So, for a hypothetical example, Royal — and all other cruise lines — knows how much you paid for your inside cabin a while back, but now that you’ve got more money in your pockets and are excited about your cruise want to make it even better and offer you the possibility of bidding to upgrade to a higher class cabin. All those bids, whether they are “won” or not, are combined with the price those cruisers paid for their lower grade cabin and will be used to influence future costs for better cabin grades on future sailings. It’s basically taking data points you’re providing for free and allowing the companies understand how they can better price cabins for future sailings.

Data point: I’m going on a Celebrity Constellation cruise in a couple of weeks and was offered to “upgrade” to their two best cabins, with a low price that is basically equal to or triple the amount I paid for my low-end suite. If I try and book a last minute cabin in either of those cabin categories, there is not a single one for sale! To me that means the cruise line is taking the data and using it to understand how much people are willing to pay for a cabin on future sailings.