Fact vs. Fiction: Pricing

There are a lot of reasons to use a certified travel consultant like those of us here at Premier Custom Travel, but today I was reminded of a key distinction that sets us apart.

The scenario I’m about to describe happens fairly frequently in the travel business and is frustrating for both the customer and the travel advisor.

Here’s the situation:

Customer calls or emails us about pricing a particular vacation. For the purposes of this example, we’ll say a cruise. Their friends are going and they’d like to join them. Can we help and can we match the price their friends got? Included with this question is a screen shot of the “pricing” the friends received from an online travel agency. This is where the problems begin.

The “pricing” shown on this particular screen shot is very deceptive. It shows a price, in this particular instance, of $250 per person. So it would be easy for someone to assume that they can get this cruise for $500. But that $250 is just the base fare without any required or optional add-ons like taxes, port fees, insurance, gratuities, etc. In fact, it’s not even truly the entire actual fare — which is closer to $450 per person. Now if you look hard enough, you can find the “fine print” that basically voids the pricing listed above. Phrases like “subject to change” or “see invoice for full pricing” and so on. But that’s not what the customer sees — they just see the $250 per person. When ultimately that agency comes back with a higher total for their cruise (which is unavoidable) the customer will likely be upset, or at the very least, surprised.

Then they get out the invoice that Premier Custom Travel sent them. Ours has a total of $950, which is much higher than the expected $500. But it’s not a fair comparison, as the online site isn’t even showing the REQUIRED add-ons like taxes and port fees. We also included gratuities, which if they aren’t added at booking will be charged on the ship (so the customer will be paying them either way). Our quote also featured the optional insurance, which the customer can certainly decline, but since this particular cruise was “pay in full” at the time of booking, the decision needed to be made now. At the end of the day, Premier Custom Travel’s pricing was actually LOWER than the online site, but you wouldn’t know it at first glance. The online agency was splitting the fare into two line items and only listing the first as the “price” but adding them together, along with the taxes, fees, etc., when presenting the final price. While it technically might be accurate, at best it’s very deceptive and borders on lying to the customer.

We don’t play games with pricing. When you get an invoice from us, it will include everything REQUIRED for your voyage or vacation, and usually we also include optional add-ons as well (like insurance and gratuities) so you can see the pricing before making a decision. We’d rather give you the full price than to keep coming back asking for more money. To us, doing otherwise just frustrates everyone and isn’t the way we want to do business. We’ll also take the time to explain what is and isn’t included so you have a complete picture of your vacation’s cost. A website won’t do that for you.

You have a choice HOW you book your next vacation. Whether it’s with us or not, make sure you work with a qualified, certified, and HONEST travel consultant. You deserve it.