Pesach Program Focus with Doni Schwartz of Passoverlistings.com on JM in the AM

Ironically, and I told Donnie Schwarz how ironic how ironic this is after hearing about the 19 Kabad houses in the Caribbean and of course speaking to Rabbi Rasin uh at the Kabad House in Jamaica, which is now in a very difficult situation in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa. And I remind everybody to go to jewishjamaica.com/mlissa and be as generous as possible. I told him there's an irony that uh I'm I'm bringing him on this morning to discuss Passover listings as now it's November and people as he could tell you people are starting to think very seriously about Pesak vacations. I could also ask him my traditional question if he thinks there's as much disposable income in the Jewish community sadly as there has been in recent years. Donnie Schwarz all the way out on the west coast of the United States. It's a pleasure to welcome you back to JM in the AM. >> Thank you for having me. Yes, thank you. Good morning. >> So, good morning. So, I'll put you on the spot. Are you getting the feeling that there's still plenty of disposable income in the Jewish community? >> You know, people are still looking for programs. People are looking to go away for pes. >> By the way, you know, it's I I'm sorry for interrupting, but I really should qualify that. And I think you and I have spoken about this before. As much as I joke about the, you know, uh, disposable income and lament about it, etc., as you've pointed out, there are a lot of people in situations, even if they're spending a lot of money, cuz some do, some don't, that have no choice because of the size of their family or because of the situation in their own home, they have no choice, but they go somewhere. It might be local, it might be, you know, god knows where on the globe, but right. So as much as much as we like to make fun of those who are, you know, incorporating fancy peso programs into their annual routine, the the the the honest truth is that for a lot of people, the programs serve a tremendous purpose. [snorts] I mean, that's that's right. I mean, look, at the end of the day, you know, there's fancy programs and there's not fancy programs, right? And uh people just want to get away because they don't want to cook. They don't want to clean >> and uh they just want to go away with their family and have just a relaxing time cuz you know how stressful pay stuff can be, right? You have to like get everything ready. You got to, you know, and so there's, you know, look, there's affordable programs out there that if you kind of do the math of what you're going to spend on pesak with all the food and all the preparation and all this, you know, you can go away for an affordable rate. And yes, some of them are really expensive. Yeah, it doesn't usually match up, but it comes very close. That I could tell you. Uh Donniey's in charge of passoverlistings.com. Passoverlistings.com. And you've done two things because there have been a million people who've tried to do this, you know, get get all the Pesak info onto a website. But you've done two things. Number one, I I think you really do have everything right. Like there there's almost maybe we should say 99% there's almost no program on the planet that's not somewhere on your site. Would that be accurate? >> Correct. Okay. >> That's right. Yeah. Exactly. >> That goes from the most local and most inexpensive to the fanciest that you know that includes a lot of travel etc. >> Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. >> The other thing is I pointed out to you in the past there's no website that publishes prices and that's really really frustrating for those who go to a website. You want to at least have an idea. Everyone understands it's not going to be the final price and there's, you know, there's tipping and considerations and there's deals that possibly can be made, etc., et knows that, but you at least want to see, you know, what range they're in so you could, you know, decide if you should go in that direction. And if I'm not mistaken, I know it's been like this in the past, your website tries as best as possible to give as much of the money information as possible to the reader. Am I right about that? >> Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, every year we have people call us and tell us like, you know, I spend weeks, hours, even months finding pricing on every single program to price out. And we have a tool that just does it for you. So, you know, if Nah, you're coming and you want to come with your kids and your family, you just plug plug it in and within seconds, you get all the pricing of all the programs out there. Super simple. >> Yeah. Simple as that. >> One other element that I did not realize until this morning that you have uh added one of the and I don't know if if it's fair to say it's a competition for your for your uh you know general um for your general presentation of the Passover listings of all the you know hotels and programs but one of the things that's really exploded is PES rentals places like Florida and other places and I see you have an option for that for people to investigate that through your website now. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What we realized was that a lot of people they like to go away for programs and hotels but sometimes they just like to rent villas apartments or houses >> and so you know for the first time now you can just you know go down to Florida there's an option there's options in Vermont there's options in uh you know all around so there's definitely options for that too and people who are also renting their house out and because they're going away they're like okay you know what let me put my house on uh Passover listings or people who want to rent my house kosher for pes or they can make it kosher for pes and now they kind of have a very exclusive intimate setting versus, you know, potentially being with, you know, 500, 800, um, a thousand, uh, Jews. You know, they could just have it with their entire family, >> right? The whole website is completely up to date. Correct. In other words, every single entry now, whether it's a Pesak program around the world, whether it's a local one, rentals, it's all 2026 at this point. Correct. >> Yeah. I mean, the majority Yeah, exactly. 