6 Month Checkup
This has been one of the most interesting weeks I’ve seen in about 6 months. For some, it may have seemed like a week long April Fools joke that lasted an entire week instead of just a day.
We are seeing things in a whole new light this week. YTB releases it’s Annual Report on Monday, complete with Total Revenue of $141 Million and $3.2 Million Net Income for 2007, and the value of travel services booked on YTB's booking engines was $414.5 Million, an increased 84% in 2007. On Wednesday, John Gilliam asks if YTB could be the next On-line Travel Darling and the combination of the two sent the stock upward from a low of $0.65 a share on March 19th, to $3.15 a share on the close of trading on Thursday April 3rd.
Now in a very strange twist, almost as if the stars have aligned in just the right order, we find the Cruise Line that started it all just 6 months ago has its credit rating lowered to “junk status” by Standard & Poor’s. According to Forbes, Royal Caribbean's sinks to junk due to a heavy fleet investment, financed in part by borrowing, and rising fuel costs as adding pressure to the company's rating being lowered.
Just weeks ago, Royal Caribbean agreed to work with the Florida Attorney General and will be refunding $21 Million that it slapped on customers back in November of 2007 for fuel surcharges. Maybe they should have kept the $24 Million they had in bookings with YTB and Joystar back in October instead?
After 6 months of trading since the Royal Flush, RCL stock is down 10.77% while the late attention and surge of YTBLA stock has increased 61.53%. It’s a very dramatic turn of events to say the least.
I was over on John’s blog yesterday doing a little reading, and I saw a very interesting comment from a YTB RTA that I want to bring to light. Of course, John’s not talking about the “good news”, and frankly I wouldn’t want to either concerning what’s going on, it doesn’t support his choice in trashing YTB every single day for that last few months. (Correction – he did give us a thumbs up for the stock rebound on Monday, but me thinks he was quite certain that our financials wouldn’t turn out the way they did.)
John’s currently busy avoiding the issue of YTB’s financials and attempting to ask all of us about ATA and what we are doing about all the bookings we have with them now that they’ve ceased doing business. (If anyone knows, please fill him in. He’s dying to know, but I don’t have anyone one on that airline, never have.)
Anyway, when I saw this comment, it put a smile on my face, and it’s one of the first true signs I’ve seen in some time that YTB is beginning to “get it” when it comes to this small group, and if you look, it’s a very small group, of people.
“...if all you TAs really believe that YTB is such crap...then just let the chips fall where they may.If you are so confident that YTBs business model is subpar to yours, then let it go and eventually you will be fine.”
I realize that’s hard to do, even for me. Yes, I’m just as guilty as everyone else. I’ve gradually come to this same realization, and now that I’ve removed myself from the negativity and limited thinking I couldn’t agree more with this statement. The chips are starting to fall, and frankly, it’s looking pretty good for YTB at this point.
What happened 6 months ago was a real shock and both common sense and business sense told me that you don’t throw a company overboard who’s booking $414 Million in travel no matter how small the individual pieces of pie are. Do you think Coke and Pepsi worry about what each individual vending machine does in terms of revenue? Not particularly.
By having millions of these vending machines all over the world is a big reason why Coke and Pepsi battle back and fourth between #1 and #2 year after year. That’s how they sell billions of 20oz bottles of their cola A DAY.
We’re not out of the woods just yet. We still have IATA to battle with, and we know have a clear sign that is being worked on. I just want to remind everyone in YTB of what Tim and Georgia Dominey wrote in the foreword of my new book released this week, “Keep the main thing the main thing”.
We’ve come a long way in just 6 months.
This model works folks. It works for us and it especially works for the suppliers who have tapped into the pool of vending machines that are out there. There are certainly cases when a purchase from a “Brick & Mortar” would be better suited for the needs of the consumer. No one can deny however, how technology, combined with relationships works as a very effective and stable formula for success.
If you want to learn more about how to keep the main thing the main thing, subscribe to my YTB Newsletter. It’s free to YTB Reps and RTA’s!
