Royal's response to me regarding high Labadee cabana prices

[Toddcan]

I emailed Royal's shore excursion dept expressing my disappointment with the doubling of cabana prices. Here is their response:

 

Thank you for contacting our Shore Excursion Team with this issue.

 

We apologize that the price increase has negatively influenced your impression of our company, and hope that a more thorough understanding of our decision will better accommodate the change.

 

Cabana prices always fluctuate due to the high demand they have. There are only eight Over the water cabanas and three beach cabanas in Labadee, Our Department deals with over 40,000 tours worldwide, and yet 20-30% of emails we receive are for cabanas, and let me emphasize that there are only 12 in total that guests can book. Out of 100 emails 20-30 of them are requesting a cabana.

 

There is such a high demand that we attempted to withhold purchase and sell them on a first come first serve basis onboard, but there are guests that go to extreme lengths for a cabana, and it starts a kind of bidding war that we try to avoid.

 

The way it usually worked with cabanas was that the revenue is actively managed and pricing increased as they are sold. They are viewed as the golden ticket to a chocolate factory, and we have not seen a sailing where they do not sell out. Our internal departments decided to increase it overall, to avoid discontent from people that end up paying more for having booked later than other guests.

 

We are reminded of constantly, daily, always, that people are more than willing to pay more for the chance to acquire one, so we understand why this increase has taken place, and hope this explanation helps clarify this situation, and we apologize for the inconvenience, as you are already used to paying a certain price, potentially due to booking early.

 

If the price is a detrimental factor, we would advise the Full-Day Beach Bed Rental - ZLZ9, This was known as a beach bed cabana, however due to the high demand in cabanas, and also because of the limited availability, the name has been restructured. The price is close to the old cabana pricing, and includes many of the same amenities.

 

Please let us know if you have any other questions. We are happy to help.

 

When you look at their explanation, and I have no reason to doubt the validity of their statements - 20-30% of their emails are about Labadee cabanas... with many people willing to pay a lot more. Of course they upped the price.. and they claim they still sell out on every sailing.

[cb at sea]

Bidding war? Are you kidding me???? Sounds like a politician wrote that crap!

 

 

But, it's true that as long as folks pay these outrageous prices, they will keep hiking it higher and higher and higher.....the solution is to sit under a tree, in the shade. It's still free!

Edited November 5, 2015 by cb at sea

[Spring Valley]

When we were in Labadee last December on the Explorer, there were 3 OTW Cabanas that were empty, i was really surprised!!

 

Keith

[CruiserBruce]

Simple supply and demand, charging what the market will bear. If people will pay a higher rate, RCI will charge it. If they don't sell, the price will come down.

 

Last time I looked, the mission of RCI is to make a profit.

[Big Feet]

Simple supply and demand, charging what the market will bear. If people will pay a higher rate, RCI will charge it. If they don't sell, the price will come down.

 

Last time I looked, the mission of RCI is to make a profit.

Bruce as with most business endeavors profit is motive #1--- price gouging your clients shouldn't be.

You pull up to a gas station and as you pump the gas station tank gets lower-- should the price start going up. set the price and live with it. These cabana's were in the 175 range-- now 395 and up. As you say though-- there's always shade elsewhere.

You should not have a bad taste in your mouth when dealing with tours while on vacation. You loss your loyal fans that way-- and business.

[CruiserBruce]

Price gouging is an illegal act (in some cases, in some locations ) of rising pricing on critical and limited resource during a crisis, like raising prices on gas during a hurricane when people are fleeing. Or as happened near our home this summer, hotels raising prices as people fled the wild land fires.

 

Doubling the prices on a cabana is not gouging. It is attempting to set a price the market will bear. If nobody buys at that price...and a cabana is not a critical, limited resource...the price will fall. HAL tried the same thing on Half Moon Cay...oddly enough at the same time they were expanding capacity. It failed, and the prices came down.

 

As any time with a non-critical resource, people will vote with their feet. Ranting about "gouging" (which the business knows is not true) is just that, ranting. As always, action speaks louder than words.

[whitshel]

I emailed Royal's shore excursion dept expressing my disappointment with the doubling of cabana prices. Here is their response:

 

Thank you for contacting our Shore Excursion Team with this issue.

 

We apologize that the price increase has negatively influenced your impression of our company, and hope that a more thorough understanding of our decision will better accommodate the change.

 

Cabana prices always fluctuate due to the high demand they have. There are only eight Over the water cabanas and three beach cabanas in Labadee, Our Department deals with over 40,000 tours worldwide, and yet 20-30% of emails we receive are for cabanas, and let me emphasize that there are only 12 in total that guests can book. Out of 100 emails 20-30 of them are requesting a cabana.

 

There is such a high demand that we attempted to withhold purchase and sell them on a first come first serve basis onboard, but there are guests that go to extreme lengths for a cabana, and it starts a kind of bidding war that we try to avoid.

 

The way it usually worked with cabanas was that the revenue is actively managed and pricing increased as they are sold. They are viewed as the golden ticket to a chocolate factory, and we have not seen a sailing where they do not sell out. Our internal departments decided to increase it overall, to avoid discontent from people that end up paying more for having booked later than other guests.

 

We are reminded of constantly, daily, always, that people are more than willing to pay more for the chance to acquire one, so we understand why this increase has taken place, and hope this explanation helps clarify this situation, and we apologize for the inconvenience, as you are already used to paying a certain price, potentially due to booking early.

 

If the price is a detrimental factor, we would advise the Full-Day Beach Bed Rental - ZLZ9, This was known as a beach bed cabana, however due to the high demand in cabanas, and also because of the limited availability, the name has been restructured. The price is close to the old cabana pricing, and includes many of the same amenities.

 

Please let us know if you have any other questions. We are happy to help.

 

When you look at their explanation, and I have no reason to doubt the validity of their statements - 20-30% of their emails are about Labadee cabanas... with many people willing to pay a lot more. Of course they upped the price.. and they claim they still sell out on every sailing.

 

 

Sounds like a fair statement to me as well. We have rented cabanas in Labadee the last 2 times we have been there, they are awesome but for $500 its a littler too steep for our liking. That being said we had always felt that $200- $250 per cabana was way under charged. We go to vegas just about every summer and the cabanas at the MGM Grand(which btw has a great pool area:D) are always supply and demand priced, but the cheapest we were ever quoted was $450(and no we have never rented at the MGM due to price). So being on a lil cliff with the beautiful Caribbean ocean in front of you, $500 is not really that bad.

 

Best $250 we ever spent!!

[cincicruisers]

Supply and demand.

As long as people spend the money to have a cabana they can basically can charge what they want.

[Doug S]

Toddcan,

We got basically that same e-mail. Yours matches almost word for word what I posted in another Cabana pricing thread about a month back (post 79, Labadee cabana pricing started by Staggr), right down the the bidding wars and golden ticket lines.... just a different lead in and ending to tie it to your e-mail. I guess they have a block of form text they are using.

 

ADDED-

 

Mine was received on Sept 25 and at the time I even commented that it did not seem like the usual bulk mail bot response. Oh well... what do I know.

 

Doug

Edited November 12, 2015 by Doug S