Pre-pay your gratuities……and then pay more.
One of my customers happily prepaid her gratuities for Celebrity Equinox and was happy to do so as she understands the reasons for them and it saved her the hassle of paying at a later date.
However she was surprised that at the end of the cruise an envelope was placed in her cabin for additional gratuities. Whilst there was no obligation to pay she ended up paying an additional $11per day as she felt bad leaving an empty envelope.
Personally I think this was cheeky of Celebrity – you can’t encourage customers to prepay the gratuities and then expect them to pay more. Apparently not everybody had additional envelopes and I’m wondering if they’d chosen her as they’d judged her character and knew she’d feel obliged to pay.
Has this happened to you with Celebrity or any other cruis line? If so I’d love to hear from you.
2 Comments on “Pre-pay your gratuities……and then pay more.”
Leave a Reply
About Me
I have worked in the travel industry for over 25 years now since beginning as a holiday rep on a campsite in France and I have a real passion for travel. I've worked in all aspects of the industry including sales, marketing and management and I've specialised in most products…
Read more
Thank you for subscribing!
Hello Jo,
Two things might have happened.
1- As she had prepaid her gratuities their onboard system might have stopped the auto daily deduction as they already had a one time payment.
The crew though have access to a list showing who auto pays or not.
Thus the envelopes in her cabin by the cabin steward.
2- Even with the auto system in place, a lot of folks like to have envelopes for extra tips to those they think did a great job.
Most times one goes down to Reception to pickup.
Again, the cabin steward out of habit (and hope) left them in the cabin.
Her good heart or perceived guilt was taken advantage of.
Cheers
Rob
Recently someone on cruises.co.uk also prepaid gratuities but for some reason her TA company did not get it posted to the Cruisline on time so to their surprise they had to pay again.
Thankfully the TA company refunded them afterward s though not after a wee bit of shock.
Cheers
Rob