Book now, pay later?

It seems this Christmas everyone has gone sale mad. High street businesses have jumped on the bandwagon and adopted the American tradition of ‘Black Friday’. Online retailers have created their own ‘Cyber Monday’ shopping frenzy, and this year even the cruise lines have brought the traditional New Year sales campaigns forward to before Christmas.

So it again raises the question which we hear so often from our clients…’When is the best time to book a cruise?’

With P&O Cruises and Cunard Line in particular over recent years offering last minute discounts verging on the ludicrous it’s no surprise that more and more we hear clients deciding to wait and book ‘when‘ the price drops, not ‘if’.

We all know the aforementioned cruise lines have shot themselves in the foot (and I imagine other cruise lines feet aswell) with such heavy last minute discounting and are keen to try and undo the damage they have done to the forward booking market by offering greater ‘early booking’ incentives, but is it simply too little too late?

We know P&O and Cunard now offer ‘Early Saver’ fares, Celebrity Cruises have gone out this November with their 123Go Campaign, Royal Caribbean will launch their ‘Wave’ promotion on December 12th. Others have followed suit with Azamara Club Cruises and their ‘Azamazing Offers’, Princess with their ‘Christmas Crackers’ and Fred Olsen have launched their up to £30% off ‘Multi Buy’ offers (a great deal may I add).

But having spent so many years discounting late and subsequently changing the culture of the cruise booking market, will a few snazzy sales campaigns and beautifully shot TV ads be able to change that? I’m not so sure.

Besides, following the new ‘it pays to book early’ pricing structure from P&O Cruises what do they do? Bring out a Caribbean Sale where 14 night fly-cruises departing within the next 4-8 weeks have been slashed to £999 per person – Doh!

Of course these early booking campaigns do offer some fantastic deals and great savings, and we anticipate the usual booking frenzy that the new year brings, but I wonder how many potential buyers (particularly those with the flexibility to cruise when the deals are good, and at a moments notice) may decide to keep their wallets in their pockets knowing that last year they booked last minute and got a 12 night Mediterranean fly-cruise with Cunard for £499.

I would be very interested to hear what you think. Do you book early or wait for a last minute bargain. Do you even believe the cruise lines when they say last minute discounting is a thing of the past? After all are they really prepared to send a ship out half empty in order to make a point?

We shall see…..