Pricing of unfull ship

[cruisinclined]

Like many I tracked prices on the 3 June Journey 14 night from Barcelona to Bordeaux. I noticed that prices were rising and that my cabin level was much higher in price close to departure.

Yet on boarding the Cruise Director announced that the ship was only 80% full.

I remain puzzled that prices were not offered, at least, at the level I had paid earlier, in order to attract passengers to fill the ship.

I cannot see how such small ships can financially sustain 20% of unfilled cabins at a good time of year in the Med. 

The web site problems explain some reluctance by customers to book but I managed it and so did over 500 others on board.

Most of us who sail Azamara want it to succeed and return to its pre Covid bookings but currently things look difficult for the company.

The cruise itself was good and almost at former high levels in most areas.

[excitedofharpenden]

Not sure how you can conclude that things are looking difficult for the company?  You are speculating based upon just one, your own cruise and without knowing what others paid for the trip.  I'm sure others will report that their cruise was full. 80% occupancy doesn't sound too bad to me.

 

Inventory and pricing, well I haven't been able to work out how it's done. 

 

Phil 

[blag]

1 minute ago, excitedofharpenden said:

Not sure how you can conclude that things are looking difficult for the company?  You are speculating based upon just one, your own cruise and without knowing what others paid for the trip.  I'm sure others will report that their cruise was full. 80% occupancy doesn't sound too bad to me.

 

Inventory and pricing, well I haven't been able to work out how it's done. 

 

Phil 

I agree with you.

Many years ago I worked in a managerial role for a hotel in a (then) small hotel chain. Our threshold for profitability was an average 70% occupancy.

I also wonder why one would track prices after the full amount had been paid? 

[Mrs Miggins]

I was on that cruise.  The Number of Guests was apparently 569.  Interestingly on my B2B last April on Quest the number of guests from the UK was approximately the same as those from the US.  This time the breakdown was given as:

 

266 from U.S,

82 from UK

77 from Canada, 

69 from Australia,

30 from Mexico

16 from New Zealand

4 from Argentina

4 from Denmark

3 from Italy

3 from Netherlands

3 from India

2 from Ukraine

2 from Chile

2 from Cyprus

2 from Belgium

2 from Spain

2 from Switzerland

 

This time I did not book another cruise onboard.  Prices seem high (in common with my other preferred cruise lines).  I will wait for the inevitable 'sale' prices.

 

[tgg]

1 hour ago, blag said:

I also wonder why one would track prices after the full amount had been paid? 

 

This is just another fun activity for cruisers.

 

Price has gone up? Pat yourself on the back for the brilliant decision you made to book when you saw a good deal. 

Price has gone down? Ask for OBC or an upgrade. (And good luck with that!)😄

[fruitmachine]

4 hours ago, cruisinclined said:

Like many I tracked prices on the 3 June Journey 14 night from Barcelona to Bordeaux. I noticed that prices were rising and that my cabin level was much higher in price close to departure.

Yet on boarding the Cruise Director announced that the ship was only 80% full.

I remain puzzled that prices were not offered, at least, at the level I had paid earlier, in order to attract passengers to fill the ship.

I cannot see how such small ships can financially sustain 20% of unfilled cabins at a good time of year in the Med. 

The web site problems explain some reluctance by customers to book but I managed it and so did over 500 others on board.

Most of us who sail Azamara want it to succeed and return to its pre Covid bookings but currently things look difficult for the company.

The cruise itself was good and almost at former high levels in most areas.

There may have been 80% of the two-to-a-room (or perhaps even maximum) capacity, but how many people had paid (extra) for single occupancy?

 

Every cabin might have been sold

[cruisinclined]

The point in my making this input was mainly to comment on prices rising near embarkation when cabins remained unsold. The expectation might be that they would stay at levels at which sales had been made or drop a little to encourage take up..

That was the puzzle for me when learning of the capacity shortfall.

