Princess Introduces Bidding For Upgrades

[Host CJSKIDS]

3 hours ago, gerig said:

Royal Caribbean uses an outside service that handles this.  

NCL does it in house so perhaps Princess will as well. 

[CineGraphic]

1 minute ago, rbtan said:

Now she looks more like a Tonker Bell!

 

Mr. Padgett came to Princess from Disney.

[Coral]

Not impressed.....

[Bgwest]

36 minutes ago, vjmatty said:

Everyone has an equal opportunity to email for an upsell too…..the only improvement here is for Princess.

Again, respectfully disagree. The upsell solicitations/emails are generated by PCL and sent out only to those who are offered the upsell "opportunity".

 

If you are not a designated recipient of the upsell solicitation/email, you will never know such an opportunity ever existed.  

[milogurd]

1 hour ago, Thrak said:

I don't see us participating but one never knows what the future will bring. I certainly hope Princess gets someone else to handle this. I can only imagine the horrible mess Princess IT would make of this process.

They are hard at work developing it:

 

[muffin]

Re one cabin in particular versus a category. Please see  link # 12.  I was In error when I said see link 13.  It states you can bid on individual cabins as I read it.  The more cabins you bid on the more  chance you have.  I have no interst in this, but did want to mention that it MAY be you bid on specific cabins. Looks that way to me.

[Desert Cruisers]

Azamara has had a bidding system for years.  You pick the category and the most that you are willing to pay.  Just like a buy/sell order for stock. Don't get to choose a specific cabin.  Your credit card is charged immediately.  If you aren't interested in bidding on an upgrade or don't like the rules, then you don't participate.

[DallasGuy75219]

3 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

 

But now instead of asking for a set price for an upgrade, they are pitting passengers against each other, where those with the biggest wallets win.

How is that different from the current practice of charging high prices for the nicest suites? Princess will charge what the market will bear, and in the long run those with the biggest wallets will still get the nicest cabins. 

 

Under your logic Princess should sell those nicest suites for less than the market price to give people with the smallest wallets a chance at them too.  If you were Princess is that how'd you'd run your business? Of course not; this is capitalism, not a charity.

[DallasGuy75219]

3 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

The only annoyance is someone in the Retreat telling you how little they paid to get there but then that happens with last minutes special offers as well so no different really.

Like my $240 upgrade from a balcony to a 2 bedroom Grand Suite on Explorer of the Seas in January.  Of course I kept my mouth shut in the Suite Lounge.

[DallasGuy75219]

3 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

But that is my point.  If this group pools their money, they could offer up a really big number for the suite to almost guarantee getting it.  (Or as Steelers36 points out, skip the suite and "overbid" for a Mini.)  Once the bid is won on the highest level of cabin needed to set the chain in motion, the other bids can be quite low since you would be bidding on one specific cabin and odds are that others won't pick the cabin that you are targeting.  It's far from a sure thing, but target bidding in a collusive manner definitely increases your chances of success.  Remove the targeted bidding option and this all falls apart.

That's a huge assumption that no one lower in the chain got outbid, and even more unlikely if they were lowballing their bids.  If one person anywhere in the chain gets outbid, the scheme falls apart for everyone under them in the chain, who just paid for someone's upgrade to a suite and now have nothing to show for it.

[cr8tiv1]

6 hours ago, cruzsnooze said:

I always book a full suite. I won't do that anymore. Why start out at the highest fare when I can book a cheaper cabin and then bid less then full price. It will save me quite a bit of money. 

 

I will not re-post what others have said.  But you are willing to bid (and pay more) for a suite (if still available), but will not increase your crew appreciation to match the cabin upgrade (you have posted before that you almost always reduce your crew appreciation).

 

On most of the cruises I do, the suites are the first to sell out.  If I am going to reserve a suite, I will do it as soon as the booking window opens for a particular stateroom.  You maybe be lucky that someone cancels after final payment.  That's a pretty big risk.  I understand that the bidding will not begin until several days AFTER final payment is due.  

 

Most of the suites I book rise in price closer to sailing (supply and demand).  You might be able to bid for a suite, but, in my opinion, you may actually be paying more than the original price.  

 

Everyone makes their own choices.  To each his/her own.  Good Luck.

[Guest ldtr]

1 hour ago, CineGraphic said:

 

I would offer it at a set price, versus forcing my customers to bid against each other, so remember, when they say they value their customers, they value profit even more.

Actually a bid system means that they do not have to try and guess the value that they should offer the upgrades at.

 

Under the old system the passengers were still competing.  Princess would send out notice of the upgrade and the price and then passengers would compete on who could call in first to get the upgrade before they were sold out.  Usually if you did not get in within 24 hours of the notice you were out of luck.

 

Now it is all passengers can submit their bid, based upon the value to them.  Princess or their agent just collects the bids.  Then once the time for submitting them is over they put them in order by bid amount go down the list for how ever many cabins that they have.  It is not an active bidding system where one sees where the bid is at.  It is a sealed one time bid.

 

If someone does not want to bid, they can just book the higher grade room at the booking price.

 

Considering that suites and balconies seem to be selling out on a lot of cruises not sure how many are going to be available for bid anyway.

[Mike45LC]

3 hours ago, CineGraphic said:

Versus a customer scoring a good deal.

