Posts Tagged With #Holland America Line Cruises

Many gamblers nowadays are introduced to cruising via free cruise certificates given to them by the land-based casinos they play at. At first glance, a land-based casino handing out certificates for free cruises (i.e. encouraging players to take a vacation somewhere else!) may seem odd, but it’s actually a common practice that benefits both the land-based casino handing out the certificates and the cruise lines giving away the cruises. 

How cruise certificate events benefit the casino:

Most of the events that casinos put on to draw in players are expensive to pull off. Whether it is a slots or blackjack tournament with a guaranteed prize pool or a known musical act, the casino is usually stuck ponying up tens of thousands of dollars to put on an event that is actually attractive to comp-level guests. 

The first and most obvious appeal of cruise certificate events to the casino is that they draw players in! “Want a free cruise? Great! Come on in and stay with us for two nights to pick up your certificate.” … and hopefully lose a few grand while you are here!

The second, and more unique, reason casinos love these events is that they are FREE for the casino. F.R.E.E. Contrary to what many players believe, the casino does not have to buy or pay a portion of the cruises that they give away to the players. In fact, in the increasingly competitive market of cruise lines competing for casinos to hold their certificate events, often times the casinos will get PAID to put on the certificate events. 

Commissions to the casino usually come as a percentage of the gambling revenue from players that redeem the free cruise certificate and/or the annoying “admin fees” that appear when booking the free cruise and can add hundreds of dollars onto a “free” cruise. (Think of the admin fees like resort fees in Las Vegas, incredibly annoying surprise charges, but, thankfully, only one cruise line charges them regularly with their cruise certificates.) 

To summarize: with most events, the casino has to fork out a bunch of money to create something appealing to draw players in. With cruise certificate events, the casino spends no money, and oftentimes will be paid, to put on an event that will get many of their top players to make a weekend trip. From the casino marketer’s perspective, cruise certificate events are an absolute slam dunk. 

How cruise certificate events benefit the cruise line:

Think of the first time you received your first “comp” offer from a casino in Las Vegas. If you are like many players, you paid a couple hundred bucks to book a room at a casino for a long weekend, gambled during your trip and *voila* an offer to come back for a free stay showed up in your mailbox a few weeks later. 

On your next trip (booked on that comp offer), you decided to wander across the street to a different casino to play a little bit and, like rabbits multiplying, suddenly you were receiving offers from TWO casinos competing to lure you back...

As this example illustrates, the casinos in Las Vegas have a much easier time growing their player databases than the casino departments for cruise lines. For one, the retail cost of a cruise can be thousands of dollars whereas one can easily find rooms most weekends in Las Vegas for under $100 per night. The cost of a first trip to a place like Las Vegas is much lower than the cost of a cruise trip, so it’s easier to get people in the door (and into the casino’s database) for the first time. Additionally, players know that the hotel casino can COMP the room at the end of the trip that the new player already paid for - which is something that casinos can do but cruise lines cannot. 

The second BIG factor that makes it more difficult for cruise casinos to grow their database is the lack of “walk-in” play. Every day in Las Vegas there are players staying at Caesars Palace that wander over to play at Bellagio or Cosmopolitan and vice versa which creates a huge amount of cross-pollination of player databases. However, in case you didn’t know, cruise lines frown on players wandering onto the ship to try their luck in the casino - in fact, it’s impossible! So really the only way cruise ship casinos can get players into their database is a) through certificate events at land-based casinos or b) praying a big player happens to buy a cruise at retail price and gambles big...  or, of course, the really smart cruise companies choose use c) URComped ;) 

How does the casino cruise certificate event work?

Now that we understand the motivation for why the cruise line and the casino want to get together for the event, the next question is how does it all work?

The cruise line will generally hand out certificates for 3 or 4 different cabin categories (Inside, Oceanview, Balcony and sometimes Jr. Suite) with increasing play requirements to qualify for each level of offer. The casino runs a query of their database to select players that qualify at each level and then invite the players to the event where the corresponding certificate will be waiting for them accompanied by staff from the cruise line to help promote bookings and answer questions the players have. 

