Regent communication and marketing issues

[CruisetheCs]

Are you two suggesting that problems with the website and/or communication is going to drive customers away? Perhaps it should since there would be less complaints, however, history indicates otherwise. It is clear to me that the issues are more global than that.

 

Really suggest that Regent customers spend some time on other luxury cruise line boards where you are likely to see marketing, website and communication issues. As I frequently say, the grass isn't always greener on the other side (however, for those of you who want to spend the money to prove or disprove my theory, go for it)!

 

Are you saying that Regent is no different than other cruise lines because they all have marketing and communication issues? That is the mediocrity argument. They are all alike. It gives potential customers the message that all the cruise lines provide the same level of service. If that is true in one area, then it is easy to assume it may be true in lots of areas.

 

Mediocrity is a poor marketing message if you are a luxury line. It may be a more successful marketing technique if you are below-par cheap cruise line.

[Travelcat2]

Are you saying that Regent is no different than other cruise lines because they all have marketing and communication issues? That is the mediocrity argument. They are all alike. It gives potential customers the message that all the cruise lines provide the same level of service. If that is true in one area, then it is easy to assume it may be true in lots of areas.

 

Mediocrity is a poor marketing message if you are a luxury line. It may be a more successful marketing technique if you are below-par cheap cruise line.

 

Whether Regent is better than other cruise lines or not is subjective. I am not saying that Regent has marketing and/or communication issues but a few Regent customers think that they do. I'm also not saying that all luxury cruise lines are alike. I'm simply stating that the complaints of customers that I've read over the years on all of the luxury boards are similar.

 

I personally like most of the way Regent markets itself but am not fond of the quarterly warnings that pricing will be going up on xx/xx/20xx. I love Regent upsell and cruise continuation offers. Some luxury cruise lines would rather sail with empty cabins than make the type of offers that Regent puts forth.

 

IMO, the four major luxury cruise lines are quite different..... it is only the complaints of customers that are somewhat the same.

[Suite Travels]

The reason why other cruise lines do not up sell is because they don't have to. That is like giving a first class airline ticket to a person paying the cheapest fare just to fill a seat and the airline still makes no money. Just filling cruise cabins and airline seats does not make money and the people that paid top dollar find this out are not happy.

 

I know that Crystal does not do any last minute up selling to suites at all.

Edited August 23, 2016 by Suite Travels

[UUNetBill]

Yay! Back on communication and not on stockholders. Whew, I was worried...

 

I agree that all of the "FREE this" and "FREE that" cheapens the brand somewhat. I'd laughed about the "FREE Pre-Paid" thing before, too. Makes no sense to me. I would much rather see Regent tone it down a bit; understated elegance is a much better approach than the "But wait, there's MORE!" schtick they're hawking right now. And it's gotten worse since we first sailed Regent back in '09.

 

I also agree - heartily - that Regent would be much better served by being upfront and honest when things go wrong. Historically, the rumors and conjecture online are often a LOT worse than the actual problem. Regent is getting a lot of negative publicity over their apparent aloofness. A little QA goes a long way.

 

As to the website issues - anyone who has read my posts lately knows that I've been critical of the lack of updates on the website. No decent photos of the Navigator refurb, took almost a month to add Explorer to the fleet, etc... A good comparison - I ride Harley Davidsons (gasp! There goes the neighborhood!) and today they just introduced a new engine for their 2017 models. Their website went live this morning with the 2017 models, colors, and specs, and they had a live Facebook webcast detailing all of the changes. It's obvious they had the new web pages waiting in the wings and just switched them over sometime this morning. It was basically transparent. There is NO reason whatsoever for Regent to fail to do something similar.

 

According to cruiseindustrynews.com, FDR took home $31.9 million last year in total compensation. I don't know, maybe it would have been better to pay him an even $30 mil and hire another 20 web developers at $76K each?

 

Obviously I'm not a CEO, I'm not even in the cruise industry. And I sure as hell don't make over $30 mil a year...but it just seems that the feedback on CC would be a nice 'pulse point' for Regent to at least monitor, whether they reply directly or not.

 

Okay, I'm rambling. Maybe a switch to decaf is in order.

[UUNetBill]

The reason why other cruise lines do not up sell is because they don't have to. That is like giving a first class airline ticket to a person paying the cheapest fare just to fill a seat and the airline still makes no money. Just filling cruise cabins and airline seats does not make money and the people that paid top dollar find this out are not happy.

