Expedia Cruises

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About Expedia Cruises


Liquid Capital: $100,000

Net Worth Requirement: $300,000

Franchise Fees: $39,000

Royalty: 9%

Training and Support: Available

Home Office: Seattle, WA

CEO: Matthew Eichhorst

Expedia Cruises

Investement Range $167,250 - $292,245


About Expedia Cruises Franchise

At Expedia Cruises, we’ve been providing customers with unforgettable vacation experiences for over 30 years. As a full-service leisure travel agency, we pride ourselves on our deeply passionate expertise for air, land, and sea vacations. Our travel franchise network is rapidly expanding across North America, with over 300 independently owned retail locations currently open or under development. With a proven business model that is affordable to start and extremely scalable, our franchisees are bringing the Expedia brand, expert advice, and outstanding vacation value to travelers in their communities. The timeline below is our journey from inception to today – and all the milestones we’ve hit along the way!

  • Travel agency franchise, CruiseShipCenters is established in Vancouver BC.
  • 36 CruiseShipCenters locations across Canada, specialized in selling cruises.
  • CruiseShipCenters partners with Expedia Group (formally known as Expedia Inc.)
  • Expansion into the USA – 1st USA Expedia CruiseShipCenters opens in Fort Lauderdale
  • Expedia CruiseShipCenters turns 30!
  • Expedia CruiseShipCenters awards the 100th USA Location and has 300 Expedia Franchise locations open or in development
  • Expedia CruiseShipCenters rebrands to Exped

The Expedia Difference

Backed by the most powerful travel brand in the world

For over 30 years, Expedia Cruises (formally known as Expedia CruiseShipCenters) had been providing travel agency franchise opportunities for those wanting to provide unrivaled travel expertise and exceptional value, for travelers in their community. In 2020, Expedia CruiseShipCenters made a strategic move to rebrand to Expedia Cruises, allowing us to integrate further with Expedia’s massive brand presence, state-of-the-art technology, unrivaled marketing, and distinguished supplier relationships to become Expedia’s cruise experts.

Our Competitive Advantage

  • Expedia Cruises’ unique position allows us to differentiate ourselves over the competition by taking the best of what we have across a proven franchise system of over 30 years – Expedia CruiseShipCenters – and combining it with a powerful and recognized online travel brand – Expedia – to bring the best of both worlds together. Our omnichannel retail model provides customers with a seamless booking experience from start to finish while providing our retail centers with additional channels for lead generation. Not only do our franchisees receive leads from their Expediacruises.com website, Center walk-ins, and a robust marketing program; they also benefit from receiving ALL cruise inquiries that come from Expedia.com and Expedia.ca, within their market territory. This approach unlocks the benefits of our online channel to better service customers offline while simultaneously enabling our offline centers to complement our online offerings. Our transformation to Expedia Cruises gives us a sustained competitive edge over other online travel agencies and retail home-based travel agencies while raising the bar for a superior end-to-end customer experience.
  • With Expedia, you will be powered by THE #1 brand in travel.
  • At Expedia Cruises, we pride ourselves on being able to do it all! The power of Expedia’s brand, paired with our commitment to exceptional customer service, our omnichannel approach, and our proven franchise model, has helped us grow into a leading seller of travel in North America. Although we specialize in cruises, each Expedia Cruises franchise location is a full-service leisure travel agency.
  • Our franchisees and their dedicated Vacation Consultants are experts in booking Cruise Vacations, All-Inclusive Resorts, Coach & Rail Tours, Vacation Packages, Homes & Villas, Travel Insurance, Flights, Hotels, Cars, and Activities. Whether a customer is looking to add a pre or post-trip to their cruise or is seeking a traditional land vacation, our strong supplier relationships, with preferred air and land partners, have allowed Expedia Cruises to be the go-to travel agency for every customer’s vacation needs.
  • Plus, Expedia Cruises franchisees enjoy tremendous buying power with every cruise line and land supplier. This means that you’ll earn some of the highest commissions in the industry.
  • We have always been more than a cruise, and that’s true now more than ever.

A Business Built to Scale

  • An important differentiator of the Expedia Cruises franchise model is that it is very scalable. Our retail locations allow our travel agency franchise owners to build a team of independent Vacation Consultants who share their knowledge and work together to drive sales. As an Expedia Cruises franchise owner, you support your travel agents and earn a share of the commissions – the bigger and more successful your team is, the stronger your financial return.
  • While selling travel directly and earning the full commission yourself is the fastest route to $1,000, Expedia Cruises encourages franchisees to become travel leaders. Being a leader in the fastest path to $1,000,000 because it allows you to build a team with whom you split commissions. With no limits on the size of your sales team, you can build your travel business as big as your dreams!
  • For us, that means giving you – our franchisees – the tools, systems, and support you need to be successful. We also help you troubleshoot issues by offering support in the field, as well as outstanding online and phone support. Great support also means great communication. When you call us for a question, we will return your call promptly, armed with answers.

Robust Support to Grow a Profitable Business

  • In addition to cutting-edge technology, one of the things that makes Expedia Cruises special is that we do a lot of work at our corporate office in Vancouver. Our corporate support staff works together to secure promotional deals from cruise lines, build marketing campaigns and materials, and continuously develop new programs that will help our franchisees boost their profitability. Our goal has always been to equip our franchisees to be great leaders while making it easier for you to train your team of Vacation Consultants.
  • Through the process of starting your travel agency, our Franchise Service Managers will guide you through every step, helping you select the ideal location for your store (with insight from a third-party real estate company), negotiate your lease, and begin to recruit your team of travel agents. We’ll also be in touch frequently to help you optimize your business. On the day you open your doors, your Franchise Performance Coach (FPC) will be with you to help you get acclimated, to answer your questions, and to help you get off to a strong start. Expect your FPC to be in touch regularly after that to provide 1-on-1 support, communicate system enhancements, and ensure you’re on track to achieve the goals you’ve set for your business.

Cruise Management Academy (CMA) & The Navigators Approach

  • During your location build-out, you’ll simultaneously be learning the ins and outs of the travel industry and attending a week-long intensive training session, called Cruise Management Academy (CMA), at our corporate office in Vancouver, BC. During CMA you’ll take a deep dive into the entire Expedia Cruises system and connect with Subject Matter Experts who will answer any questions you may have.
  • In addition to CMA, Expedia Cruises has established our own sales training program called The Navigators Approach. This step-by-step sales methodology was developed exclusively for Expedia Cruises and to help franchisees reach their Vacation Consultants on how to sell travel, even if they don’t come from a sales background. With a suite of leadership tools and train-the-trainer workshops for franchisees, we help you deliver The Navigators Approach with confidence. This program is one of the many ways we ensure that our franchisees become terrific leaders – even if they have no industry experience themselves.

Franchise Conferences & Events

Expedia Cruises provides a lot of direct support to franchisees, but one of the most powerful things we do is make it easy for franchisees to connect with one another. Customers aren’t the only ones who benefit tremendously from face-to-face meetings; our franchise owners do too.

We host annual conferences for our franchisees — either on a seven-day cruise or based somewhere in the central United States. The conferences give franchisees a chance to meet, mingle, learn, and have fun. After all, fun is what this business is all about!

How We Set You Up For Success

Expedia Cruises has over 100 corporate staff at our headquarters, and we all share one mission – “Empower our franchise owners with a proven system to grow a profitable and valuable business.”

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This web page does not constitute a franchise offering or an offer to sell a franchise. A franchise offering can be made by the franchise only in a state if first registered, excluded, exempted or otherwise qualified to offer franchises in that state, and only if provided with an appropriate franchise disclosure document.

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