by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 1:10 PM ET, Tue January 14, 2025
Destination Wedding & Honeymoon Specialists Association (DWHSA) have called attention to an issue many travel advisors who specialize in planning destination weddings and honeymoons have been facing since the end of the pandemic: namely, competition with resorts’ loyalty program benefits, last-minute deals and restrictive group policies that often leave them—and their primary clients—left paying the penalty.
DWHSA, which has 840 members mostly in the U.S. and Canada, are sitting down with 39 resort brands one-on-one to discuss the biggest issues its members are facing post-pandemic, and how advisors can help better support the resorts.
Loyalty Programs and Discounted Rates
Travel advisors who specialize in destination weddings and other groups agree that there’s been a different mentality surrounding group policies post-pandemic: where before, groups were an attractive option for couples wanting a destination wedding, promising lower rates or definite perks, it’s become a bit swampy.
A lot of that is due largely in part to larger hotel corporations acquiring all-inclusive resort brands and offering loyalty rewards and loyalty discounts, which often can’t be matched by travel advisors handling groups. This leads to more people booking directly, which means couples get less perks—or none at all—and travel advisors lose rooms and commissions.
John Hawks, DWHSA’s executive director, calls it “a story of unintended consequences,” not a direct pushing-out of travel advisors by all-inclusive resorts.
Cheryl Bailey, owner of Yellow Umbrella Events in Texas and DWHSA member, had an entire group of 31 rooms cancel and rebook individually under a seasonal sale promising 40-60 percent discounts on rooms.
While she still kept those clients and her commission, her situation highlights a striking problem advisors who specialize in groups are facing in recent years: benefits for group contracts just aren’t as attractive anymore.
In a survey conducted by the association, 95 percent of DWSHA members reported losing clients this way.
Restrictive Contract Policies
Group contract policies are also more restrictive than most individual booking policies. Besides undercutting prices for travel advisors, contract policies often require couples to submit a deposit in days instead of 30 days, and often deposits vary by resort, not brand, making it confusing for agents and their clients—and sometimes more expensive, too.
Contracts also have more stringent cancellation policies than individual bookings, also making individual bookings more attractive for guests.
Certain policies also make it harder for the advisor to truly personalize a group based on what it needs: advisors often find their relationships at the resorts they sell often lead to adjustments in typical contracts that can, for example, add a few more rooms for solo occupants than is typical in a group contract.
What the DWSHA is Doing for Change
The association has begun working to solve these problems from the ground up: it’s meeting with hotel brands in one-on-one conversations discussing how to improve their partnerships and group contracts.
Following some of the meetings, the DWHSA is creating a webinar series working to train travel advisors to mitigate a few issues resorts identified travel advisors making, such as overblocking rooms, which can lead to issues as the resort races to get those rooms booked after they’re released from the group.
The DWHSA hopes both parties can improve from this dialogue. Shelli Nornes, owner of Romance Travel Group in Minnesota and one of the advisors working to create the training webinar, said that instead of demanding change from resorts without giving anything in return, “We need to meet in the middle.”
The DWSHA is also hosting an in-person Group Booking Summit with executives in Miami on February 26, which it expects to see the most change taking place.
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