Dame Irene Hays challenges cruise lines on commission policy

Hays Travel chair Dame Irene Hays has called on cruise lines to justify paying different levels of commission to retail staff, homeworking agents and Hays Travel Independence Group members.

Hays raised the issue at Clia’s Cruise Forum on Wednesday (December 17) when asked how cruise lines could provide better support to Hays Travel.

“I think they should be more understanding of the roles that the different channels of distribution play,” she said. “Sometimes for us it’s quite hard if the commission levels vary across the distribution channels.”

She said she does not understand why the commission payments differ, adding: “I think there’s a big opportunity there.”

When Travel Weekly editor-in-chief Lucy Huxley asked Hays whether the agency owner could demand equal commission levels, Hays said: “I couldn’t do that. We work in partnership and I presume there’s a good reason [for the different commission levels].”

Huxley later asked cruise line representatives why they offered varying levels of commission according to the distribution channel.

Claire Stirrup, managing director for the UK and EMEA at Celebrity Cruises, said: “We listen to our trade partners. We have a framework that we work within and we take it away and come up with our strategy for the coming year.”

Nathaniel Sherborne, senior vice-president and managing director for EMEA, Australia and New Zealand and global sales enablement at HX Expeditions, said HX Expeditions pays the same level of commission to all staff at an agency.

“We leave it to the customer to choose the channel they interact with and they’re the most important thing,” he said.