 

I know that Crystal does not do any last minute up selling to suites at all.

 

Huh? Maybe I'm missing something here, but if you have your cheapest cabin at $10,000 and your most expensive at $30,000 (just to pick numbers) and you don't sell the most expensive one, wouldn't it make sense to try and upsell the nicer cabin for a few grand and get someone else to take the $10,000 cabin? Let's say you offer the nicer cabin for an extra $4,000 and someone takes it. That's $14,000 for that one plus $10,000 for the lesser one, assuming you fill it. Even if you don't, you've brought in another $4,000 against a cabin that would be sailing empty.

 

Or am I missing something?

[Suite Travels]

I can only speak for Crystal. If you are booked in a regular stateroom they will not up grade you to penthouse level unless you qualify for a milestone. You would never be upgraded to a Crystal Penthouse even if you were in PH, PS category. No fire sales on the suites. You may be upgraded to a higher deck with a balcony. The PH decks on Crystal are the first to sell out and if one is empty why should they fill it when someone is paying a lot more for a PH? That would cause a big problem for those that paid much more and the others paid far less. Crystal under new ownership has very deep pockets.

 

Similarly Singapore Airlines or Emirates does not upgrade at all from biz to first unless you have the miles and you need many. No way are you going to get that first class seat and they won't put standbys in them they will go empty in first class. One reason why is these airlines are selling a top end product and they are also partially government subsidized. Now is it fair for someone who paid for a round trip from JFK-DBX 20k in first class and be upgraded to someone who paid 5k in coach?

 

The marketing at Regent is misleading at best and the up sales are like begging for money...what about the people that paid for their suites top dollar only to find out that their neighbor in the same cabin paid much less. That is crazy and I would not trust a line that does that.

[sanne]

Just to mention. A few weeks ago we were upgraded from business to first on emirates for a 15 hour flight. No status with the airline. Was very nice to hear that 'ping' just prior to boarding. So surprise upgrades happen.

[Suite Travels]

Glad that happened to you, but it is very rare. Sometimes we have been the only ones in first. We fly Emirates and Singapore quite a bit. We have a ton of miles on Amex and they are also hard to use on these airlines. I know Cathay Pacific is very hard to use your miles and they do not upgrade from biz to first. We have have seen the first class cabin go empty to HKG.

[Travelcat2]

Keep in mind that Regent's "upsell" offers go to people that are already booked on the cruise - not some random people looking for a bargain from the newspaper. When Regent is booked solid in lower categories and there is availability in upper categories, they sell the upper categories at a discounted price but sell the lower category (that has already been paid in full once), in full again -- and, the fare could be higher than when the prior booking was made.

 

Seems like a good strategy to me. Regent gets double the price for a lower category and a discounted price for a higher category. Plus, most customers love having the ability to try out a suite they would likely have not booked on their own (and in our case, the upsells got us hooked on the higher suites).

 

Bill, I also do not like the "FREE" whatevers. Much prefer seeing a list of what is included in the price of the cruise.

 

Also, I've given more thought to your comments about the website. I realized that someone on our TA's staff monitors the website every day in order to know if there are any price or port changes. Surely Regent's IT department can keep on top of it. We did all recently read that they were advertising for IT personnel and Mike Moore has assured us that this will be taken care of. Time will tell.

[Suite Travels]

Crystal upgrades are also done for people who have paid in full not deposits and not to Penhouse level.

Edited August 23, 2016 by Suite Travels

[IndiTravler]

 

As to the website issues - anyone who has read my posts lately knows that I've been critical of the lack of updates on the website. No decent photos of the Navigator refurb, took almost a month to add Explorer to the fleet, etc... A good comparison - I ride Harley Davidsons (gasp! There goes the neighborhood!) and today they just introduced a new engine for their 2017 models. Their website went live this morning with the 2017 models, colors, and specs, and they had a live Facebook webcast detailing all of the changes. It's obvious they had the new web pages waiting in the wings and just switched them over sometime this morning. It was basically transparent. There is NO reason whatsoever for Regent to fail to do something similar.

 

According to cruiseindustrynews.com, FDR took home $31.9 million last year in total compensation. I don't know, maybe it would have been better to pay him an even $30 mil and hire another 20 web developers at $76K each?

 

And that is how a major roll out is done. It isn't a big deal if a couple of experienced $150K Project Managers are hired along with those web developers.