CruisePak Travel Agency Software

Back Online And Happy New Year.

Well, since we last spoke, the world has certainly changed. There are no longer any investment banks, we have a new president, joystar no longer exists, and Cruise Value Center no longer exists.

The economy is in shambles, retirees have lost about 40% of their retirement funds. And, to boot, the Travel Agency is the most Untrusted place to purchase travel. Thanks CVC.

I took 2 months off (first time in 7 years). I did simply the bare minimum. I took a long look at the industry, where it is going, and quite frankly, whether the travel agent will survive. I’ve used the analysis to set the future direction of CruisePak.

First off, i changed the financial model of CruisePak. It is an advertising based solution. Usage for the travel professional is basically free. I’m glad I had done that over a year ago because the travel agent community, no matter the profitability, always has free, unfettered access to an information technology solution.

However, recent events have put, in my opinion, an almost insurmountable cloud upon the travel agency…and that is the collapse of Cruise Value Center..a 70 million dollar a year business. It’s bad enough that the travel agency was in competition with the online retailers and the travel vendors themselves…but this…well, this is like a nuclear bomb.

The CVC collapse will definitely trend travelers to online or direct purchase. Consumer Reports will come out in favor of this and so will a myriad of consumer protection agencies…with CVC being the poster child of bad behavior.

Combine this with the high probability of a weaker dollar (high fuel prices) and inflation due to impending “bailout” strategies and it is seen that there is a huge questionmark as to the survivability of the travel agency. The marjority of travel agencies will still exist. However, they will be on a part time basis at best. Profitability (low commissions) and the increased expense incurred in getting bookings on a per unit basis will make full time existence of smaller agencies cost prohibitive. Of course the powerhouses will still exist.

I’ll talk more on this in future posts.

Posted in Home Based Agents, Tours, Travel, Travel Agencies, Travel Computer Systems, Travel Industry Issues, Travel Related Legal Issues, Travel Suppliers | Comments Off

CruisePak Travel Agency Software Release

Just finished proofing the new release of CruisePak. It is version 3.6.1151. Not too bad. The inventory module has been thoroughly redone. Took out some redundancies that were slowing things down a bit. Modified those agent reports.

Oh, and now one can email out of outlook express. You have to do something in the registry (XP Users Only) to allow this but I’ll post that on the website….Vista users are all AOK.

Well, if you get time, give it a download.

Posted in CruisePak, Cruises, Home Based Agents, Programming, Tours, Travel, Travel Agencies, Travel Computer Systems, Travel Industry Issues, Travel Suppliers, pfsSoftware | Comments Off

Are You Ready To Be A Host Travel Agency?

It’s sad to say, but there are alot of people out there looking for work. Layoffs are significant and for the unemployed, the unemployment insurance is about to start running out.

Any job currently unemployed people will be getting will almost certainly be below what they were making before. Wages are certainly contracting. It’s kind of mean to say…but this might not be a bad thing for you, the professional travel agent.

You see, living expenses have not gone down. Thus, people need to supplement whatever employment they get with something else. Whether it is a part time job delivering pizzas, working at a convenience store, stocking shelves at the local market, etc., the fact is that americans are now working or will be working for lower wages.

Thus, why not start offering travel agent as a viable “extra” income solution. Starting now will ensure any prospective sellers will be “somewhat” ready come peak season.

Things will start to bounce back. The question is, whether you will have the manpower in place to take advantage of the “bounce”.

Posted in CruisePak, Cruises, Employment, Home Based Agents, Tours, Travel, Travel Agencies, Travel Computer Systems, Travel Industry Issues, Travel Related Legal Issues, Travel Suppliers | Comments Off

Oh No, It’s Gonna Be A Bad Day….

Close the doors, shut off the phone, don’t let your client’s cancel. JUST HIDE. The experts are saying that we are in for a whopper of ugly today in the market.

Of course this will cause consumer sentiment to drop significantly. I imagine the phones will be ringing with cancellations.

Hope the experts are wrong.

