European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 11, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Solo voyagers face stiff Premium to travel alone by Betsy Wade the new York times Diana i. Diamond of Palo Alto calif.-, a Hospital.  signed up with Globus Tours for a trip to India last summer. The Price of the 19-Day trip with air fare and land arrangements was $3,530. This As is typical of tour operators offerings was the Price for one person based on the traveler s sharing a room with a companion. For Diamond to make the in by herself she would have to pay 51,026 additional As a single  a Premium of 29 per cent seems stiff it is not unusual. Sometimes As in this Case it is that percentage of the air and land charges other times it applies to land arrangements Only. Exceptions to the single supplement do occur particularly where people expect to be housed dormitory style or in other situations lacking privacy As on an adventure trip. Underlying the Premium is the charge tour operators must pay to hotels for putting one person into a room that two people might use who would add to the hotel s Revenue by ordering drinks for two and other extras. Some tour operators and organizations club med among them will double up single travellers at random to enable them to avoid the extra charge and that is what Diamond decided was a solution. She asked her travel agent to have Globus find another single traveler with whom she might share a room. She said she had done that with other companies Orient flex Pax for instance. The agent responded that Globus would not find her a Roommate and when she called the company it understandably would not divulge the names of others who would be on the trip so Diamond could make inquiries. However the Clobus agent said that if Diamond were travelling with Globus s sister organization Cosmos the practical traveler. Bourama  offers less expensive Tours it would find a. Room mate. But since Cosmos did not offer a parallel trip she paid the extra charge under protest and took the trip to India which she said she greatly enjoyed. John Martinen president of Clobus and Cosmos with Headquarters in Littleton colo., said Clobus at one time also paired up single travellers of the same sex but stopped eight or nine years ago because so often people did not like their roommates and we had to find single accommodations for them during the  it was not practical at the first class level Fie said. By contrast he said at Cosmos s budget level they Are willing to live with the  the Matching is done by the company based on gender Only without regard to smoking or other tastes. If Cosmos cannot find a Roommate As requested it will waive the single supplement Martinen said. Tours under the two company names differ Irv hotel Quality by numbers of meals offered and. In other respects he said. For a Price comparison he cited. 19-Day Tours of Europe in the 1994 Catalon with Globus the land arrangements would Cost $1,858 a person in double occupancy with a $483 single supplement about 26 percent with Cosmos the Cost would be $1,313 in double occupancy with a $300 single supplement about 23 percent. Martinen said that his companies single supplement consisted Only of the extra amount the company had to pay the hotel to put one person in a room plus the travel agent s commission on this amount the trip Diamond took shows a High single supplement on a percentage basis because the hotels used in India Bangkok and Hong Kong were luxurious and less competitively priced than those in Europe Martinen said. Eli Milbaur managing director of Orient flex Pax Tours confirmed that his company would seek roommates of the same sex if asked. He estimated that they succeeded 80 percent of the time but if the search failed by the time the trip Drew neat the company would give a full refund of the tour Price to the client. Orient Lexi Pax sends 10,000 clients a year to China the Orient Australia new zealand and Fiji. For a two week trip to China he said the land arrangements in a deluxe hotel would Cost $1,599 for a traveler in double occupancy the single supplement would be $499, or 31 percent. Another example runway holidays fun Jet in Milf Siukee a tour and charter operator that has 800,000 passengers a year always charges a single supplement according to Stephanie Hart a spokeswoman and does not seek roommates on request. Hart gave As a Price example a London Paris trip of seven nights. For airfare and a first class hotel one person in double occupancy would pay $1,210 one person alone could pay $1,540, or 27 percent More. Hart said the Price for the single room ticket included the operator s markup As Well As the hotel s extra charge. Of course a simple change in marketing could disguise Diamond s 29 percent Premium. The tour could be sold on the basis of the Price for a single person. The Price for this tour is $4,556," this approach would say. A second person in the room will pay Only $2,509," the total for a couple would be the same As would the Price for one person but the phrase single supplement which begets so. Much hostility would disappear. Bill Hanley executive vice president for sales and marketing for Forte hotel Chain said he believed the tour Industry had always predicated its pricing on double occupancy and theorized that it stemmed from the Days when trips to Europe were made by ship and two to a Cabin was the usual arrangement. Like other hotel officials interviewed for this article he contended that people travelling together got a bargain not that people travelling alone paid disproportionately. A the for. Spang Dahlen Eifel to Tot to a v to a 7 a a t Jelv Julua i Jda Laai Friday november 12 12-8" saturday november 13 10-8 sunday november 14 11-5 i proceeds Benefit our Community open to All id card holders Over 700 vendors no strollers please but vat free shopping door prizes backpacks of Span Dahlem officers & civilians spouses club 26 trip november 11, 1993