Does Princess have an up sell policy?

[redtogo]

Priority is given to new passengers in order to hook em and reel em in. :(

 

It was offered to Captain Circle Members per our email, not new passengers.

[redtogo]

I guess the point is if princess had a policy that was made public there would be no mystery to the up selling. But as it is now we all are in the dark when it comes to how princess decides who it offers the up sells.

 

Rex

 

No mystery. Our email said that the upsell offer was being extended to CCMembers booked in a minisuite on our sailing. I'm sure rules change as the situation presents itself.

 

On our cruise, if you are in a minisuite, you got the offer. If you aren't in a minisuite, you didn't get the offer. We were in a minisuite along with several other people on the Cruise Critic sailing discussion, and received the offer.

[cherylandtk]

I guess the point is if princess had a policy that was made public there would be no mystery to the up selling. But as it is now we all are in the dark when it comes to how princess decides who it offers the up sells.

 

Rex

And that is how the Yield Management department wants it. If there was a public policy that passengers could reliably count on, many would book lower categories and then upsell themselves according to the best timing in the policy. Princess wants to sell every cabin at as high a price as possible, so they certainly aren't going to publish a policy counterproductive to that goal.

[rbt001]

It's all about maximizing revenue since staterooms are a perishable commodity: if a room is vacant for a sailing, the cruise line will NEVER get another opportunity to sell that room on that cruise. Sure they can sell it on the next cruise... they always could. But when the ship sails, the change is gone for that sailing.... lost revenue.

 

Princess, just like other cruise lines, has done it for years, so they pretty much, you would think, have it down to a science. I'm sure they rely on something referred to as the "Booking Pace" Reports to give them an indication of where they have weakness and should make offers and/or run sales. It helps them determine when and how many offers to make. [Pace simply says... for this cruise that is xxx months out we have this many rooms by category booked and that's better or worse then normal based on history.] They have a pretty good idea, based on history, when they should have rooms booked. For example the stats may tell them that people book a suite at least 5 months out and that only x% of the time (where x is small) is there a suite booking 2 weeks out. The same applies to mini-suites, balconies ... and probably even ocean view rooms.

 

So if there's 5 suites available 2 weeks out, then they might start making offers for an UPSELL... where they still only allow for 4 of the 5, depending on the potential revenue for that just in case last minute suite booking.

 

Take the Island Princess upcoming 4-day cruise on 10/23. I received an UPSELL offer at the end of the day on 10/15, to buy up from my Premium Balcony to either a MS or a Full Suite, a price pp specified for either offer. There's a number to call where you're instructed to leave ONE message which will be returned in the order received.

 

It's easy to look online and see what few suites were available: that evening there was one mid-aft and four aft. I left a message, knowing that I could get a call in the morning stating: "Sorry, we're fully committed." I did look several times in the morning after I knew it was business hours in CA, where the call was coming from. All five were still open. I honored their instructions to only call once. And I waited. I did get a call and did get the suite I wanted while Princess got the revenue they asked for: there's NO POINT in wheeling and dealing; I didn't try because I'm sure they'd just go onto the next call.

 

From the passenger point, it's intentionally a BLIND process: we don't know how many others got the email offer, how many others will value the offer enough to grab it or really how many offers they will accept.

 

Perhaps I was the only taker, as a few days later there were still suites open. Perhaps they made a second pass to a different set of passengers at a lower price-point.

Perhaps they did NOT make the lower offer to the original set, so that next time people can't use the strategy of saying "no" first with expectations of a better second offer.

Perhaps they never make these offers to blue or golds so as to not encourage a strategy of underbooking by category with expectations of an upsell later.

Perhaps they exclude an offer the next sailing if you take one this time.

 

I can tell you these are some of the "policies" I'd build into my upsell program because I'd never want to cannibalize revenue opportunities when I'm trying to maximize them.

 

But the #1 rule or policy I would have in place is NEVER to discuss any of the particulars regarding the process with the passenger.

 

I look at the UPSELL offer that I received and acted on, as a rare opportunity and a gift. I found value to it, so I took advantage of it. The cruise will count as my 13th, 14th & 15th sailing and first time in a suite.

[PotatoBug]

This morning we were offered an upsell from our BE balcony to a minisuite for our Panama partial on the Coral in November. A quick look at the available cabins (which I've been paying attention to anyway) showed me there are actually more balconies available than minisuites, and almost all in the vicinity of our balcony were available. I have no idea why they were making the offer to us, but since the upsell cost was about 1/4 the difference in the current prices I jumped on it! It will be our first mini so we're very excited about it.

[taxmantoo]

As with all successful corporations, Princess should and does have a policy on every aspect of their business. Whether or not they publish it, that is the question. And the answer to that is NO !

[nukesubsailor]

Priority is given to new passengers in order to hook em and reel em in. :(

 

I wouldn't argue with that statement. I have taken 20 cruises with Princess and have not gotten an upsell or upgrade offer since I booked my third cruise.

[SheriffJoe]

There is no policy.

 

There is DEFINATELY an upsell policy, Princess and every other cruise line WILL try to upsell you from the minute you reserve your cruise to the second you last walk down the gangway. From drinks to specialty dining to crappy spa products every time you turn around someone will try to upsell you. If there wasn't a policy and training given as to how to do it the staff would be horrible at it but they aren't.