A common threshold for certificate events are 250 ADT for inside cabin, 750 ADT for Ocean view, 1000 ADT for Balcony, and 2500 ADT for Jr. Suite.  The casinos are generally very rigid on the dates to pick up the certificate - the player must show up during the event. This is not a requirement of the cruise line, in fact, the cruise line would love if the window to pick up the certificate was a month long as that would mean more players would be sailing with them. However, the casinos make picking up the certificate during the event a requirement in order to maintain the effectiveness of the event.

How URComped factors in 

While the certificate event is a win/win/win for the casino, the cruise line and the player, the downside is that many of these players that discover they enjoy cruising get TRAPPED into repeatedly sailing with the one cruise line that their casino decided to partner with. For example, NCL has built much of their casino business on the back of certificate events and a long-standing exclusive partnership with Caesars Entertainment. The cruise line LOVES being the first to offer a comp cruise, because then the players’ choices are to continue sailing comped with the same cruise line OR pay $2000 to try a different cruise line. 

URComped was created to solve this specific problem for players by letting them easily pre-qualify themselves for comps with different cruise lines. 

How URComped pre-qualifies players

URComped lets players pre-qualify themselves by uploading the offers they receive from casinos they play at. Essentially, URComped reverse engineers the offers to figure out what the casinos think they are worth and combine that info with a lot of other data based on tens of thousands of players and trips to predict how much those players will gamble. Once we analyze that data, we then deliver offers from our partner casinos and cruise lines to those players.

Curious what NEW COMPS you qualify for? Sign up for free, upload your offers, and find out!

Can casinos report a trip to URComped that URComped didn't book?

Is there a way to have a casino report a trip that URComped did not book? 

It depends!

If the player has a casino host at that casino, and they've got a good relationship with their host, then someone on the URComped team or your URComped host can call the host at the casino and get the play information. We then can use that play information. It's almost as good as a player taking a trip with us. This happens pretty often. 

But if you don't have a host, or one that is willing to talk to us, then it is tough to get that information.

Can URComped get player's day passes to places that they can get you comped?

So that's really good question. We've asked Baha Mar several times, but their policy is that they don't sell any day passes. The only way to get a day pass (use the facilities, pool, their private beach) is to have a hotel room. The casino is still accessible. 

For Sonesta Maho Beach, we're waiting on an answer from them about doing a day pass. You already, obviously, have access to the casino. They also have a private beach, rooftop club, and swim up bars.

Are Lucky Bags for sale?

They're not for sale currently, and probably won't be going to be for sale. They were made in a limited batch, and ordered from  this special nonprofit program in Africa. There's a really special story behind it. We don't have enough inventory to be able to sell them. BUT there are opportunities for you to get one.

We do have Lucky Shirts for sale. All the profits from the Lucky Shirts go to charity. Mercy Ships is the organization we chose to donate our profits to. 

Does URComped offer all-inclusive comps?

YES! We currently have 2 All Inclusive Offers.

1. Paradisus Palma Real in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (They have an incredible casino rate)

2. Sonesta Maho Beach/ Sonesta Ocean Point Resort in St Maarten

How a lot of the Caribbean casinos work is... The player pays casino rate up-front and based on their play, the casino comps. If you play like we expect you to play (we'll show you how much you should play to get everything comped), then you should have a solid expectation of what you will spend. 

How does URComped rate players based on just their uploaded offers?

When uploading an offer, let's say from Carnival Cruise Line, URComped doesn't receive your actual play data from that trip. We have a lot of offers that get uploaded daily, and we have a lot of people that take trips after that their offers are uploaded. We use the offers that are uploaded to figure out what kind of player that the casino or cruise line thinks you are. Then we give you an appropriate comp. 

How do my URComped offers work? Where do they come from? cont...

Not sure what URComped is?

URComped works with Casino Partners to give Qualified Members new offers (comps) to Caribbean Resorts and Cruise Lines that they have never been to/ played at before. Think you may be qualified?? SIGN UP! (ITS FREE) -upload offers that you've received from either land based casinos or cruise lines to see what NEW COMPS you qualify for! 

Can 2 Members of the Same Household Book 2 Certificates on the Same Cruise?

Let's say a player receives either an annual free cruise (tier benefit), for up to eight days, or an onboard certificate, earned from play during a cruise. Can two members of the same household book two different cabins on the same sailing? The certificate says that you can't book two cabins on the same cruise.

