As for home-based travel agents, the advice in the post still stands.

Good luck in your new career!

Diners Club charges a $95 fee and you also get to use their airport lounges worldwide! It sure beats those chip and signature premium cards.

To respond to you comments and answer your questions:

1. I encourage my students to create relationships with their clients such that they don’t have to “compete” with thousands of other agents.

I think you’re 100% correct here. A core group of loyal, repeat customers to is key to most successful businesses. Even little things like a hand-written “Bon Voyage” or thank-you note, an electronic card on a client’s birthday, or a small gift in the mail to thank someone for a booking can pay huge dividends long-term.

It is getting tougher and tougher to maintain loyalty, though. I just returned for a conference on travel marketing where it was mentioned that the “look to book” ratio for web site visits has gone from 100:1 a few years ago to close to 1,000:1 now.

2. If most of your users are experienced cruisers, what mechanisms do you have in place to weed out the innocent newbie who happens on your site?

We don’t “weed them out” so much as offer them help live help–generally connecting them directly with an agency who can advise them. But the weight toward experienced cruisers comes more because we get a lot of repeat business (for people who can do their own cruise research and don’t need a lot of hand-holding, we are far and away the best option for cruise shopping while newbies are less-likely to return). We also get a lot of business from word-of-mouth, an in this market that largely means people sharing cruise buying tips while onboard cruises, hence more experienced folk. The tremendous amount of press coverage we’ve received over the years is also more likely to be read by experienced cruisers just based on the topics of the articles CruiseCompete has been featured in.

2. Do you have any stats on what percentage of bookings that happen because of your site are NOT for the lowest fare?

Unfortunately, we don’t. This is a more complex question than it appears on the surface. For example, as the best deal may include a higher fare with more onboard credit, or the same fare with a higher cabin category. Also consumers may enter several quotes for different sailings and book something completely different than requested, so it’s tough to track. We do get feedbacks anecodotally about people who booked with agents not offering the lowest rate because they were impressed with prompt response and good service, however.

3. Please consider becoming an affiliate for the Home-Based Travel Agent Success Course. Experienced cruisers are among my most successful and enthusiastic students.

I’d be glad to take a look at this if you’ll shoot me an e-mail with details.

Cheers!

Bob.

I encourage my students to create relationships with their clients such that they don’t have to “compete” with thousands of other agents or filter through 45,000 quote requests each month (Yikes!) because their clients return to them again and again and again. But I recognize this is one marketing strategy among many.

I’m glad we agree that your service is perhaps best utilized by large, dare I say very large agencies, no matter what exceptions can be discovered.

But I’m curious about one thing: If most of your users are experienced cruisers, what mechanisms do you have in place to weed out the innocent newbie who happens on your site? And do you have any stats on what percentage of bookings that happen because of your site are NOT for the lowest fare?

Oh, and please consider becoming an affiliate for the Home-Based Travel Agent Success Course. Experienced cruisers are among my most successful and enthusiastic students.

Thank you for this article for your kind words about CruiseCompete.

You’re correct about a number of things here. Yes, it can be very difficult for new agents without access to group space and who are still inexperienced in the tricks of the trade to be successful with our service. (After all, they’re competing directly with some very heavy hitters). You’re also correct that larger agencies have some distinct advantages in terms of what they’re able to offer clients. Agencies that need to hit annual goals also find CruiseCompete useful for increasing business on specific cruise lines.

However, we do have a lot of smaller agencies that do quite well by being very selective and focused in what they quote. Some are experts on smaller, lesser known lines. Others use CruiseCompete primarily to sell more cabins on specific sailings and create groups to get hte TC’s. Rather than a single “product”, it helps to think of CruiseCompete as a collection of different niches–or as you put it, we can fit well as one weapon among many in an agent’s arsenal.

With 25,000-45,000 individual quote requests coming through each month, it’s easy for an agent to find people who want to buy whatever it is they have an advantage in selling at any given moment. Plus, every agent has had the experience of waiting for the phone to ring, and CruiseCompete always has quote requests coming in whenever you happen to have a lull. As CruiseCompete fees are based on actual bookings, there’s no cost associated with simply being a member-agent.

But where I have to take issue with you is in your characterization of CruiseCompete’s member-consumers as “cheapskates.” I would assume you’ve seen the same studies I have that conclude that almost all consumers shop around multiple websites before booking. CruiseCompete simply provides a more efficient way for people to do what they’d be doing anyway. While in any business one loves customers who just tell you what they want with price no object, that doesn’t make the rest of the marketplace “bottom feeders.” Even understanding that your writing is styled to engage and amuse (and it does!), this goes a bit too far.

CruiseCompete customers are different than most in one very important way: they tend to be much more experienced than the typical cruiser. They are usually able to do their own research to select a cruise, ask far fewer questions about the booking, and generally take up a lot less agent time. This allows savvy agents to more than make up for any any smaller margins with a greater volume of sales.

Thanks again for the attention and insights, and have a great day.

Bob Levinstein
CEO
CruiseCompete, LLC.