Judo is the martial art of using an opponent's strength to your advantage.
When I first started selling cruises, many of my prospects booked with Vacations To Go (VTG), the world’s largest seller of ocean and river cruises. It’s easy to see why - they have the largest inventory of cruise sailings on the web on an easy-to-use website, coupled with comprehensive info on ships, amenities, sailing schedules, maps and deck plans. I got embarrassed at how quick and well my prospects or clients can find sailings that fit their desired itinerary or places to visit, dates and sometimes even pricing. So frustrated that I decided to see how one would book with Vacations To Go as a consumer.
Turns out, you just have to register to their newsletter - which is a broad, no-fluff, well written list of their best cruise deals - and you get full access to their cruise database with an advanced search tool.
There’s no login required. You can search their database and results show the widest variety of cruise products in a sortable list (click on the column headers to sort) where you can click-through and get accurate details on each ship and its amenities, itinerary and port/destination info. Unlike other sites that are unwieldy with a lot of multimedia and graphics - VTG’s site is laser focused on one thing: giving the cruise shopper the fastest and easiest way to find a cruise based on their requirements - across the largest list of available cruise lines.
Need something generic, say - a Greek Isles cruise on Celebrity in June 2023..
Or something very specific - hypothetically say a Western Mediterranean, luxury only cruise that starts in Rome, on a ship that holds no more than 1,000 people, that visits the Canary Islands but not Barcelona, that only requires vaccinations for 12 years and older, and that ends in London in August 2023. VTG’s search tool returns this in seconds. Since it runs on static data - meaning it doesn’t query live inventory - I can quickly run multiple searches and go thru results much quicker than if I was using a live booking tool that endeavors to do the same thing, say like Passport Online.
I find that one of the best things about VTG’s tool is that it returns results, across multiple cruise products in a consistent format. No matter the difference in cruise brands - the itineraries, ship photos and descriptions, port info, etc. look the same and are in the same place on the site - making it easy to understand the differences and allow for better and quicker decision making.
I’ve incorporated this into my cruise booking process. Based on what I find, I often take a snippet of the itineraries that would work based on the trip requirements, and send that to the client. When they make a decision, I then book it on whatever tool is best.. direct with the cruiseline, thru a cruise-booking tool like Passport Online or my consortia’s tool.
Of course, the tool doesn't do everything. It doesn’t give live availability, you can’t hold space, and pricing is VTG’s lead in price (which you should not quote).
Bottom line: Use the VTG tool’s strengths - ease of use in a fast site, deep custom search filters, with results across a wide breadth of product, shown in a consistent format to quickly research options or provide direction in your client conversations. Use it to complement your own existing quoting and booking process. It is by far the best cruise research and planning tool I have found online today as a travel advisor.
VTG also has an escorted tours and packages site tourvacationstogo.com. I use it the same way I use their cruise site for packaged tour options research and planning.
Carl
Next week’s newsletter: Using AirBnB as a leisure or business travel advisor.
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