But! The new policy is that, if we ask, they can override that and give you two different cabins. The official policy is you CAN book two different cabins with your separate certificates, BUT you and the other household member have to stay in the two different cabins booked under your name. If the ship finds out that you are not actually sleeping in the cabin that your certificate covered, they could reverse the comp on the cabin you didn't stay in.

We are not sure exactly how the ship could enforce that or find out... It seems a little difficult.

The point is, you can book both certificates as long as you stay in the separate cabins that YOUR certificate covered. 

Does URCOmped work with Casinos in Las Vegas?

Yes! We currently work with Main Street Station, Golden Nugget, and The California. We currently have an event planned at Main Street Station, in downtown Las Vegas, June 6 - 9, 2019. We will have a cocktail reception, a beer tasting at the Main Street Station Brewery, a private craps table, and Steve "Heavy" Haltom will be there! 

What length is my anticipated bankroll for?

Several members have asked: When I say my bankroll, is that for a 7 day cruise? 

When you sign up for URComped, the prompt question asks, "If you took a 7 day cruise, what would your bankroll be?"

BUT! If you are requesting a 5 day cruise, you can state what your bankroll would be for that five day cruise. Ask yourself, "what is my loss limit? What is the most I'll spend in the casino playing?"

We have to be as transparent as possible with the cruise lines and they want to know what level of players they are getting. So bankroll is the budget for whatever length of cruise (or stay) you are planning on going on.

Be sure to state bankroll as accurately as possible. What could get a player suppressed from URComped offers is saying they have a high bankroll and then not playing close to that level. 

How do shorter or longer cruises affect your rate of play?

There are 2 key measures for how offers are calculated. URComped will qualify you based on which of the two is higher in order to get you the best offer possible.

1. Average Daily Theoretical (ADT)

2. Average Trip Theoretical (ATT)

A player's average daily play should be consistent, or maybe even higher on a shorter cruise (so you can use ADT to qualify) or if you tend to do longer trips, your average trip play is going to be higher.

Taking shorter or longer cruises shouldn't affect your rate of play as long as you play as consistent on your shorter trip or even a little bit more on a per day basis.

We treat Bahamas Paradise differently from other cruise lines, since those cruises are such a short trip. They are treated similarly to a land based casino trip, so it won't affect your cruise offers.

Does URComped have plans to work with Norwegian Cruise Lines?

Possibly, we've had some contract negotiations with Norwegian Cruise Line, and we've gone back and forth.

URComped did work with NCL in the past, and we may work them in the future.

URComped CEO, Craig Shacklett used to work on Norwegian Cruise Line as a casino host.

For now, URComped's partners are Celebrity Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean, MSC, Princess Cruise Line, Holland America, Bahamas Paradise and a handful of Caribbean casinos that you have to check out! Paradisus Palma Real is spectacular, all inclusive, on the beach, and has an amazing golf course. Check out our Caribbean Casinos!

How far out does URComped have sailings?

Right now, the furthest out URComped goes is 13/14 months (with the exception of a meet-up cruise).

Casinos do not like to offer sailings that far out, because a lot of gambling is done with discretionary income. So much can change to someone's assets over 2 years. A person's business could go under, someone could lose a job, or something else could change someone's financial ability to play in the casino. 

Cruise Lines initially limited URComped to only booking 3-6 months out. Thankfully, as we built our reputation, we're now able to book 13-14 months out.

Not sure what URComped is?

URComped works with Casino Partners to give Qualified Members new offers (comps) to Caribbean Resorts and Cruise Lines that they have never been to/ played at before. Think you may be qualified?? SIGN UP! (ITS FREE) -upload offers that you've received from either land based casinos or cruise lines to see what NEW COMPS you qualify for! 

Can I have more than one cruise booked with URComped? 

There are 2 answers to this question...

1. If this would be your first URComped sailing, then typically the rule is that you can only have one booked.

That's because cruise lines like to see that somebody actually plays at the level that we think they're going to play at before they let them book multiple cruises. The cruise lines and casinos want to see real play data, before they'll book more than one. They don't want to have somebody who kind of looks like a good player (they've got a nice looking offer uploaded to their profile), book them on multiple cruises, and then they're really not that great of a player.

2. After you've completed that first sailing/trip, and you've proven that you play at the level that we think, or maybe it's higher or lower, then you can book more than one sailing at a time.

