From sold out to good availability

[3rdGenCunarder]

Final payment for my Caribbean cruise was yesterday. Last week, the 11-day cruise and one of the longer B2Bs that included it were sold out. The other B2B had a few insides and one Neptune. This morning, my cruise has plenty of cabins in the lower categories--inside, OV, veranda. No suites. 

 

So how much of this is due to agencies having to release blocks they've held? Can an agency hold cabins as late as final payment, or must they release the block earlier than that?

 

And how much of this is due to people with $1 deposits deciding to let it go? I hate those $1 sales. People book cabins thinking, maybe I'll go, maybe not. What the hell, it's only $1. Not much risk. But for people who genuinely intend to sail, the choice of cabins is reduced. For my cruise, there were just a handful of verandah cabins available since summer. Now there are plenty. 

[Crew News]

I have not verified with anyone else but my HAL PCC told me that TAs lose control of their stateroom holds 30 days before sailing date.  This allows the upsell offers to begin.

[VMax1700]

I have noticed that some cruises go 'Sold Out' and then have availability.  Seems to be at times that they are trying to balance inventory - perhaps 'available' vs 'g'tees' or moving availability around to balance out between B2B's.  

[0106]

1 hour ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

And how much of this is due to people with $1 deposits deciding to let it go? I hate those $1 sales. People book cabins thinking, maybe I'll go, maybe not. What the hell, it's only $1.

I wonder the same thing and feel the same way about the $1 deposits.

[VermeulT]

I'm sure it's the low deposits.  I think with the $1 ones that's why they're requiring a second deposit of like $198 a few weeks later.  Still they're refundable, so....

[dockman]

Maybe like airlines they have algorhythms that calculate every price when to go up or down....if the cruise shows sold out or very little avail i would think that might force people to go ahead and book for fear of missing out...get a lot of bookings then open it all up again to get more?....airline prices and availablity can change in a matter of seconds even depending on how many people just look online at a particular date and city pairs....or where you are looking from as well as your past travel history and all kinds of info that they have about flights and passengers....don't think the cruise lines are nearly as sophisticated yet as they are way behind even on relatively simple apps but i would guess they are working on it.

[Hlitner]

I don't think it is as much about agencies "holding blocks" as individual cruisers booking all kinds of cruises using the $99 deposit deals.  We have met too many HAL fans who book many cruises with the intent of cancelling nearly all, near the final payment period,  It is why some other cruise lines (Seabourn and Oceania are good examples) have relatively expensive deposit requirements.  Oceania even charges a deposit to get on the waiting list for fully booked cruises.

 

We have snagged some amazing HAL deals by simply waiting until inside the final payment period.  HAL suddenly finds they have a lot of extra capacity, and the last minute deal-making becomes reality.

 

Hank

[BermudaBound2014]

I suspect some of this is HAL's unreliable website. I track inventory on a third party webpage. HAL will often show categories as sold out when I can see multiple available cabins. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

1 hour ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

I suspect some of this is HAL's unreliable website. I track inventory on a third party webpage. HAL will often show categories as sold out when I can see multiple available cabins. 

 

Could be that the third party was holding cabins and HAL's own inventory was gone but the third party's was still under their control.

[3rdGenCunarder]

23 hours ago, Crew News said:

I have not verified with anyone else but my HAL PCC told me that TAs lose control of their stateroom holds 30 days before sailing date.  This allows the upsell offers to begin.

 

That's surprisingly late. Hotel group blocks usually have a 60-day release date.

[cruisingrob21]

The airlines never show you the true availability seatmap until after checkin, and I imagine the cruise lines are the same. 

 

When agencies forfeit blocked rooms, it's usually 1 of 3 "recall dates" and are automatic certain days before final payment.  The cruise line will compare the cabins with names assigned vs where they think the agency should be and on those dates the cruise line may recall some cabins.  But each group contract can be unique.

 

However, on a recent travel agent seminar on a Princess ship, I heard that Princess (and maybe HAL and others) are doing forced recalls at other dates if they don't believe the agency is selling their stateroom blocks fast enough.  

 

Certainly with prices these days, TA group rates can be a significant savings so it makes sense that cruise lines will pull back cabins if they think they can sell better.  In 2022 and 2023, we often found the published rate to be less than the group rate, the only group benefit then is some additional OBC or perks.

 

I've also noticed that occasionally voyages will show no availability, months out, for a day or two.  This can be indicative of manually rebalancing the voyage bookings - that is, tentative assignments to gty bookings (since HAL doesn't assign most gty until close in, that's why they are tentative and they don't notify passengers), complimentary upgrades, or other adjustments to adjust the category availability that could be done by a human rather than automatically   It's common for the most and least expensive cabins to sell first, and often times the "middle" categories pick up the gty slack.  So if you booked a VE gty, you have a good chance to get upgraded to say a VD, VC or even VB on a given itinerary so that the cruise line can resell your VE category cabin at a lower price point than a VC cabin, and more than you likely paid.

 

Clear as mud?

 

[lizinindy]

The “sold out” seems bogus. A seven day cruise is “sold out” but a fourteen day cruise (which includes the seven day week) has more than 25 balconies available. So, those balconies must be empty for both first week and the second week of the fourteen day cruise, right? They just won’t let you book a balcony on the seven day cruise you want.

[3rdGenCunarder]

43 minutes ago, lizinindy said:

The “sold out” seems bogus. A seven day cruise is “sold out” but a fourteen day cruise (which includes the seven day week) has more than 25 balconies available. So, those balconies must be empty for both first week and the second week of the fourteen day cruise, right? They just won’t let you book a balcony on the seven day cruise you want.

 

Yes, that happens. They distribute cabin inventory to the various combinations to avoid double booking a cabin. I saw it on my winter cruise which had a B2B with the one before it and a B2B with the one after it. Different cabins were available on the different cruises--18 day B2B, 11 day (my cruise, the middle child), 18-day B2B. The 11-day showed less availability going back to the summer, and HAL did not shift any cabins from the longer cruises to the shorter one.