Managing cruise groups can be complex, as many travel advisors can attest. Enter My Cruise Groups, which provides end-to-end support for travel agencies and travel advisors, using reservation and inventory management software that streamlines the entire process. In this week’s Take 5, we sit down with Kevin Walker, Chief Sales Officer, Cabin Select Group LLC, parent company of My Cruise Groups, to shed more light on how My Cruise Groups makes booking cruise groups a breeze.

1. For travel advisors who are unfamiliar with My Cruise Groups, can you tell us a little about the company?

“When we talked to travel agents or even cruise lines for that matter, we kept hearing the same story that holding groups, managing the space and marketing and promoting groups was very manual, clumsy, inefficient and lacked automation. My Cruise Groups’ sole purpose is to provide full end-to-end reservation and inventory management software to the cruise group(s) and charter market.

“Travel agencies, group organizers and even cruise lines can upload their cruise contracts, manage their own group inventory and pricing, while consuming best-in-class rich cruise content. What’s more the agent can upload the booking link direct to their own website and now you have an automated booking tool for your group.

“The opportunity to market your groups has just massively expanded and no longer are you reliant on customers having to call in to enquire or make a booking on the departure you are promoting. Additionally, agents can upload their own custom brand and media using the My Cruise Groups tools to curate a unique and unforgettable customer experience both on and off the ship. My Cruise Groups, powered by Cabin Select, is a Cloud-hosted secure platform that is PCI and GDPR compliant with payment processing capability to either the group organizer or cruise lines own merchant account. The feedback so far has been phenomenal.”

2. My Cruise Groups works with a lot of cruise lines. What are the cruise lines telling you about cruise group booking efficiencies and deficiencies in the market?

“Cruise lines generally emphasize both efficiencies and deficiencies in group bookings in the cruise market, reflecting their strategies and challenges.

“Efficiencies include economic benefits like fare discounts, onboard credits or special group amenities for the group passenger and for Agency Group Organizers, and incentives such as complimentary berths.

“The deficiencies can include coordination challenges. For example, managing a group can be complex, especially when dealing with varied preferences, payment schedules and logistical arrangements. Other challenges include availability of cabins, clear communication between the cruise line, group organizers and participants, which is crucial, and this is an area where My Cruise Groups can smooth the waters, so to speak.”

3. How are you working with Canadian travel advisors? Is there anything they should know about this new may of managing and selling their cruise groups?

“There is a common theme that emerges from both cruise lines and travel agents, that with a significant proportion of their business driven by multiple group departures, be it promotional FIT groups, affinity, multi-generational, themed/special interest, solo or both partial and full ship charters, it’s a very high multi-touch segment of the market. With this complex customer journey comes a lot of inefficiency and manual process due to varying components that typically are not centralized such as contract and payment terms, varying cabin allocations that are on sale at any given time whilst selling multiple group departure dates and destinations, resulting in several phone calls to either the travel agent, group organizer or cruise line’s group department by the consumer. You typically have the limitation of only being able to sell groups during these limited business hours, whereas with My Cruise Groups, you are open 24/7/ leveraging your own custom branded B2C website or B2B agent portal.

“Due to the centralized and comprehensive nature of the system, the agency is able to provide a self-service booking platform to their customers that is rich in content with complete ship descriptions and sailing information, an intuitive enquiry to book guest journey without the need for lengthy and multiple phone calls to enquire, book by cabin type and deck plan, add on optional extras and make multiple payments.

“In short, My Cruise Groups provides the ability to load, promote, manage and sell an agency’s own cruise groups and charters on a web-based application accessible on Android, Apple IOS and Windows devices from anywhere at any time.”

4. Does My Cruise Groups offer support to first-time travel advisors using the software? What do you recommend to advisors when considering My Cruise Groups over what we understand is often a very manual process to book cruise groups? Is there a competitive edge for agencies?

“With cruise groups starting from 16 guests (8 cabins) and up, most cruise lines do not want to be the merchant of record for payment and handle all the phone calls associated with multiple payments from the consumer or travel agent. My Cruise Groups offers two payment processing gateways through Authorize.net and CyberSource, which can be linked to either the travel agent/group organizers’ own credit card merchant of record account’ or that of the cruise line (where permitted), eliminating multiple phone calls into already busy travel agencies and cruise line call centers.

“As an industry leader, we designed a system with the travel agent group organizer, cruise line and consumer in mind, leveraging years of both technology and cruise industry experience to back that up. Benefits include:

• Improved efficiency and accuracy – no more manual spreadsheets and lengthy phone calls – automate all aspects in one place.
• Eliminate the risk of over-selling your assigned cruise allocations and promote up-selling.
• Ability to sell ancillary products and services and enhance commission earning opportunities.
• Differentiate yourself from the competition and sell out more groups quicker all at the same time.
• A cost effective and sustainable solution to a long-standing group challenge

“My Cruise Groups provides travel agents with a full suite of training tools and account management support to ensure a seamless set-up and deployment of the system. My Cruise Groups is completely scalable and can manage multiple group departures on multiple cruise brands, multiple ships and during multiple years at any given time. There is no restriction on the number of cruise line brands, ships or itineraries you can load into My Cruise Groups, making this your one-stop-shop and center of truth for the selling, marketing, management and reporting of all your groups. Our pricing starts from US$99 per month on a 12-month contract.”

5. How does My Cruise Groups anticipate that AI will enhance agent booking systems in the future?

“My Cruise Groups continually strives to elevate its platform offerings for agents, with AI poised to be pivotal in our next-generation system. We foresee AI playing a crucial role in empowering agents in the following areas:

• Personalized Recommendations: AI can analyze customer data and preferences to provide personalized cruise recommendations tailored to each group’s interests, demographics, and past booking history. This could improve customer satisfaction by offering more relevant options.
• Predictive Analytics: AI can utilize historical booking data and market trends to forecast demand, optimize pricing strategies, and suggest the best times for group bookings. This helps agents make data-driven decisions to maximize occupancy and revenue.
• Automation of Routine Tasks: AI-powered automation can streamline administrative tasks such as itinerary planning, cabin assignments, payment processing, and communication with clients. This frees up agents to focus on more complex or personalized aspects of customer service.
• Data Security and Fraud Detection: AI algorithms can monitor transactions and bookings in real-time to detect anomalies or potential fraud, enhancing security measures and protecting both customers and agents.
• Operational Efficiency: AI can optimize inventory management by dynamically adjusting pricing and availability based on real-time demand and market conditions. This helps agents maximize profitability and minimize inventory waste.

“Overall, My Cruise Groups likely sees AI as a tool that can significantly improve the efficiency, accuracy, and customer satisfaction levels within agent booking systems by leveraging data-driven insights and automation capabilities. This would ultimately enhance the overall booking experience for both agents and their clients in the cruise industry.”

For more information go to www.MyCruiseGroups.com, email sales@cabinselect.com, or call (305) 767-6717.