and brainstorm up new ideas that will benefit us both.  She really has her eye on the prize!!”

A THUMBS UP for the tour operator, Caravan. If you’ve been working with them for years, you’ll notice their brochure has offerings at $995. Year after year after year, the rate has remained the same. So if you want to run a promotion for places your clients can visit, for $995 – check them out. This is not an advertisement for the company, it’s just an example of consistent pricing.

A THUMBS UP for Trafalgar. We agents can spend hours weekly with supplier webinars and website modules. But their new Super Agent courses are among the most entertaining and very informative. Finally a course that makes you want to work with the brochure – just to find out the answers. And creative – you will have a smile on your face with a couple of the lessons.

If you haven’t visited www.luggagelimits.com you’re in for a treat. With just a few keystrokes you have all the info on luggage fees, restrictions, pets and kennels, etc. for all airlines.Have a client traveling with a kayak – the rules are on the website. It’s faster to go to this site than to maneuver through the airlines own web pages. THUMBS UP…and I bet you’re going to check this one out right now.