Discounting comes up, inevitably - and it brings the room to life.
It simply isn't going away, says Giles, and points out that
- Preventing it is price-fixing
- Commission varies by 3-4%
- Cruise passengers are loyal, so you can still benefit from repeat sales
The original questioner comes back, complaining that he has lost three good clients to agents selling at brutally low prices on board ships.
"If we hear of that happening, we'll remove them from the ship. We've done that in the past," says Giles.
"I'll give you some names," comes the reply.
The questioner goes into more detail: first-time cruisers are fine, but more experienced passengers have come in quoting prices up to £1,000 below the agency's.
"How can you build a cruise business if we are forced to sell at less than net?" comes a follow-up from another agent.
This is an interesting counterpoint to the picture of selling cruise we got in the introductory presentations, though John McEwan points out that Advantage will be doing more to help its agents become more competitive in the sector in the coming years.
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