What Princess also gets out of this is a much better idea of exactly just how much some people are willing to pay for a cabin. Watch for prices to go up after they've perused a few months worth of bidding data.

My guess is that the upgrade bid plus original cabin price will consistently be lower than the original cost of the upgraded cabin. 

 

If I booked a mini-suite for $2,000, in essence refusing the suite that was being offered for $3,000, I am not going to bid $1,000 for an upgrade to a suite -- I already turned that down.

 

So I don't think that Princess would analyze our bids to determine price increases, only price reductions.  

[CineGraphic]

44 minutes ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

How is that different from the current practice of charging high prices for the nicest suites? Princess will charge what the market will bear, and in the long run those with the biggest wallets will still get the nicest cabins. 

 

Under your logic Princess should sell those nicest suites for less than the market price to give people with the smallest wallets a chance at them too.  If you were Princess is that how'd you'd run your business? Of course not; this is capitalism, not a charity.

 

I never said a thing about suites. I don't even consider them a factor, as they are usually the first category to sell out. See post #14 on the very first page of this thread.

[Mike45LC]

I really doubt that I will participate in this bidding action.  I rarely book a guaranty category, preferring to select my specific cabin.  If I upgrade to an unknown cabin, I could end up underneath the buffet or some other disfavored location.  Unless it is an upgrade to a category that has no bad locations!!  But those (suites and club class) sell out early.

[DallasGuy75219]

2 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

 

I never said a thing about suites. I don't even consider them a factor, as they are usually the first category to sell out. See post #14 on the very first page of this thread.

Regardless of what category you're talking about, the concept is the same. Princess will charge what they think the market will bear, and someone, possibly with a bigger wallet than you, will be willing to pay a price that you personally might balk at.

[CineGraphic]

9 minutes ago, Mike45LC said:

My guess is that the upgrade bid plus original cabin price will consistently be lower than the original cost of the upgraded cabin. 

 

It may be lower, but this system enables Princess to squeeze extra money from up to 4 other bookings.

 

You book a mini-suite, and bid for a suite.

Your mini is now available, and someone in a balcony bids for the mini.

Folks in an ocean-view now bid on the balcony, and someone in an inside will bid on the ocean-view.

 

 

[jwattle]

16 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

 

It may be lower, but this system enables Princess to squeeze extra money from up to 4 other bookings.

 

You book a mini-suite, and bid for a suite.

Your mini is now available, and someone in a balcony bids for the mini.

Folks in an ocean-view now bid on the balcony, and someone in an inside will bid on the ocean-view.

 

 

They would have had the same turnover with the current up sell system; this just simplifies it and places the pricing in our hands...😁

Edited August 19, 2022 by jwattle

[CineGraphic]

2 minutes ago, jwattle said:

They would have had the same turnover with the current up sell system; this just simplifies it and places the pricing in our hands...😁

 

Only to the highest bidders.

[JimmyVWine]

3 hours ago, HBCcruiser said:

Then why not just purchase the suite it in the first place? I would not pay more for the upgrade than I could book it outright for. 

Because the big money is the result of a pooled effort, not any one person's own funds.

[jwattle]

4 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

 

Only to the highest bidders.

I understand that, but with upsells, the buyer had ZERO input...at least this way, you pick a price point that you're okay with. If you win, great, if not, at least you're not out the money, but yes, high bid wins, same as in life. Princess is a business.

[MileHighAko]

27 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

 

It may be lower, but this system enables Princess to squeeze extra money from up to 4 other bookings.

 

You book a mini-suite, and bid for a suite.

Your mini is now available, and someone in a balcony bids for the mini.

Folks in an ocean-view now bid on the balcony, and someone in an inside will bid on the ocean-view.

 

 

That's what I love about this! Everybody wins (including Princess)!

[CineGraphic]

Just now, jwattle said:

I understand that, but with upsells, the buyer had ZERO input...at least this way, you pick a price point that you're okay with. If you win, great, if not, at least you're not out the money, but yes, high bid wins, same as in life. Princess is a business.

 

And folks know that only the highest bid wins, resulting in overbidding. Happens everyday on Ebay.

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, DallasGuy75219 said:

That's a huge assumption that no one lower in the chain got outbid, and even more unlikely if they were lowballing their bids.  If one person anywhere in the chain gets outbid, the scheme falls apart for everyone under them in the chain, who just paid for someone's upgrade to a suite and now have nothing to show for it.

True.  But the Upgrade Chain is bidding on specific cabins, and no one else knows that the cabins in their chain are going to be bid on, especially if they are showing up as occupied on the deck plan. Why would anyone else put in a bid on D203 if it looks like it is taken?  But the Upgrade Chain is manipulating the system so that D203 becomes available as the result of upstream movement.  Yes, if someone else also bids on the cabin and bids higher, the plot fails.  I said that there is room for manipulation and collusion.  I never said that this was failsafe.  

[DallasGuy75219]

3 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

Because the big money is the result of a pooled effort, not any one person's own funds.

Your "pool" scenario relies on the flawed assumption that no one in the chain is overbid, which is unlikely to happen unless you want expand the collusion to everyone booked on the sailing.  Once anyone in the chain is overbid, the scheme falls apart for that person and everyone below, who just subsidized someone else's upgrade and got nothing in return.