August 21, 2026
When we launched Junglebee, I wanted to charge a monthly fee. It would have made my life easier. A fixed amount every month, a nice clean number in the revenue forecast. Simple.
The tour operators pushed back hard. They did not want another bill sitting there during a slow August, or any month when the weather had turned and the boats were tied up. They wanted to pay when they were actually taking bookings and processing payments. So we changed it. The operators were right.
I think about that conversation whenever I see a tour business reach for a discount as the first answer to a quiet calendar. Discount ideas can help. But a discount is not a booking strategy by itself. It is a tool, and like any tool, it can do a neat job or make a mess depending on when you use it.
The question I would ask before offering any promotion is not, "What percentage should we take off?" It is, "Which trip are we trying to fill?"
A sunset cruise with twelve open seats tomorrow is a different problem from a Saturday morning catamaran that is already almost full. A quiet midweek run in September is different from a cruise ship day when the marina is full of guests looking for something to do.
If you discount everything, you give away money on the trips that did not need help. That is the part that bothers me. You worked hard to build a good product, then you train people to wait for the cheaper version even when the boat would have sold at the regular price.
I would start by looking at capacity by departure:
You do not need a complicated revenue department to answer those questions. You need to stop treating every seat on every day as if it has the same value.
There is a difference between lowering the price of your tour and making a specific, time-bound offer on a departure that is about to leave with empty seats. I prefer the second one.
When I was working boats in St. Maarten, the day had a rhythm you could feel. Cruise ship guests came off in a rush. Hotel guests had more flexibility. A private charter guest might spend half the morning deciding what they wanted. The same boat could be easy to fill at one time and impossible at another.
That is why a last-minute offer should have a clear reason and a clear ending. "Two seats opened up on tomorrow's 2pm run" feels honest. "Everything is 30 percent off this week" feels like you are worried about the product.
And do not make the crew explain a different price to every guest at the dock. Put the departure, the deadline, what is included, and the booking conditions in writing. If the offer is only for new bookings, say that. If it cannot be combined with another deal, say that too.
A discount only works when it answers the little question in a guest's head: why should I book this today instead of thinking about it for another week?
Sometimes the reason is price. Sometimes it is certainty. A free snorkel add-on, a better pickup time, a small group guarantee, or a clear weather reschedule can be more useful than cutting the price.
I would test offers that protect the value of the trip:
I am not saying never use a percentage. I am saying the percentage should be the last decision, not the first.
The offer has to survive contact with the person checking guests in. That is where many good marketing ideas go bad.
If the office says one thing, the captain hears another, and the guest has a screenshot with a third version, you have not created a promotion. You have created a problem for the crew on the busiest part of the day.
Before publishing anything, I would write down:
When we built Junglebee, the problem I kept coming back to was the handoff - the booking should not live in one person's inbox while everyone else guesses what happened. The same rule applies to a promotion. It has to be visible to the people running the trip, not just the person who posted it online.
If I had a quiet week coming up, I would not put the whole business on sale. I would pick one departure that has room, give it a simple name, and offer it to people who can actually book inside the window.
Something like: "Wednesday 2pm snorkel run - two seats opened up. Book by tonight and bring a friend for a reduced second seat." The exact offer would depend on the margins and the crew, but the shape matters. One trip. One reason. One deadline. No confusion.
Then I would watch what happened. Did it fill seats that would otherwise have gone empty? Did it bring in guests who would have booked anyway? Did the crew understand it? Did the guests ask about the regular price afterwards?
That last question is important. You are not only trying to fill Wednesday. You are teaching people what your trip is worth.
The operators who pushed back on our monthly fee were not being difficult. They were protecting the economics of a seasonal business. They knew that a quiet month and a full month cannot be treated the same way.
Discounts work best when they respect that reality. Use them to move a specific seat on a specific departure, or to give a good guest a useful reason to act. Do not use them to cover up a product, schedule, or booking process that needs fixing.
If you only take one rule from me, make it this: discount the empty departure, not the whole business.
