The Truth about Vacation Vouchers-Incentives-Certificates

I want to start out by saying this might seem like a long post. It is long but more than worth it as it talks about something ive seen needed talked about on this forum. The subject is vacation vouchers.

Vacation vouchers are a staple product of our business. In our packages we use them to advertise our business, in fundraising activities as well as a way to vacation at a discount. How much do any of us know about these vacation vouchers? And how do we know which ones are legitimate? My goal is to help us all become more educated.

Product knowledge is important in any business you are part of so let's go over some basics. What is a vacation voucher? Are there different kinds? How should we use them? These are questions you as a travel professional must know. A vacation voucher is usually a flyer that promotes a vacation with the terms and conditions on the back. Now understand most clients really don't understand them and from what ive read in this forum alot of us don't either. In my travels ive come across two different types of vouchers. The first one is a breakage certificate. Let's discuss this further.

A breakage certification has a few features you must know and understand and be able to explain to a client before using it. Some of the features in a breakage cert are time waiting periods, multiple steps, surcharges, mailing procedures as well as date restrictions and blackout days. Now let's take a scenario. Say you do a fundraiser in your town for your child's PTA. You were able to get the inside scoop as you are part of the organization and thus have a good name and you are recognized by that body. Now you raise thousands for the school and are a hero until the winner goes to redeem their vacation. Now they get into all the multiple steps and extra charges and restrictions. What started out as a dream vacation is now a nightmare.

Can this be solved you might ask. I say yes. We must first understand that the recipients of these vouchers are not in the travel industry and are not privy to the knowledge we have. Clients are used to just booking a vacation with their credit card online. It is important that before you do any such fundraisers you understand the steps it will take to redeem the voucher and spell it out completely in writing to all involved. This is important to protect your reputation in your community. Write out the steps to redeem the vacation. Know this beforehand. This will save you alot of headache. If you spell everything out everyone has the right expectations and all works out well.

Now there are other types of certificates I find better suited for fundraisers. There is one vendor in our package I can think of (if you guys want to know the name you can contact me) that has one step certs. These are great for fundraisers. The client has an easy activation process and enjoys their vacation. It's that simple. I use them for all of my customer appreciation days as well as fundraisers. They never fail to turn out a great event.

As we educate ourselves on our product I must point out that you must understand the travel industry to do super well in it. You must understand what your customer is used to. In my 20 yrs plus of sales and home based business experience I have learned a great bit. One of the sales tactics ive used to my advantage is to get people to redirect their buying dollars. You can't in most instances get them to completely change to a new system unless the old one isn't working. 12 million dollars is spent on travel every minute so apparently the old system is working. Remember our clients are used to going on the internet and using their credit card and booking a trip. One stop shopping. Explaining this new procedure can be a challenge. You must first understand the process yourself. Afterwards you have to show them while it will take more time to do it our way in the long run they will saves hundreds and maybe thousands by using the vouchers. That is our selling point. Yes I said selling point. A sale is defined as an exchange for services. We exchange our product for their money. I heard Jerry Clark, a great home based business owner and motivational speaker, say it in Chicago awhile back like this. I have their product and they have my money.

When you learn your product and begin to use that knowledge to grow your business it will soar. Experience is the best teacher so get out there and learn the process. Enlist your friends and family and get their feedback. Give them a trip and ask them to fill out a survey about the process and how customer friendly it was. Use this feedback to pick and choose what vendor to enlist in your next fundraiser.

I will close by saying that our Coastal package is full of vendors. The BOD does its best to keep the best ones in each year. Out on the net you can find many companies that sell vacation certs. In my opinion you should check out that company's track record to make sure they aren't fly-by-night vendors. Many a person has been scammed by this. This is why so many people can be leery of vacation vouchers as they have been burned in the past. So do your "DUE DILIGENCE" and learn your product.

Adam

 

How many Coastal Directors would like to be able to order 50-100 of the current certs that are in our Coastal package and be able to sell them seperately from the package ?