99.9% of it is 2026. um you know if it's not people are still you know finalizing put finalizing touches on their hotels. Um the one thing I will add though that you know outside the pricing is the review element right that's key what we have right no one no one you know when people come right you know they're spending tens of thousands of dollars and sometimes you know less if they're going to Europe they want to know how everything is so the reviews are really what um really why we started this this whole thing in the first place right because it kind of has that accountability of and and constructive feedback not only to the program but if you're going you really want to know from the people who've been there, right? How the food was or how the programming was. So, it also includes that as well. Yeah. >> Uh, so you've done the pricing tool. I I say kudos for that. Uh, you've added the rentals. I say kudos for that. And you also have a tab of concierge. Now, I understand that you're you're ready you and your staff are ready to actually advise people who who find this too overwhelming. But what about negotiating? Do you go to that level as well or is this simply an information session? >> You know, it's a great question. So, that's the new thing we just added this year. Thank you for bringing it up. It's funny. I I didn't even mention it to you and you brought it up. Um, yeah, it's a cool thing. You know, we get every year like, uh, they come to our site, but then we get a lot of questions. So, now they can just call us or email us and we'll give them a call and spend as much time as you want. It's a free service. Completely free. We don't we don't take a penny. We don't charge a penny. Yeah. Completely free for the customer. So, if you if you have, you know, what we find out, it's such a daunting task to find the program. It's like very overwhelming for people. They always say that. That's the feedback. I I don't know where to go. I don't know what you know is this program Gabbras does that program have mixed swimming does that program warm weather you know Shura matzo whatever it may be we know thankfully we know everything about every program so we're able to quickly within like minutes just narrow down their choices >> so if someone wanted you to speak to the program directors on their behalf you're not dismissing that possibility >> no exactly so we do that too you know for example you know people come we need a we don't have an answer for them or they want a a more detailed quote based on their family we can definitely go to the program operator and try to get it. And in some cases, you know, if they're coming with multiple rooms, you know, they're offering discounts, the program, we're able to help with that, too. But in a high level, what we do is we provide the information quickly versus having them literally message a 100 different programs and then wait for them to respond. We have that information, you know, at our fingertips. >> All right. We've seen a lot of PESOC websites over the years. I've always been critical. I've said this to Donnie in the past. I've always been critical. Most of them did not include prices. A lot of them did not have all the programs. It was a very limited number of programs they had. Passoverlistings.com, I think, has done it really well to this point and continues to head in the right direction. They've added the concier service, they've added the Passover rentals, they've added the pricing tool, and they really do have as many I mean, if there's something that exists on the planet that's a Pesos program, the odds are not that they're not going to have it, the odds are that they will have it on their site. So, if you're looking to go away for Pes at any level, from the least expensive to the fanciest around the world, uh we continue to recommend Donnie Schwarz and our um and and his it's not mine, it's his. Passoverlistings.com passoverlistings.com. Mr. Schwarz, is there anything else you'd like to add, sir? >> No, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. And uh >> where were you last Pesak? >> I was at leisure time tour, Arizona. That's a That's like I This is not an insult, but that's sort of like a middle of the road, you know, good big family place, like, you know. >> Yeah. Yeah. It was great. But, you know, there's there look there there's programs this year in um uh all around the world in Thailand, in Australia. There's there's programs in Australia this year. >> There was there was in Japan last year. >> There was Japan. They're moving it this year. It's going to they're coming out with a new destination. Pretty cool destination, actually. Um there's programs in Israel and in Scotland. There's a program in Scotland this year. >> What does Leisure have like six programs in America? >> Leisure Time has six programs. They do with, you know, there are with Costa Rica. They do one with But they have six programs. Yeah. Florida, Italy, Arizona. >> I think they have local here also. I think they have a local. >> Yeah. In New Jersey. Yeah. If you want to go away, New Jersey. Yeah. A handful of really New Jersey, New York programs this year. Yeah. >> But there's a lot of unique programs. You know, there's I always say this, there's something for everyone out there, right? If you want to go to Morocco and do a mitzvah called Peter Kamur with a donkey, you know, like they have a program for that. >> That's great. >> You know, great. [laughter] >> So, if you want to be on a beach, you go on a beach. If you want to go to uh travel Asia, you know, and go to Thailand, you go to Thailand. >> And if you want to be local with a big tea room, we got that as well. >> And you got that as well. Yeah. There there's always something for everybody. That's the great thing about Pace Off programs in general. I mean, you you get that experience with your family that you don't, you know, sometimes you get at home, people like that. But if you really want to just go away, enjoy the speakers and the entertainers and the concerts and the food and you're a big foodie like myself, I mean, you you'll love it, you know. So, for first time people like experiencing, I always say just do a little research, see if you want to go away, and if if you um if it's affordable and you can make it wired work, it it could be worth like a good option for people, you know, looking to go away. >> All right, Donnie Kush after you. Thank you so much [laughter] for having me. >> Donnie Schwarz, go to passoverlistings.com. More coming up.