Can I use a Certificate to book a Cruise through URComped?

If I earn a cruise certificate on board, or as a tier benefit, can I book it through URComped. Can I give my certificate to someone else?

So let's say you earn a certificate on your first cruise, and now you want to book your second URComped cruise. There are two roads that we can go on. (This is what your URComped host will do to get you the best offer possible.)

1. The certificate is going to have sailings listed at a specific cabin category. If you want to use your certificate, we can only book you on the sailings that are listed at the cabin category that you received (Inside, Ocean View, Balcony). They are not transferable, meaning you wouldn't be able to give your certificate to a friend. 

2. We can use your play data from the trip you earned the certificate on, which is probably pretty good since you earned a certificate, to book you on any of our other sailings or get you a better deal (because of the special relationship we have with our cruise partners.) The certificates have a cash value (ex: $500 or $1,000) as well that can be applied towards the cost of another sailing.

Your URComped host will look at what's going to get you the best deal/ offer!

In regards to using the certificate for a second room, the Cruise lines won't let us transfer certificates, because they're giving it to a player, because of how much that person plays in the casino. They don't want to give it to your 17 year old nephew, that isn't old enough to gamble. The offers are for the person that earn the offer.

What if 2 people in the same household both earn a certificate on board? Can they use two certificates on the same sailing in order to have another room? cont..

What Cruise Line is better for Comps?

There's more than one way to answer this, but from our current experience, Royal Caribbean has given us the most flexibility to make offers to players of all levels.

You don't have to play at a super high level. Royal Caribbean has been a great partner by giving us offers for players that fall under the comp line and get discount rates. Royal Caribbean is aggressive with discounted offers that are still amazing offers. They'll typically be half or two thirds off of what you would pay for retail. So for somebody in the discount segment, Royal Caribbean has the most to offer.

Other cruise lines have great Comps as well. MSC has been a phenomenal partner. Celebrity Cruise Line has been giving us more amazing offers as well. It's tough competition for which cruise line is best for comps. We love all of our partners, and it depends on what level a player plays at.

Can URComped book me on sailings that aren't on the website?

If you want to book something in the future on certain dates, the answer is YES! We have got offers that go out about 13 months right now.

If you've sailed with URComped before, you can talk to your host and book something that's not promoted. We will get you the best offer possible. If it's your very first trip, you do have to book one of our promoted offers (something that's on the website when you are logged in).

After you've uploaded your offers and have been pre-qualified. We've got a plethora of sailings to choose from. Once you complete your first trip, then you can book another sailing that isn't listed on our site, if you want.

When you are thinking about booking your next sailing, please talk to your host!

Does URComped offer international or overseas cruises?

Yes! We have several international/ overseas cruises. We have cruises out of Australia, going to Singapore, Mediterranean, Northern Europe, Brazil, and more! Typically with our cruises that are more exotic, they tend to come quick and go quick. The casino blocks have less cabins, because they don't run these cruises as frequently. Therefore, something like a Mediterranean cruise offer would only have 5 - 10 cabins blocked for us to promote. Because they tend to go away fast, if you see one you like, definitely tell your URComped host that you are interested, and we'll get you booked on it!

Can you choose your own cabin, or are they assigned?

Yes, you can choose your cabin, based on availability.

The offers we promote can sometimes fall under a certain category within balcony, ocean view, or inside. As long as you choose a cabin that is in the same category as what we are able to comp you, you can select your cabin from what is available.

Do cruise lines give free drinks to casino players?

Absolutely! If URComped is booking you on a comp level and it's your first trip, the cruise line will give you that comp drink level. The expectation from the cruise line is that you earn that comp drink status on your first cruise. Then on your next cruise with that cruise line, you'll receive free drinks again.

In some cases, if it's a discounted cruise we are booking, then depending on the cruise line, they might not give comp drinks in the casino. But, if you're at a comp level and you are booking with us, you're going to get free drinks in the casino!

Not Sure What URComped is?

URComped works with Casino Partners to give Qualified Members new offers (comps) to Caribbean Resorts and Cruise Lines that they have never been to/ played at before. Think you may be qualified?? SIGN UP! (ITS FREE) -upload offers that you've received from either land based casinos or cruise lines to see what NEW COMPS you qualify for!