Here's a twist: Caribbean wholesaler Cheapcaribbean.com launched an upscale travel product
line, Ultra-Luxury for Less, offering all of the luxury without the
added cost associated with other upscale product lines.
Founded in December
2000, Cheapcaribbean.com has attracted shoppers to its site from
the beginning even when it was virtually unknown because the word
"cheap" was like gold when it came to Web searches.
"Everybody likes
'cheap'," said Jim Hobbs, president and founder of
Cheapcaribbean.com. In fact, affluent consumers, it seems, like to
find the best deals practically as much as everyone else, Hobbs
added.
"Even though our
name implies inexpensive, the product we sell the most of is mid-
to high-end," he said.
So now
Cheapcaribbean.com wants to make it official. With some irony, it
proclaims itself to be an upscale operator, offering not just
luxury, but "Ultra Luxury."
The Ultra-Luxury
for Less brand offers more than 20 upscale resorts in the
Caribbean, Mexico and Bermuda, including the Fairmont Southampton
in Bermuda, the Palms on Grace Bay Beach in Turks & Caicos and
the Hotel Villa del Sol in Zihuatanejo, Mexico.
And although the
name Cheapcaribbean.com implies that the company is an online
wholesaler/retailer, and it clearly established itself through its
online presence and its online dexterity, the company prides itself
in what Hobbs calls "fanatical" customer service.
Hobbs said his goal
is to provide a live person to anyone who calls. During the slow
season (Sept.15 to Nov. 30), the call center is manned from 5 a.m.
to midnight, seven days a week. From Dec. 1 through Sept. 14, it's
open 24-7.
"If you come to our
house in Doylestown [Pa.], you'll see a bank of these reservations
agents," he said. "They still sit in the middle. A lot of companies
put their phone centers in other countries. I want them right here
so I can hear what our customers are saying. We're a family owned
company and our goal is to provide the best customer service we
can."
In fact, Hobbs is
so concerned with customer service that he changed the name of the
parent company, the COMM Group, from Caribbean Online Marketing and
Management Group to Customer Oriented Marketing and Management
Group.
"The name change
allows us to get into other industries," said Hobbs. "But it's also
to show we are customer oriented. It's all about the customer.
Everything is about the customer. The customer is the only person
that can fire me or every person here."
For more
information, see www.cheapcaribbean.com or call (800)
915-2322.
To
contact reporter David Cogswell, send e-mail to [email protected].