Terri

 

wow....adam thanks for starting this thread. i have found after alot of investigation that there are big differences in vacation vouchers and certificate companies. only a few are properly licensed and bonded to actualy do buisness. most are scam artist that offer breakage vouchers. one day i actualy got the true scoop from an owner of a company and i was shocked. the term breakage comes from people that go through so many steps and mailing prossess to finaly get a letter that says your dates are not available try again then the customer just plain gives up or they have so many restrictions on travel that people give up. i asked him why so many vouchers say this can not be sold and he said because if you buy something you intend to use it if it is given to you you put it in a drawer because it realy doesnt mean anything to you and you forget about it. most companies that i talk to will tell you that everybody travels but in reality that doesnt happen.the person that i talked to told me that most companies do not have special deals with airlines or hotels. they use the prossessing fees to pay retail for those that they have to travel. the scam companies start by collecting a prossessing fee and then ignore you and make you have to try to make contact with them to get a refund. even then you dont get a full refund. what a mess.......... i am so glad that i am with a company that i can depend on to protect my reputation .then i heard that the CSG group was selling get up and go travel vouchers to there directors , not only are they not a coastal authorized vendor but most of there products are breakage . i hope the board of directors lets everyone know .

 

Hi Adam! Thanks so much for the additional info. There is an organization to whom I would like to donate a 'trip' for a fundraiser. Can you please contact me (I'm not sure how to PM you) and let me know which vouchers you'd recommend using for fundraisers. I'd like to winner to have a simple step-by-step easy process to follow to redeem their vacation.

Thank you,
Stephanie

 

Hi Stephanie,

I recommend you use the L2 or L3 Certificates are they are of a higher value and provide the best customer service.

Jay NaPier
Level 3 Director/ Master Trainer
Coastal Vacations

 

i am in that business and my team uses the FT certificates the B cert that give you a choice of 3 different cruises realy works and they are booked with 1 step also FT ownes that trip and i have had alot of great compliments from my travelers. it is a 100% everybody goes travel with great accomidations and the cruise is wonderful. since it is booked in house with FT it only takes 2 days to get a conformation and it realy makes you look great and thats real important

 

Would that be the Bahamas Cruise and Stay where you can pick how many nights you'd like to go? I just got that one and gave it to my daughter's kindergarten teacher as her end of year gift. I hope she finds it easy to book and uses it.
What I didn't like was when I called FT they told me that the hotels were not near the water and if you wanted one near the water you could pay an extra $95 a night or for a timeshare presentation place it was only $35 a night extra. When the cruise and stay already costs $233 a person for 7 nights plus taxes that can get a bit pricey.

I am glad to know that people have enjoyed it though. Perhaps I am talking about a different cetificate?

 

Hi Adam,

I was wondering if you could email me the information on what vendor to use for fund raisers. I email you personally twice, but I am not sure if it is the correct email address as I never heard from you.

Thanks,
Susan

 

hi there judy i think you misunderstood. the 3 night is $99.00, the 5 night is $233.00 and the 7 night is $265.00 and that includes the port and departure taxes. you said that 233 plus taxes was a little price im not sure what you mean the retail cruise is over 200 dollars and then each night in the hotel is 100 dollars or more per night that makes tha retail almost 1,000 dollars . i have been on that vacation and it was wonderful. the 3 star hotels are realy nice i took a hotel tour of all the fun time properties in october of last year when i went to the funtime training seminar in the bahamas and they were all very nice however i did the upgrade at it was incredable. remember if you are in the program everytime you give away a voucher you recieve a commission . you would get $25.00 when one of your customers activates a cruise and stay. it doesnt matter where you travel to if you want to stay on the beach you are always going to pay more .also these are discount vacations the companys are able to give us these prices because they only make there money when people buy extras

 

susan if adam doesnt get back to you i would be happy to give you some info my team does promotions every day

 

I apologize to everyone for the delay on my answers my internet was on the fritz the last few days. Stephanie I will give you a call today as well as you too Susan. You can also click on my website on the signature link and find my contact info. Again I apologize for the slow response but I couldnt get on the net yesterday. I love home based businesses though as even though I had no internet I added team mates to my group yesterday. Go network marking.