Posted in Credit, Credit Default Swaps, CruisePak, Cruises, Fannie Mae, Foreclosure, Freddie Mac, Home Based Agents, Tours, Travel, Travel Agencies, Travel Industry Issues, Travel Related Legal Issues | Comments Off

Attention Joystar Agents Owed Back Commissions!

It looks like the pre-litigation process has begun towards Joystar. If you are owed back commissions…then post a comment and i will forward you the contact information so that you can put in a claim.

Note that it is my opinion that this is an informal discovery process. I’ve been contacted by an agency that is the point on the process and the agency has simply asked me to put a shout out to help find those agents who are owed back commissions.

NOTE THAT PFSSOFTWARE / CRUISEPAK IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH JOYSTAR, IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE AGENCY SEEKING CO-PLAINTIFFS, AND IS NOT A TRAVEL AGENCY AND IS NOT AN INDEPENDENT SELLER OF TRAVEL.

I truly hope that all the joystar agents with issues get this rectified as soon as possible as this is no time to be shortchanged financially. And again, if you need a host, contact me. I can get you affiliated and earning real money.

Posted in CruisePak, Cruises, Employment, Home Based Agents, Tours, Travel, Travel Agencies, Travel Computer Systems, Travel Industry Issues, Travel Related Legal Issues, Travel Suppliers | Comments Off

Consumer Credit Cards Next Big Financial Issue.

Did anyone realize the DOW was actually up 5% last week. For all the doomer gloomers out there (whose political motivations are suspect), the apparent trend is up. Because the market is a Future Economic Indicator, this is good news…..as February 2009 is fast approaching….After the recent turbulent times, people will need a vacation!

Consumer credit cards are the next big issue to drop. What this means to us in travel is that consumers probably won’t have large credit limits to apply final payment.

Thus, you’ll probably need capability to include multiple customer payments in small increments. I suspect that gone are the days of Deposit and Final payments. Rather, travel people will be applying incremental customer payments throughout the life cycle of the booking.

You’ll need a good Accounts Receivable software to handle this. Otherwise, I suspect you’ll lose business to those agencies that can handle multiple payments on an invoice.

After all, if a consumer has enough credit for final payment….spanning multiple credit cards, then your ability to handle that type of payment structure will probably be the trigger point as to whether you get the sale or not. The price of travel will probably revert to a secondary issue for some time to come.

Posted in Credit, CruisePak, Cruises, Employment, Home Based Agents, Tours, Travel, Travel Agencies, Travel Computer Systems, Travel Industry Issues, Travel Related Legal Issues, Travel Suppliers | Comments Off

American Airlines Broke….NOT!

If American Airlines is broke…then why are they buying 100 Boeing 787’s…42 of which are scheduled for delivery between 2012 and 2018. Plus, they’re optioning for 58 more between 2015 and 2020.

In addition, according to Travel Weekly, they are going to pick up 76 Boeing 737’s in 2009 and 2010.

Where did they get all the cash? Where are they getting all the financing? I don’t believe the checked bag fees sum to the amounts necessary for the pie in the sky plane purchases….so what gives?

I thought banks weren’t lending to businesses….again….WHERE DID THEY GET THE FINANCING? Did they get it through the government somehow. Did we the taxpayer guarantee the loan(s) they’re getting?

If we the taxpayer did, I want a seat on the board. The first order of business being TO GET RID OF THE CHECKED BAG FEEs. Oh, and start paying agent’s commission for selling your crappy no peanut rides.

Posted in Airlines, CruisePak, Cruises, Home Based Agents, Tours, Travel, Travel Agencies, Travel Industry Issues | Comments Off

Joystar Agents….What To Expect From Your New Hosts…

Talk around the watercooler indicates that many Joystar agents are fleeing and searching for new hosts….much like the fleeing of capital from our beloved equity markets.

However, many are finding out that their “deals” provided by their new, prospective hosts are not quite as rosy as they had with Joystar. There are a couple of reasons for this.

