Joystar agents find new hosts
As dozens of Joystar travel agents look for new hosts, one prospective alternative is a former Joystar affiliate, KHM Travel Group in Brunswick, Ohio.
Rick Zimmerman, KHM's president and CEO, said he now hosts a thousand contractors, but he had used Joystar's hosting services as an interim step toward launching his own business.
He said he left Joystar about three years ago. He said a few Joystar agents have come to KHM, although he doesn't always know an agent's previous affiliation.
A couple of new agents, he said, have identified themselves as Joystar agents because they want to move some business. Now, he said, "the floodgates may open."
Some Joystar agents have also sought out the likes of GTM Gould Travel Marketing in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., and Travel Planners International, in Winter Park, Fla.
A couple of prospective hosts, in the wake of news about Joystar, have publicized offers for experienced agents looking to switch.
Referring to "recent host agency shake-ups" in its announcement, Cruises Inc., which hosts close to 500 agents, said it was slashing its $495 sign-up fee to $49 for agents who earned more than $15,000 in commissions in the past year and sign on by Dec. 15. To get the agents up and running quickly, Cruises Inc. said, it also was rolling out a virtual training program for new affiliates.
In addition, Travel Quest, a Travel Leaders franchise in Albertville, Minn., with 135 hosted agents, rolled out its Emergency Sign-Up Program to cut its normal sign-up period from two-to-five days down to one-to-three days, and its initial charge, through Nov. 3, is $99, rather than $199, for agents who have earned $15,000 in the previous year.
Stephanie Lee, the agency's director of marketing, said two Joystar agents signed up recently and three were in process. She added that the agency has had "an influx of calls from Joystar agents." -- N.G.
The Cruise Lines International Association terminated the membership of Joystar, a host agency based in Aliso Viejo, Calif., a move that put some affiliated agents on the fast track to find alternative host agencies.
It also sent Joystar scurrying to fix the problem: It had allowed its registrations to expire in California, Florida and Washington. Kathy West, Joystar's executive vice president, said on Oct. 16, the day that Travel Weekly went to press, that she expected the renewals to be "cleared up today." She termed the CLIA action "a formality."
Bob Sharak, CLIA's executive director, said failure to maintain registrations "is a breach of the conditions of CLIA membership," and he had no choice but to act. He said the matter was "available for further review if or when these registrations are reinstated."
West provided Travel Weekly with copies of an "acknowledgement of registration" from California, dated Oct. 15, and an undated "completed master license renewal" from Washington. Both registrations expire Aug. 31, 2009.
For Florida, she provided copies of documents that she sent to the state's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services by FedEx on Oct. 15 meant to satisfy Florida's requirement for renewal.
The agency's Nevada registration had already been renewed.
All registrations would have to be restored to satisfy CLIA's requirements. CLIA executives were out of the office as these developments unfolded last week and were unavailable for comment.
Cruise lines make their own determinations about whether to do business with a travel company that does not maintain a registration required by local law or is not a CLIA member.
Many agents have been changing hosts because of Joystar's slow payments or failure to pay commissions in September or earlier. Some portion of the agents have not advised Joystar of their host switch, in hopes they will still collect their commissions from bookings on Joystar's books.
Others want to move the bookings. Individual Joystar agents, in telephone conversations and email to Travel Weekly, said the fact that Joystar's registration had lapsed in some states had no effect on their ability to move business off Joystar's books and into the hands of their new host agencies.
In some cases, they are forced to stay with the current host anyway because if they move the bookings, the pricing could change or various, value-added features could go away because the original offer has expired. Canceling and rebooking could have the same effect on prices or special features or could trigger cancellation penalties.
One agent said she paid those cancellation penalties herself just to get some bookings moved.
When moving a booking, suppliers' policies generally require that the first host agency give written approval to move a piece of business to another host. Most Joystar agents are having a hard time getting that consent.
Some agents have received the following emailed response to their latest transfer requests: "Due to the large number of calls and emails that are coming into Joystar due to the individuals who are spreading rumors and negativity, we are unable to address any transfer requests at this time."
One travel agent reported in an email that, for a number of Carnival bookings, she had received the required written OK to move bookings to another host, but was surprised that the line sought an additional verbal OK from Joystar. Carnival said this was standard practice.
Nevertheless, the agent said, "Some of these cruise lines are making it so difficult that you just want to break down and cry."
Joystar's West and her husband, Bill Alverson, the CEO, were slated to depart Oct. 18 on a cruise aboard Holland America Line's Eurodam.