Looking For Keys In The Dark

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I started a huge task weeks ago when I promised John Frenaye that I would get his questions answered. ALL his questions. Over the next couple weeks due to the length of this list, I have focused on each of these questions one at a time. My goal here is not only to answer the question, but also point out why this question is even asked in the first place.

While I hoped this would be an excellent opportunity and tool for anyone with additional comments about each of the specific questions to get better clarification, I seem to have been doing an outstanding job. Very little has come from the “other side” to contradict what I have to say. The comments section to discuss each of the questions in greater detail has been lacking at best. I think they’ve learned early on in this process that documentation beats conversation any day of the week.

Here are the questions we have gone over thus far.

Question #1 – Why a compensation plan takes 12 pages to define?

Question #2 – How YTB arrived at $226 Million in travel sold for 2006. (Still waiting.)

Question #3 - Why so little of the “training” at the annual convention was for travel. (OK, YTB only believes in training at other meetings. We can let this one go.)

Question #4 - How nearly 150,000 RTAs can pay in the course of 9 months $79 million dollars in website sales, fees, and training; and receive $9.3 million in return. (This is huge…anyone?)

Question #5 - And for those that say I don’t get the math, I did not learn how nearly 150,000 people paid in $79 million dollars and only got $64 million in return. (Hello? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?)

Question #6 - Why it is a good thing to have your top executives selling off stock. (There were no takers on this one, so I am gonna assume that it probably is NOT a good thing as everyone initially thought.)

Question #7 - Why a 3:1 split was a good deal when two of the three shares are worthless. (Thanks to Doug for the most reasonable explanation of this. The split may have been a good deal but with the current value of the stock, it is anyone’s guess.)

Question #8 - Why employees at YTB could not sell me a cruise on November 9th. (Still no answer on this one yet other than they don’t do anything till an RTA sells it. Well, the YTB site said to call them. Coach in an interview was touting how the res center is all staffed with professional agents. So, why is it that they cannot sell me a cruise, and how is it that they do not know that cruises do not depart from Phoenix?)

Question #9 – Why when presented with facts and figures, the argument mysteriously turns to “you don’t understand”. (This is another one that we will just have to say…because that is the way it is.)

Question #10 – How many RTAs drop out in a month…a year….. (This number I fear will NEVER be known.)

Question #11 – How long does an RTA continue to pay the fee before canceling? (Answered. They continue to pay as long as YTB continues to charge them and they jump through the hoops to get them to stop.

Question #12 – How it is a misunderstanding with IATAN and Royal Caribbean. (Answered. It apparently was NOT a misunderstanding and RCCL called a spade a spade and it is what it is. YTB has moved on and said they would never do business with RCCL again.)

From what I’ve learned about the IATAN and Royal Caribbean situations, I believe YTB needs to take blame for IATAN, and Royal Caribbean needs to take blame for Royal Caribbean. John is correct however, that YTB has clearly moved on and while everyone thought this would devastate our business back in October and November, here we are month’s later, still selling travel, still being paid on travel, and still finding new people who want to become a part of this company. Unofficial word currently is that YTB’s first month in Canada brought in some 9000 new RTA’s into the fold. While IATA and Royal Caribbean have certainly been uncomfortable for most people, it’s had very little effect on day to day operations and abilities YTB as a whole.

I find it amusing that everyone wants YTB RTA’s to answer these questions concerning IATA and Royal Caribbean. While all the attention is focused on YTB RTA’s, demanding why this and why that, all these demands are focused in the wrong area.

Dr. Wayne Dyer has given the best analogy I’ve ever read in his book “The Power of Intention“.

Dr. Dyer tells a story of how someone has lost their keys inside the house. As they are looking for their keys, the electricity goes out and it’s dark inside, making it useless to search for anything let alone keys. As they ponder what to do, they see a street light outside and the idea pops in their head that they can see with the light on. So they go outside to look for their keys.

After a few minutes a neighbor friend comes over to ask what they are doing, and the person looking explains “I’ve lost my keys.” Being the good neighbor, the neighbor offers to help and now they are both looking for keys under the street light.

A few minutes go by and the neighbor says, “I don’t see them anywhere here. Where did you lose them?”

The man responds “I lost them inside the house, but I can’t see a thing in there so I figured I’d look here under the light.”

The keys were lost at IATA and Royal Caribbean folks, and while everyone is looking at the spotlight that’s focused on YTB, the answers are inside with the keys at IATA and Royal Caribbean. All IATA provided was something about violating accreditation standards forbidding the “improper lending, subcontracting or hiring to a third party of an IATA numeric code by agencies.” What that probably means based on what I gather is that YTB RTA’s were trying to book direct with a vendor as “ABC Travel” and when asked the IATA number, they were giving YTB’s IATA. I by the way have always told vendors and suppliers that I’m an outside agent with YTB Travel Network, not I’m the owner of BandBVacations.com.

Yet, those that oppose our company and business model demand answers and when given the answers provided by the company, it’s not good enough. (Any wonder why it’s not good enough and they want more?) At this point, anything further is moot. I’m still able to book travel directly with vendors, I’m still booking travel on my booking engine and I’m still being paid on this travel. Furthermore, YTB’s been able to attract the largest vendor in China with an exclusive partnership here in the US, and YTB has expanded into Canada, Bermuda, Bahamas and Virgin Islands since this accreditation was lost in the dark secrecy of IATA.

Maybe it’s not nearly as important as some would like you to believe. (Who knew?)

Royal Caribbean on the other hand is in my view turning out to be a “Royal Mistake” on their part. While everyone thought this was the beginning of the end back in October when it first happened, no other major suppliers have followed suit nor have any more than four Agencies been terminated. What followed after Lisa Bauer sent out just 4 letters, Carnival hooked up with YTB less than a month later for our One Day Sale, Lisa Bauer then moved into Hotel Operations in early December, and Vicki Freed then moved into her position just a month later. Even Joystar, the only other Agency named publically in the “Royal Mistake” believes it was nothing more than a “misunderstanding” and hopes to enter back into the fold with Royal Caribbean.

Traditionalists in the industry will never look at any of this as back peddling, and why should they? They (the Traditionalist’s) believe YTB is only about selling web sites and not selling travel. It’s comical how Traditionalists know this as “fact”. I’ve been round and round trying to help them come to grips that the $226 Million sold in Travel Weekly’s Power List as “travel sales”, but they insist they know better than I do. Suppliers on the other hand seem to have a quite different perspective based on what data they have available to them. Vicki, being politically correct as always, finds their view “interesting”. She pointed out that was published that YTB booked $13 Million with Royal Caribbean during the first 9 months of 2007, about 18,000 7 week equivalent weeks for Carnival. Last I heard YTB has 40,000 7 week equivalents with Carnival alone so far for 2008.

Wonder what these Traditionalists who have stuck their head in the sand will do when YTB comes in this year with somewhere around $550 Million in “verified travel sales”? Based on the 2007 Travel Weekly report, that would put YTB in the Top 20, and when YTB reaches its goal of $1 Billion in Travel Sales for 2008 (with or without Royal Caribbean or IATA) puts YTB in the Top 12 Agencies.

It may take a little time, much like the profits that showed up this year. I just keep the main thing, the main thing, and that’s building my YTB business. Everything else will take care of itself.

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