We are seeing things in a whole new light this week. YTB releases it’s Annual Report on Monday, complete with Total Revenue of $141 Million and $3.2 Million Net Income for 2007, and the value of travel services booked on YTB's booking engines was $414.5 Million, an increased 84% in 2007. On Wednesday, John Gilliam asks if YTB could be the next On-line Travel Darling and the combination of the two sent the stock upward from a low of $0.65 a share on March 19th, to $3.15 a share on the close of trading on Thursday April 3rd.Now in a very strange twist, almost as if the stars have aligned in just the right order, we find the Cruise Line that started it all just 6 months ago has its credit rating lowered to “junk status” by Standard & Poor’s. According to Forbes, Royal Caribbean's sinks to junk due to a heavy fleet investment, financed in part by borrowing, and rising fuel costs as adding pressure to the company's rating being lowered.
Just weeks ago, Royal Caribbean agreed to work with the Florida Attorney General and will be refunding $21 Million that it slapped on customers back in November of 2007 for fuel surcharges. Maybe they should have kept the $24 Million they had in bookings with YTB and Joystar back in October instead?
After 6 months of trading since the Royal Flush, RCL stock is down 10.77% while the late attention and surge of YTBLA stock has increased 61.53%. It’s a very dramatic turn of events to say the least.
I was over on John’s blog yesterday doing a little reading, and I saw a very interesting comment from a YTB RTA that I want to bring to light. Of course, John’s not talking about the “good news”, and frankly I wouldn’t want to either concerning what’s going on, it doesn’t support his choice in trashing YTB every single day for that last few months. (Correction – he did give us a thumbs up for the stock rebound on Monday, but me thinks he was quite certain that our financials wouldn’t turn out the way they did.)
John’s currently busy avoiding the issue of YTB’s financials and attempting to ask all of us about ATA and what we are doing about all the bookings we have with them now that they’ve ceased doing business. (If anyone knows, please fill him in. He’s dying to know, but I don’t have anyone one on that airline, never have.)
Anyway, when I saw this comment, it put a smile on my face, and it’s one of the first true signs I’ve seen in some time that YTB is beginning to “get it” when it comes to this small group, and if you look, it’s a very small group, of people.
“...if all you TAs really believe that YTB is such crap...then just let the chips fall where they may.If you are so confident that YTBs business model is subpar to yours, then let it go and eventually you will be fine.”
I realize that’s hard to do, even for me. Yes, I’m just as guilty as everyone else. I’ve gradually come to this same realization, and now that I’ve removed myself from the negativity and limited thinking I couldn’t agree more with this statement. The chips are starting to fall, and frankly, it’s looking pretty good for YTB at this point.
What happened 6 months ago was a real shock and both common sense and business sense told me that you don’t throw a company overboard who’s booking $414 Million in travel no matter how small the individual pieces of pie are. Do you think Coke and Pepsi worry about what each individual vending machine does in terms of revenue? Not particularly.
By having millions of these vending machines all over the world is a big reason why Coke and Pepsi battle back and fourth between #1 and #2 year after year. That’s how they sell billions of 20oz bottles of their cola A DAY.
We’re not out of the woods just yet. We still have IATA to battle with, and we know have a clear sign that is being worked on. I just want to remind everyone in YTB of what Tim and Georgia Dominey wrote in the foreword of my new book released this week, “Keep the main thing the main thing”.
We’ve come a long way in just 6 months.
This model works folks. It works for us and it especially works for the suppliers who have tapped into the pool of vending machines that are out there. There are certainly cases when a purchase from a “Brick & Mortar” would be better suited for the needs of the consumer. No one can deny however, how technology, combined with relationships works as a very effective and stable formula for success.
If you want to learn more about how to keep the main thing the main thing, subscribe to my YTB Newsletter. It’s free to YTB Reps and RTA’s!