Adam

 

A cruise and stay for 7 days for $233 a person is a steal. Where can you stay anywhere other than the YMCA for those prices. We must all understand that clients are spending almost that a day on vacation so we offer them a great deal. In most cases I have used my vacations for myself and clients its like going for 7 days and getting 3,4 and sometimes 5 days for free. Do a search on any of the travel search engines and try and find a better deal. You will be hard pressed to find one. Im from NYC originally so im used to paying $200 a night for a hotel. Maybe that just makes me look at it differently.

Adam

 

The price is definitely cheaper than paying retail but say you had 2 adults and 2-3 kids, then the price would not be cheaper as you pay per room and not per person. I am hoping that my daughter's teacher uses the cruise without her 3 kids so she can realize she is getting a great deal.
I don't understand why Funtime does not have children's prices on their website although I did mention it to Rusty last week so maybe they are changing it.

Adam, thanks for letting me know I can call you. If I ever have a few minutes without the kids I will call (as long as I can get on your website!)

Judy

 

Is anybody used Atlantic City 3day/2 night cert's??
I have a very angry prospect on hand, thanks for our Fullfill center.


Edit

 

I had heard some talk re Worldwide Travel certificates and saw on a thread that they were taking that vendor out of the package -does anyone know if this has happened or not? I received a voucher from them in June which I wasn't going to use but stupidly did, not comprehending all the terms. Well when they called me after I went online I asked if I could upgrade to 7 nights as that is what I needed and would I know what hotel I was staying in when I received my confirmation. I made sure she confirmed there would be no timeshare presentation so I paid the $70 ($20 for my 2 kids which is not refundable) When I received my confirmation by e-mail 2 days ago it said I had to get my reservation at a Welcome Centre and fill out a survey while there.
It had no mention of adding extra nights so I booked a condo stay using my 8 day resort getaway (which I have not got confirmation from yet). I called to cancel and actually spoke to someone but was put through to another department where she calmy said did you read #5 on your certificate -well it states that you have to send them your cancellation by certified mail within 21 days of arrival date. Whereas it stated on my e-mail that I could call and cancel within 30 days (it is 32 days)
So I have rushed to the post office and spent $11.40 to get a tracking number to get my $50 back and have lost $26.95 for the mistake.

I seriously don't know why Coastal would let that vendor in unless they were paying Coastal a fee as it looks really bad for Coastal.

So, in closing if you get a Worldwide Travel Certificate send in back and ask for another vendor!

And if anyone else has other vendors that have annoyed people into losing money and not actually getting their "free" vacations please speak up so we will know not to give those certificates away to grow our business.

What is the difference between the $20 certificates you order through the fax documents -are they good vendors and good testimonials?

Judy

 

Thanks Judy for the warning for Worldwide travel. I have a voucher that I wanted to use for Atlantic City or Reno, but now I will send it back and ask for another vendor.

Susan

 

One of the BEST explanations of the package I ever heard was this call:
3.00pm est 7-11-07,package training call with Stephanie.

Stephanie needs to have more calls like it.

Terri

 

Judy....

Or simple follow the instructions on the voucher.

WTC is a good vendor, many use their certs with no probs. Gotta follow the terms and conditions they layout.

Jeff

 

Jeff,
By saying that WTC is a good vendor are you also saying that other companies do the same thing? Tell you that you will know which hotel you will be staying and that you should be able to get extra nights and then after you have paid them they change their story?

I am hoping that they are an exception as I really want to know where I will be staying so that if they can't book extra nights at least I could do it myself.
Also, why do they insist that you travel with your spouse when they don't do timeshare presentations? What should it matter who you are going with -daughter, friend, etc. It seems very limiting to me.

I'm sure there are many other great vendors out there -I just had a bad experience with my first one.

 

Terri,
Is there any chance you have a recording of this call. You are not the first person I have heard say that was a good call and they learned a lot. A few on my team have said the same thing. Of course, I missed it. I would love to hear it!!!

Nikki