Discounts getting a little tougher to find, but they’re out there

It’s not your imagination. We are paying more for travel than we did last year.

A big reason is supply and demand; business is bouncing back after two lean years. But there’s more at work here: Hotel, cruise and tour companies are cracking down on discounters.

The campaign started a couple of years ago with big hotel chains. Book directly on their website, they promised, and you’d get the best price. The unspoken corollary: Forget about getting better deals from Expedia, Travelocity, Hotels.com and other Internet travel sellers.

Now tour and cruise companies are joining the push against discounts. They’re reining in Internet retailers and bricks-and-mortar travel agents who advertise lower prices than the companies offer.

As a result, it’s tougher for travelers to land eye-popping deals, industry experts say, especially for big-name brands and major companies. But with cleverness and persistence, you can penetrate the defense line.

First, though, it helps to study the companies’ game plan.

“There is no question that there is a concerted effort among travel suppliers to redirect consumers to their dedicated Internet site,” said Peter Yesawich, managing partner of Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell, Florida-based marketing consultants.

By doing that, the hotel, cruise or tour company pockets markups that go to Internet retailers and hopes to discourage consumers from comparison-shopping for lower prices from competitors.

Building brand loyalty and keeping prices up are twin goals.

During more than two years of terrorism and war jitters and a troubled economy, “price seemed to be the only real motivator” to get people to travel, said Ken Phillips, spokesman for Pleasant Holidays, a large tour operator based in Westlake Village that handles about 600,000 customers each year. “If any profit was being made, it was minimal.”

Prices also spiraled downward as more travelers discovered the Internet, which made it easy to compare prices and choose the lowest one.

“It’s like playing the slot machine and hitting the jackpot,” Yesawich said of consumers who found good deals on the Web.

They kept going back. Now, he said, a recent survey has shown that more than half of Americans are convinced they get the best travel prices on the Internet and less than a fourth from suppliers.

The industry is determined to turn that figure around and reverse the price slide.

Hilton, InterContinental, Marriott, Starwood and Cendant Corp. (which runs Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Ramada and other chains) are among hotel companies that have the guaranteed rate programs. The details vary, but typically they promise to post the lowest room rates on their website, (except for such sites as www.hotwire.com or www.priceline.com, which don’t disclose details until after the booking is made).

Carnival Cruise Lines, the world’s largest, took the plunge last summer into what it dubs “channel neutral pricing,” which requires all retailers to offer the same prices for its cruises.

One reason for the move, Carnival Chief Executive Bob Dickinson said, is that cruise passengers get to know one another well enough to compare fares, which can create a backlash. “If you’re the guy who didn’t get the low rate, you feel bad,” he said. He sees consistency as the main goal.

Phillips at Pleasant Holidays said the company in November asked 800 travel agencies that tap into its reservations system to sign letters agreeing “not to provide any discounts or rebates that affect the integrity of our pricing.” He said all agreed.

Tauck World Discovery, a luxury tour and cruise operator based in Norwalk, Conn., began in January to enforce a policy that bars retailers, on and off the Internet, from advertising or promoting its products at less than published rates.

“We were losing control over our prices,” President Robin Tauck said, because some travel agencies were discounting Tauck’s tours 10% or 15%.

Phillips said Pleasant’s prices were up 6% to 8% this year from last, and Dickinson said he expected Carnival’s cruise fares to be slightly higher.

Even so, Dickinson said, “If the ships aren’t sailing full, the first thing we’ll do is lower prices.”

Travel discounts won’t disappear. They just may be more elusive. Here’s how to increase your chances of finding them:

* Play hide-and-seek: When you buy a $1,500 package that combines airfare, a hotel and rental car, you don’t know the price of each part. That lets suppliers avoid advertising their discounts. You save, and the suppliers avoid touching off a price war with competitors. It’s win-win.

* Be anonymous: When you book on Hotwire or bid for travel on auctioneers such as Priceline, the brand isn’t displayed until after you buy. Because they can dump their “distressed inventory” (that is, rooms and cabins they’re having trouble selling) undercover, suppliers give deals. Just make sure you know the typical retail price so you don’t overpay.

* Ask for a rebate: Travel agents often get commissions from each sale they make for hotels, tours and cruise operators or earn extra payments, called overrides, for selling a lot of a particular brand. Some agents may agree to rebate some of these fees, which typically vary from 5% to 15% or more.

* Think big: Carlson Wagonlit Travel Associates, a network of about 900 agencies, books cruise cabins at a discount, then resells them to clients in unadvertised deals, said spokesman Steve Loucks. Bigger agencies and networks can afford to take this financial risk. (Not all suppliers allow this. Dickinson said Carnival’s new policy barred so-called “risk inventory” and made retailers prove they had a group lined up before they could get discounted group rates.)

* Think small: Don’t be discouraged if a big chain hotel forbids discounts, Expedia spokeswoman Andrea Riggs said; the little independent hotel next door may be eager for your business and ready to make a deal.

Jane Engle welcomes comments but can’t respond individually to letters and calls. Write Travel Insider, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., CA 90012, or e-mail jane.engle@latimes.com.