Doug & Ronda Bauknight
AKA: TravelPro
Travel Agent / Networker
Phone: 678.458.5812
Learn How To Become A Travel Agent
Book Your Travel & Vacations With
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RTA #24635
Labels: Royal Caribbean, YTB International, YTBLA
We tried to help them (the TTA's & JF, RCI, IATAN), but they just wouldn't listen and/or chose not to understand.
Posted by
Anonymous |
Friday, April 04, 2008
366 people own YTB stock. Are you one of them?
Posted by
Anonymous |
Friday, April 04, 2008
Too bad you just can't stay away from John's blog and commenting on him - I thought you had progressed past that, Doug?
Must be an addictive personality you have there - just one more...
Posted by
Anonymous |
Friday, April 04, 2008
Karla;
Yes, I have been a stock holder for many years. I’ve been purchasing for the last 2 ½ years.
I believe the 366 number you are quoting is VERY old. I would also venture that with over 5 Million shares being traded in the last two days, there are far more than 366 making these purchases.
Anon;
Yes, I’ve been using John’s blog and Travel Weekly for comic relief. It’s amusing to me how with all that’s going on, nobodies talking about the biggest story of the week. Remember the picture of the Ostrich?
It’s progressing very nicely thank you.
Posted by
TravelPro |
Friday, April 04, 2008
The 366 number comes from the 10K that was filed just the other day. Take a look at page 9 of that report.
Posted by
Steve Mencik |
Friday, April 04, 2008
Duh! Of course!
Thank you Steve. ;-P
Over 6 million shares were traded in the last two days. It’s good to see the rest of the world waking up to this stock.
Where’s everyone been?
Posted by
TravelPro |
Friday, April 04, 2008
Only 366 people owned this stock, what does that tell you?
Posted by
Anonymous |
Saturday, April 05, 2008
After looking at the value of my shares this morning, it tells me that I’m absolutely brilliant.
The value of my investment considering my initial purchase price some years ago, the 1:3 split last year, and buying up shares at opportune times each quarter shows an increase in value of 14,998.75% of my investment of YTB stock.
I can’t apologize for the misfortune of those who got caught up in all the doom and gloom and fear that’s being thrown out there by individuals who have absolutely no clue or business talking about our company.
When you look at the facts, and the documentation that I’ve posted on this blog, you will find an entirely different story.
Posted by
TravelPro |
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Happy belated birthday Doug!!!
Posted by
Doug |
Sunday, April 06, 2008
One of 366! You are brilliant. Can't say the same for the other 130,000 but somethings fishy with this stock trading....
Sorry about the Olympics.
Posted by
Anonymous |
Monday, April 07, 2008
Fishy? Do you know anything about day traders? Almost 9 Million shares traded Friday and Monday.
That isn’t YTB. Its investors looking for a quick buck who read John Gilliam’s post about YTB starts buying large chunks then wait till everyone buys in and then dump it.
It’s certainly not RTA’s, we don’t have two dimes to rub together…remember? ;-P
It’s going to be a wild ride for a while with all the attention we’re getting. Take a look at some of the other stocks John wrote about and see for yourself.
No need to be sorry about the Olympics. I'm glad we're off the hook. Half way around the world, turbulent times, and the IOC is a pain in the rear. (Atlanta Olympics were here in '96 I know.) Busted me with a Cease and Desist order telling me to take the Olympic logo off my personal stationary.
(They also closed down two long standing restaurants here in town that had Olympic in their name!)
Posted by
TravelPro |
Monday, April 07, 2008
Karla:
I’d hardly consider Tim Sykes an authority on anything. He’s simply another pissed off investor who couldn’t find any shares to short, so he tried to manipulate the market to do so.
If you want to take investment advice from a proven failure that’s certainly within you right.
I’d like to keep the conversation here intelligent and above board.
After taking your dare, posting it, and now finding out what a sham this guy is…I feel its best that both you and Tim’s rubbish be removed from my blog.
In other words...
Buh-Bye
Posted by
TravelPro |
Tuesday, April 08, 2008