How can cruise travel sites misrepresent the brochure prices?
July 18th, 2010 5 Comments
Posted by admin
Why do "discount" cruise company advertise up to 75% off of brochure prices, when their prices are actually exactly the same as the brochure prices?
Because the "brochure" prices are highly inflated prices that no one ever really pays. It’s not misrepresentation, because that’s what the cruise lines say the cruise fares are. But they then give their own discounts or allow agents to discount them. The actual price you pay should never be the "brochure" price.
they probably have access to a few cabins at discounted prices
because they want you to think that you are getting a amazing deal, and that you would hurry up and book it because you think the deal will go away. Its all about making money.
Each year cruise lines publish what amounts to be "Manufacturers Suggested Retail Pricing." That’s the "Brochure Price" Prices fluctuate from that and change often (many times in roller coaster fashion) based upon sophisticated yield management programs (read that pricing to get the most $ and sail full).
Generally, the cruise lines themselves set the net pricing and the ‘discounters’ are simple stating the current cruise line price as a percentage ‘off’ the cruise lines once a season fantasy brochure price.
Virtually the only exception to the cruise line determining the price is that some large agencies will ‘buy’ blocks of cabins that they then own and pay for whether they sell them or not. Prices then vary and some "real" bargains can be had at times. RJ
PS Also remember that "UP to 75% off" means exactly the same as "MORE THAN 0.00001% off"
The information is sometimes misleading, but doesn’t cross the line of "bait-and-switch" or constitute fraud. When they say "up to x% off brochure prices", that means there IS a % off, but doesn’t say which brochure (there are usually several and with different prices), which price in the brochure (could be the highest, lowest, or somewhere inbetween), or what % off. "Up to x%" means that x% would be the maximum discount, but it can and often does mean less — thus, the "up to".
As to how the discount sites can sell cabins at such low prices, they often buy up the leftover cabins that other travel companies have bought as part of a block of cabins and haven’t sold by a particular time prior to sailing. The travel companies that bought the block from the cruise company got them at a very good discount, sell as many as they can, and then sell the leftovers to a discount cruise company, either at the per-cabin cost they paid, at a wee profit, or at a loss (having already made some profit on the others in the block, they can afford to do that just to get rid of them). The discount cruise company usually has a web site and can reach many more potential customers, and will deep-discount some but not all.
It is not fraud, and is not bait-and-switch. However, people do need to read things carefully.