Guarantee Cabins and Overselling

[5waldos]

We are sailing in October and best I can tell, almost all the suites are sold out. But we have a guarantee suite. Will Azamara keep us in mind before they sell out completely or will they count on cancellations to assign us a cabin? I know that some large agencies book blocks of cabins to sell but can't find any which have any other suites. Or am I just being over anxious?

[loosygoosy]

If you've booked a Guarantee Suite, that's what you'll get. What you see on the website is not really a true representation of what's available.

 

 

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[5waldos]

Have checked many websites and they all seem pretty much in agreement. If nobody is admitting to there being cabins, how would they get sold?

[BruceGDC]

They hold back some room inventory for guarantees and don't list them for sale. If they oversell theyll either bump you up a level &/or offer reduced upgrades to tempt others in the sold out level to go to the next level to open space for you.

 

 

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[5waldos]

That makes some sense. Does seem a long way out to be anxious about getting a cabin so perhaps I should just chill out.

[BBMacLaird]

What's going on in the background is that many Travel Professionals, a year or two in advance, book a block of space that will include a variety of stateroom types as well as a few suites, and then they sell into the block they are holding. At various benchmark dates (aka X number of days from sailing date) they must either assign names to the space they're holding or release the space back into our sell-able inventory.

The RevMgmt team has algorithms and can predict fairly exactly how much blocked space will be put back in inventory at each benchmark. That's one reason they know how many GTYs they can sell.

 

GTYs are ideal for travelers who are not super picky about the exact location of their cabin.

So while the Suites may not be showing as available in our public inventory, there are no doubt suites with as of yet no name assigned to them, and one of these will be released and assigned to you!

[5waldos]

Thanks Bonnie- I do understand that but wouldn't you think that if you poked around at a variety of websites that book cruises that these blocked cabins would show as available? I know when I am looking to book a cruise I will check out a number of them- especially the major ones- and if they all say that a cruise is sold out in a particular category I would stop considering that particular cruise. Have I been cruise hunting in all the wrong ways? (This a generic question).

 

For example, about a year and half ago I was looking for a Danube river cruise for a particular date. Everyplace I looked it said that everyone was sold out. We did find what we were looking for- Crystal announced that they were entering the competition and had exactly what we wanted so grabbed it. But were there other things we might have done? Other ways of seeing what might be available? I just figured that if everyone said they were sold out- they were sold out.