❖ lisa kasanicky
On Girlfriend Getaways Dealing with the Deal Sites I LOVE MY DAD. Love him to death. But during a recent phone conversation, he got slightly on my nerves – through no fault of his own really. It’s just that I can’t seem to escape the “G” word. Even my newly retired, slightly computerchallenged, non-Facebook-using father was “on the Groupon” and now he was taking travel advice from the group-deal giant. “Yeah,” he said with such a burst of enthusiasm that I thought he won the lottery. “I bought a Groupon to go skiing on the Fourth of July!” You see the dilemma. Swishing through the remains of a late spring snow on July Fourth in Northern California? Very cool. Our retired heroes allowing Groupon to sway their travel choices? Not so cool. Over the last year, Groupon, Living Social and Travelzoo, along with a myriad of other spinoffs, have proliferated on the Internet and filled up our email inboxes with deals so amazing, they’re often hard to resist. The deal sites have woven themselves into the fabric of our daily purchasing choices. And now, they’re barking up the travel tree. Because I advocate spas and girlfriend getaways as a writer and television contributor, I’m looking at this purely from a consumer perspective. But here’s my take on how to integrate them into your group getaway planning. BEAT ’EM AT THEIR OWN GAME The rise of the deal sites came partly out of the sluggish economy. Businesses were willing to discount their services drastically, just to get customers through their doors. They pay nothing to the 10 August 2011
deal sites upfront (brilliant) and they get a big fat check from the sites after the deal runs (even more brilliant). But, here’s the catch. Businesses are generally required to discount their product or service by 50% and they get reimbursed about 50% on that deal price. As a group travel planner, you can broker a similar deal but the business won’t lose as much money on your arrangement. For example, I recently came across a deal for $210 worth of spa treatments
voilà – you could pass along this fabulous deal and if it works for them, you plan the trip around it. The caveat, of course, is that deals often have date limitations and the venues are usually more crowded during those periods. To cover yourself, I would suggest reiterating the fine print of the deal before encouraging them to buy it. As consumers, we can’t live without our daily deals. And as group travel organizers, you can’t kill ’em. But by
Girlfriend getaway planners can use deal sites to their advantage at a posh Arizona retreat for $99. The spa will get reimbursed somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 for each deal sold – as a spa know-it-all, I can tell you that’s barely enough to cover their expenses. A $99 spa day at an upscale spa is a perfect add-on to a girlfriend getaway. If you were able to negotiate a similar deal for your group, the advantage to that spa is that the takers are paying the spa directly the full amount of your “deal” – not to mention that you’re bringing a group of women with pocketbooks full of credit cards to their resort. Win-win. CAN’T BEAT ’EM, JOIN ’EM Now, the flip side. You could also integrate these group deals into your itinerary as an option or even plan the trip around them. Take that same spa deal mentioned previously. If part of the group wishes to spend a day at a posh Arizona spa –
keeping the end goal in sight – female travelers getting a value-packed, memorable getaway – you can use the deal sites to your advantage. Lisa Kasanicky is author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Girlfriend Getaways (Alpha Books, 2009) and founder of ArizonaSpaGirls.com — a girlfriend-to-girlfriend guide to spas, salons, beauty and wellness. The book offers travel details on more than 70 destinations in the United States and Canada ideal for female-focused group travelers.
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