[madgemonica]

We sail on sapphire princess on 10th November. Yesterday were offered a move from our BA guarantee balcony cabin to a mini suite for £300 per person. I thought this was a bit much so declined.Will wait for our allocation and take pot luck.

[Working 2 Cruise]

There is DEFINATELY an upsell policy, Princess and every other cruise line WILL try to upsell you from the minute you reserve your cruise to the second you last walk down the gangway. From drinks to specialty dining to crappy spa products every time you turn around someone will try to upsell you. If there wasn't a policy and training given as to how to do it the staff would be horrible at it but they aren't.

 

This is definitely off topic as the discussion involves cabin upsells, not onboard buying...

[MTNestr]

Is it of any value to call Princess to ask for an up sell? Do people who are listed "No Upgrade" get up sells?

Edited October 23, 2014 by MTNestr

[redtogo]

Is it of any value to call Princess to ask for an up sell? Do people who are listed "No Upgrade" get up sells?

 

When we received our email for the upsell, the phone number was not the 1-800-princess number, plus, it gave us an extension to key in.

 

After we had not heard back within a half hour or so, I thought maybe the representative was at lunch. I called 1-800-princess and ask if someone else was available. I apologized for being so excited to get the email. Anyway, I was told that they couldn't transfer me to another representative that there was one person who did upsells and that she would call me back in the order that callers had called to take her up on the offer.

[BarbaraP]

Is it of any value to call Princess to ask for an up sell? Do people who are listed "No Upgrade" get up sells?

 

As redtogo stated it is a number to the Inventory Yield Department, not the regular Princess number. So, no you can't just call.

Yes, you will still receive the Upsell offer even if your booking is marked no upgrade, it's an offer not an upgrade.

[SheriffJoe]

This is definitely off topic as the discussion involves cabin upsells, not onboard buying...

 

The OP's post asked about "UPSELLING" it didn't say anything about which type of upsells. I can't help it that YOUR interpretation is different than mine so apparently YOUR post is DEFINITELY off topic!!! :rolleyes:

[socialworker]

It's all about maximizing revenue since staterooms are a perishable commodity: if a room is vacant for a sailing, the cruise line will NEVER get another opportunity to sell that room on that cruise. Sure they can sell it on the next cruise... they always could. But when the ship sails, the change is gone for that sailing.... lost revenue.

 

Princess, just like other cruise lines, has done it for years, so they pretty much, you would think, have it down to a science. I'm sure they rely on something referred to as the "Booking Pace" Reports to give them an indication of where they have weakness and should make offers and/or run sales. It helps them determine when and how many offers to make. [Pace simply says... for this cruise that is xxx months out we have this many rooms by category booked and that's better or worse then normal based on history.] They have a pretty good idea, based on history, when they should have rooms booked. For example the stats may tell them that people book a suite at least 5 months out and that only x% of the time (where x is small) is there a suite booking 2 weeks out. The same applies to mini-suites, balconies ... and probably even ocean view rooms.

 

So if there's 5 suites available 2 weeks out, then they might start making offers for an UPSELL... where they still only allow for 4 of the 5, depending on the potential revenue for that just in case last minute suite booking.

 

Take the Island Princess upcoming 4-day cruise on 10/23. I received an UPSELL offer at the end of the day on 10/15, to buy up from my Premium Balcony to either a MS or a Full Suite, a price pp specified for either offer. There's a number to call where you're instructed to leave ONE message which will be returned in the order received.

 

It's easy to look online and see what few suites were available: that evening there was one mid-aft and four aft. I left a message, knowing that I could get a call in the morning stating: "Sorry, we're fully committed." I did look several times in the morning after I knew it was business hours in CA, where the call was coming from. All five were still open. I honored their instructions to only call once. And I waited. I did get a call and did get the suite I wanted while Princess got the revenue they asked for: there's NO POINT in wheeling and dealing; I didn't try because I'm sure they'd just go onto the next call.

 

From the passenger point, it's intentionally a BLIND process: we don't know how many others got the email offer, how many others will value the offer enough to grab it or really how many offers they will accept.

 

Perhaps I was the only taker, as a few days later there were still suites open. Perhaps they made a second pass to a different set of passengers at a lower price-point.

Perhaps they did NOT make the lower offer to the original set, so that next time people can't use the strategy of saying "no" first with expectations of a better second offer.

Perhaps they never make these offers to blue or golds so as to not encourage a strategy of underbooking by category with expectations of an upsell later.

Perhaps they exclude an offer the next sailing if you take one this time.

 

I can tell you these are some of the "policies" I'd build into my upsell program because I'd never want to cannibalize revenue opportunities when I'm trying to maximize them.

 

But the #1 rule or policy I would have in place is NEVER to discuss any of the particulars regarding the process with the passenger.

 

I look at the UPSELL offer that I received and acted on, as a rare opportunity and a gift. I found value to it, so I took advantage of it. The cruise will count as my 13th, 14th & 15th sailing and first time in a suite.

 

I totally agree. Our last upsell offer came two days prior to our sail date and was via an email. We then had until 4:00 pm to respond. I'm just so happy I checked my email. I couldn't dial the "special" number fast enough. We've sailed on Princess almost exclusively so this is not something they only offer to new clients. Just be happy when you get an offer!