THe Carnival family of cruise lines

On Sat, 14 Mar 2009 08:59:05 -0700, Ray Goldenberg wrote:

Hi,

Hi.

Think first! Before you book a cruise from a two bit lying sleazeball
who uses Usenet as free SPAMADVERTISING ground and for purposeful
attempts at personal character assassination? Are you next? Think twice
before booking with Ray Goldenberg. http://tr.im/hlJv

"p erlenbach" wrote in message
...
On 3/14/09 4:27 PM, in article , "George
Leppla" wrote:

Marketing and yield management has had 8 years to develop and refine
marketing strategies for times like this.

According to one of the majors the average customer currently books his
cruise four months in advance, down from five months in earlier years. Is
it
reasonable to assume that, because of this, "yield management" systems
will
not start strongly discounting cabin prices until three months before
departure?

Not necessarily.

Yield management works on numbers of cabins sold by number of days prior to
departure. XXX number of cabins sold by YYY date. If that target is not
met, the fare goes down until sales increase enough to "catch up" with the
calendar... then fares may go back up again. Any discounting we see for
2010 is a reflection of slower sales for that period.

It has gotten very sophisticated, to the point that they can apply this to
individual categories on each sailing if needed. That is why I think we are
seeing a disparity in prices between inside and balcony cabins on some
sailings.

I took a CLIA seminar on "yield management" at the U of Miami many years
ago. After a few hours of talk about "algorithms" and "paradigms", I
decided that fares were very likely decided by a man in the basement who
used a dart board and Magic 8 Ball. vbg

After 9/11 where discounts available even for departures much
further away?

I seem to remember that most of the deals were within the first 9 months of
9/11... after that things got back to more normal levels. A lot of travel
agents (including me) blocked a lot of group space when fares were low and
had some good deals the following year. I seem to remember a group cruise
where we started at $290 pp for a 7 night....... but my memory isn't as good
as it used to be.... and another thing, my memory isn't as good as it used
to be. vbg


--
George Leppla http://www.CruiseMaster.com

Cruise Specials Weblog http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/

May 10, 2009 ALASKA http://www.cruisemaster.com/moagc4.htm
January 10, 2009 Southern Caribbean
http://www.cruisemaster.com/caribprin.htm
October 16, 2010 OASIS http://www.motherofallgroupcruises.com

Chrissy Cruiser wrote:
On Sat, 14 Mar 2009 10:27:52 -0500, George Leppla wrote:

We live in interesting times.

As opposed to when times weren't interesting? When was that?

About any time my history teacher was lecturing about. She could kill
the dead all over again. Sad.


--
Nonny
Elected officials should wear
uniforms like NASCAR drivers.
That way it would be easier to
identify their corporate sponsors.

On Sat, 14 Mar 2009 09:53:04 -0700, Nonnymus wrote:

Chrissy Cruiser wrote:
On Sat, 14 Mar 2009 10:27:52 -0500, George Leppla wrote:

We live in interesting times.

As opposed to when times weren't interesting? When was that?

About any time my history teacher was lecturing about. She could kill
the dead all over again. Sad.

hohoho!
--
Think first! Before you book a cruise from a two bit lying sleazeball
who uses Usenet as free SPAMADVERTISING ground and for purposeful
attempts at personal character assassination? Are you next? Think twice
before booking with Ray Goldenberg. http://tr.im/hlJv

George Leppla wrote:

"p erlenbach" wrote in message
...
On 3/14/09 4:27 PM, in article , "George
Leppla" wrote:

Marketing and yield management has had 8 years to develop and refine
marketing strategies for times like this.

According to one of the majors the average customer currently books his
cruise four months in advance, down from five months in earlier years.
Is it
reasonable to assume that, because of this, "yield management" systems
will
not start strongly discounting cabin prices until three months before
departure?

Not necessarily.

Yield management works on numbers of cabins sold by number of days prior
to departure. XXX number of cabins sold by YYY date. If that target is
not met, the fare goes down until sales increase enough to "catch up"
with the calendar... then fares may go back up again. Any discounting
we see for 2010 is a reflection of slower sales for that period.

It has gotten very sophisticated, to the point that they can apply this
to individual categories on each sailing if needed. That is why I think
we are seeing a disparity in prices between inside and balcony cabins on
some sailings.

I took a CLIA seminar on "yield management" at the U of Miami many years
ago. After a few hours of talk about "algorithms" and "paradigms", I
decided that fares were very likely decided by a man in the basement who
used a dart board and Magic 8 Ball. vbg

After 9/11 where discounts available even for departures much
further away?

I seem to remember that most of the deals were within the first 9 months
of 9/11... after that things got back to more normal levels. A lot of
travel agents (including me) blocked a lot of group space when fares
were low and had some good deals the following year. I seem to remember
a group cruise where we started at $290 pp for a 7 night....... but my
memory isn't as good as it used to be.... and another thing, my memory
isn't as good as it used to be. vbg



It's those Operations Research folk, George. They love that kind of
math. You know one of those folk.
--
Nonny
Elected officials should wear
uniforms like NASCAR drivers.
That way it would be easier to
identify their corporate sponsors.