[Grandma Cruising]

1 hour ago, cruisinclined said:

The point in my making this input was mainly to comment on prices rising near embarkation when cabins remained unsold. The expectation might be that they would stay at levels at which sales had been made or drop a little to encourage take up..

That was the puzzle for me when learning of the capacity shortfall.

As has been said, numbers can be misleading. Azamara nearly always has quite a lot of solo travellers, so in general numbers will always be less than the maximum. Without knowing how many solo cruisers there are, it’s difficult to know how many empty cabins there are on any sailing.

[cruisinclined]

37 minutes ago, Grandma Cruising said:

As has been said, numbers can be misleading. Azamara nearly always has quite a lot of solo travellers, so in general numbers will always be less than the maximum. Without knowing how many solo cruisers there are, it’s difficult to know how many empty cabins there are on any sailing.

Yes undoubtedly some solo travellers but if virtually all cabins had been sold I would be surprised to hear a senior officer describe the ship as 80% full. He/she would be justified in describing the ship as full since all cabins occupied and, in reality, not needing to refer to capacity at all.

 

[blag]

5 minutes ago, cruisinclined said:

Yes undoubtedly some solo travellers but if virtually all cabins had been sold I would be surprised to hear a senior officer describe the ship as 80% full. He/she would be justified in describing the ship as full since all cabins occupied and, in reality, not needing to refer to capacity at all.

 

I am not sure that your assumption is correct.

80% full could refer to numbers (in fact the cruise to which you refer was just under 82% full) rather than cabins occupied. 

For some officers, the number of guests is, I would argue, more important than the number of cabins available.

But, I suppose, either interpretation is equally valid.

On our latest cruise (an expensive 21-day repositioning), the ship (numbers and cabins) was nearly full.

On our previous cruise, there were far more solo travellers. Now, if the cabins were all occupied, it could be said that the ship was full. But, as one moved around the ship, went to restaurants, events, etc. it was obvious that the ship was not full. 

[Whitby100]

It’s also possible they have sold off some space to a wholesaler.  Twice we have booked Azamara cruises on short notice (less than a month - one Caribbean, another Panama Canal) through a discount travel agency that adds air (not Choice Air) and insurance for massive discounts.  The first time I saw it advertised I contacted my reliable TA (who we had previously booked an Azamara cruise with) and asked her to price match/ investigate. To be honest it was so cheap I thought it might be a scam.  She got back to me and said, book it.  She couldn’t come close to getting that price.  It is a Canadian company - not sure if that is relevant.

[Grandma Cruising]

We were on a transatlantic a few years ago where there were a large number of UK passengers who had all booked with a northern UK TA at the last minute at very cheap prices.

Edited June 27, 2023 by Grandma Cruising

[uktog]

Cabins can also be removed last minute and used for travel agent familiarisation experience trips. I have seen groups coming onboard on that basis before and talking to them it was only set up in the week previously. So rooms would be removed from inventory to accommodate the trips but maybe the agents could take up the offer in time. 
 

I once had a similar situation to Whitby100 and was told that the agency offering the rooms at a snip have to pay for the rooms (or a very high % fee) that they have taken up as a last minute block whether they sell them or not. That’s why the price is so keen and other agents can’t match it. It also explains why there might be empty rooms once onboard- a discounter failed to use their block 

[federalexpress]

A few decades ago my since deceased parents who used to be more avid cruisers than I am, used to wait for very last minute offers. When I say last minute, I mean they kept bags packed because it could be next day or so, not just next week or month. They used to use Ceefax for this- there, that shows just how long ago.

 

They had a simple premise, if the cruise was £50 pppn, they were in. They figured it was pretty much similar cost to being at home or at least, very little more.

 

Now I'm retired, I'd be open to that too, but my impression is, cruise lines have gone more to airline type yield management, so the prices tend to go up, not down as the date approaches . I imagine they might also have been stung by people hearing how their expensive cruise had been bought by someone for a third or quarter the price, so the extra revenue might cause more grief and brand damage than it's worth.

Edited June 28, 2023 by federalexpress