Disney Cruise Line has capped the amount of commission that travel agents can earn when customers book a future cruise while onboard a ship.
Disney's new commission rate for onboard bookings is a flat 10%. Previously, Disney had paid up to 16% depending on an agent's sales volume and other criteria.
Asked why Disney was making the change, a spokeswoman for Disney said, "We continually evaluate our business practices and make changes from time to time."
Typically, a client will make an onboard booking to reap an incentive, such as a spending credit or reduced deposit. Cruise lines then credit the booking to the customer's travel agent or the last agent on record.
The system has worked well for both agents and suppliers, who get confirmed repeat business out of it, said Bill Smith, vice president of cruise sales for the Virtuoso agency network.
"We are disappointed and really don't understand why Disney would take this action at this time," Smith said.
Smith said Disney's move creates an incentive for agents to discourage their clients from rebooking on Disney cruises, or for them to cancel the future cruise booking and rebook it at a higher commission rate once the client returns, a process he said was not a good use of anyone's time.
Disney's move corresponds with the addition of a Disney Vacation Planning Center to the Disney Dream during drydock, a company bulletin to agents said. The center will sell a spectrum of Disney vacation products in addition to cruises.
Guests onboard the Disney Fantasy, Magic or Wonder will continue to receive offers to cruise on Disney or buy Adventures by Disney onboard, the communication said.
Several competing lines last week said they had no plans to change their commission structure for onboard bookings.
A Norwegian Cruise Line spokeswoman said that line continues to "credit commission back to agents at their current rates if their clients book onboard for a future cruise. We have no plans to change the program."
Likewise, Holland America Line continues to pay the agency its normal agreed-upon commission rate for agency guests who book a cruise while onboard, a spokesman said.
Carnival Cruise Line spokeswoman Dana Jofre, too, said that line pays agents their full commission for onboard bookings and has no plans to change.
MSC Cruises pays the standard commission assigned for the particular agency of record when a guest books a future cruise onboard, said Ken Muskat, the line's executive vice president of sales, PR and guest services for U.S. operations. "We continue to depend highly on our valued travel agent partners to promote the Future Cruise program and highlight the benefits of booking onboard," he said.
Royal Caribbean International made a point of emphasizing to agents at the Ensemble Travel Group convention in Orlando that it wasn't changing policy. In fact, Senior Vice President of Sales Vicki Freed suggested that Royal was looking for ways to enhance the program's value to travel agents.
"We believe that those future bookings made onboard are the most valuable bookings we can get," she said.
Freed said Royal Caribbean is looking at how the cruise line can pay agents more money for onboard bookings, recalling that Royal Caribbean President Michael Bayley told her, "Vicki, find a way to pay travel agents even more for those bookings that are made onboard. Let's do some incentives. Let's give them back-end overrides."