Prices all over the place

[teddy]

Is there any rhyme or reason to the pricing structure????

We have a 4-night Caribbean cruise booked on Vision in October.  We booked the middle of February and paid $811.20 and got $75 obc.  Since then, I've seen it as high at $900.20.  Two days ago it was $823.20 and friends who are going with us actually rebooked theirs at that lower (for them) price.  This morning I checked, and it was $800.20... the only reason I didn't rebook is because we'd lose our obc.  Tonight, I just checked for the hell of it, and it's at $818.20

Any ideas why the prices jump around so much?

[DublinFC]

1 hour ago, teddy said:

Is there any rhyme or reason to the pricing structure????

We have a 4-night Caribbean cruise booked on Vision in October.  We booked the middle of February and paid $811.20 and got $75 obc.  Since then, I've seen it as high at $900.20.  Two days ago it was $823.20 and friends who are going with us actually rebooked theirs at that lower (for them) price.  This morning I checked, and it was $800.20... the only reason I didn't rebook is because we'd lose our obc.  Tonight, I just checked for the hell of it, and it's at $818.20

Any ideas why the prices jump around so much?

I was looking around for a 4 night cruise in Oct as well and I have been having a hard time keeping it straight, so I asked  a travel agent from MEI who was assisting me with a stay at Universal.  I am pushing my 4 night cruise out till 2020 though.  We have enough scheduled for this year now.  Unless it has been the new promotions and/or people booking and canceling it is confusing.  I doubt people are booking and canceling that much in such a short amount of time. 

[jticarruthers]

 Generally speaking the price starts at its low point when the itinerary is released and gradually trends up over time. With the never ending sale in its slight variations the price oscillates up and down slightly while on its gradually increasing trend.

Its basically all marketing voodoo to make people think they are getting a deal and sometimes there are decent savings but the oscillations are basically due to RCI math.

 

[twangster]

It's a lot like airfare.  Cruise lines and Airlines have revenue management pricing engines that automatically adjust pricing based on sales and demand trends.  

For any given category the revenue engine will monitor prices and based on thresholds adjust pricing.  If 100 people book interior today, the revenue engine reacts by adjusting pricing on interior cabins.  A threshold might be something like 75% of category sold out.  One sales hit 75% adjust price up by X (supply and demand). 

If sales are right on that threshold and people make bookings or place holds it can trigger the engine to adjust price.  Holds expire, someone cancels and the reverse happens, prices drop.  

If interior are at 95% sold out that same wonky engine can raise prices of interior to the point they are higher than ocean view or even balcony.  I see this once in while.  

If sales on a particular date are slow for interior, lower prices by X.  

They have a lot of historical information for every route and ship.  They know the sweet spot to sell out a ship may be $XYZ if it's this many days from sailing.  

Airlines have this tuned to the point that if 100 people price a particular flight prices goes up and that happens even if none of those people actually buy a ticket.  Just looking at a flight can trigger an increase.  If a high school team or other group books 40 seats it can suddenly cause airfare to rise for that one flight.  Supply and demand.  After a few days if no one else buys a ticket, prices may trend downward until X seats are sold.  

The other factor is competition.  They monitor the competition.  They also know that several services monitor prices and notify on price drops.  Even a $10 price drop.  They know they can trick those services into advertising a particular cruise by tickling the price.   

The airlines do this on a hyper scale compared to cruise lines.