Joystar’s parent company, Travelstar, was a publicly traded company. Thus, Joystar obtained their operating capital from the sale of stock. Thus, they could offer you unrealistic terms because in essence, they didn’t need a portion of an agent’s commissions to run the business…..for a while until the IPO money was gone.

Secondly, joystar had to show a huge member base in order to keep the stock price up. To get agents on board, they offered insanely lucrative deals that dwarfed similar deals from other hosts. Agents responded…hey, why not.

However, none of the above is applicable to “real” host agencies. Real host agencies have operating expenses. Thus, in return for providing an interface point for suppliers (suppliers don’t want to talk to agents, they want to talk to host admin people), errors and ommissions insurance, quality assurance, central document processing, support, accounting, marketing, advertising, etc., the host agency takes a portion of your commission to fund these internal operations…..As they should.

The net result of reality usually translates to 50%-50% to 75%-25% commission split between you the agent and your host. Anymore than that, and it is too good to be true…or you are just plain lucky.

In return for all of this, you get an honest, straightforward business relationship that keeps the phones ringing, keeps business flowing your way, and ensures that you are profitable.

Posted in Cruises, Employment, Gas Prices, Home Based Agents, II. Financial, III. General Interest, Miscellaneous, Tours, Travel, Travel Agencies, Travel Related Legal Issues, Travel Suppliers | Comments Off

750,000 Jobs Lost…..

Pepsi is the latest to make news. They are laying off 3000 employees. This is fairly important because soda is one step away from water and milk with regards to consumer staples.

When layoffs start hitting the consumer staples arena, then we know we’ve got problems. BIG Problems. When one combines this with the layoffs at Ford and GM, hiring freezes, salary freezes, and the likes, then we can make a reasonable inference that mid price travel is going to be affected.

There is a bright spot to this however. The layoffs lead to a glut of available workers who might find selling travel as a viable source of employment when compared to what’s available. After all, to get into travel, one doesn’t have to purchase inventory. Rather, all they have to do is know someone or some group who wishes to travel.

We all know that high end, profitable travel is not, for the most part, negatively affected by the downturn in the economy. People are still going on vacation. Thus, the market still exists..although it is a bit harder to find the eligible travellers.

Established agencies could look to this huge employment pool to bolster their sales forces; especially if an agency has a well working, viable outside agent program in place. Everybody knows somebody who is doing “OK”. The more tentacles an agency has in the marketplace, the greater liklihood they will survive.

So, if one doesn’t have an outside agent program, it might be prudent to develop one…especially if an agency resides in states which are most impacted by the layoffs and factory closings.

Posted in Credit, Credit Default Swaps, CruisePak, Cruises, Employment, Fannie Mae, Foreclosure, Freddie Mac, Gas Prices, Home Based Agents, Inventory Manager, Miscellaneous, Tours, Travel, Travel Agencies, Travel Industry Issues, Travel Related Legal Issues, pfsSoftware | Comments Off

Do European Governments Guarantee European Bank Loans To US Banks?

and vice versa….

The Eurpoean governments clearly will respectively be guaranteeing interbank loans between European banks even if the banks are based in different countries….But what is the policy for European governments guaranteeing European bank loans to US banks?

This is important because if the European banks are not guaranteeing loans made by European banks to US banks….or they are guaranteeing at a reduced rate, etc., then in effect, we are alone.

Furthermore, are LIBOR (London Interbank Overnight Rates) different for loans made in US dollars as opposed to loans made in Euros, etc.?

These questions are important because if there are restrictions, then we are going it alone. And that means that we have only the US treasury to depend upon for liquidity.

If that is the case, then credit markets will still be tight. Consumers won’t see credit limit increases and cash will remain king…which only serves to hurt prospective travel by US consumers.

Posted in Credit, Credit Default Swaps, CruisePak, Fannie Mae, Foreclosure, Freddie Mac, Gas Prices, Home Based Agents, II. Financial, Miscellaneous, Tours, Travel, Travel Agencies, Travel Industry Issues, Travel Related Legal Issues | Comments Off