Helping small tour operators and niche agents with travel ecommerce
Company Set-Up Tips
Hi, first of all I would like to say what a really helpful website this is.
My partner and I are in the process of setting up our own company (after working for someone else for last 4 years!) providing self catered accomodation in the French Alps. We already have a portfolio of properties lined up but need advice on bonding/protection, websites etc.
We will be a UK registered co, based solely in Chamonix, France, aiming mainly at the UK market. We want to advertise ourselves as offering our customers full protection as I think this will become a more important feature clients will look for when booking holidays as time goes on. We will be supplying accommodation plus one other service eg; airport transfer, ski lift pass etc. (no flights).
I have been researching the TTA who seem to be best able to support a small, new company especially with the merchant facility available (although i understand this will affect cashflow). All the other co's, ie; TOPP & IPP appear to need a min 2 years of trading history. Are there any other companies anyone can recommend or is there an equivalent association in France?
Website setup is a daunting prospect. I have read comments from a lot of people who suggest doing it yourself but as neither of us have any real IT experience this could be tricky! We need to be able to maximise our chances of Google ratings etc. and really do not know how to go about it. Is this something best left to the 'IT Experts' or something we could research and take on ourselves. I have also learnt that the TTA have a web based reservation/booking system which we could use if we went with them.
Any tips/experiences would be greatfully received.
Many thanks
Nicola
My partner and I are in the process of setting up our own company (after working for someone else for last 4 years!) providing self catered accomodation in the French Alps. We already have a portfolio of properties lined up but need advice on bonding/protection, websites etc.
We will be a UK registered co, based solely in Chamonix, France, aiming mainly at the UK market. We want to advertise ourselves as offering our customers full protection as I think this will become a more important feature clients will look for when booking holidays as time goes on. We will be supplying accommodation plus one other service eg; airport transfer, ski lift pass etc. (no flights).
I have been researching the TTA who seem to be best able to support a small, new company especially with the merchant facility available (although i understand this will affect cashflow). All the other co's, ie; TOPP & IPP appear to need a min 2 years of trading history. Are there any other companies anyone can recommend or is there an equivalent association in France?
Website setup is a daunting prospect. I have read comments from a lot of people who suggest doing it yourself but as neither of us have any real IT experience this could be tricky! We need to be able to maximise our chances of Google ratings etc. and really do not know how to go about it. Is this something best left to the 'IT Experts' or something we could research and take on ourselves. I have also learnt that the TTA have a web based reservation/booking system which we could use if we went with them.
Any tips/experiences would be greatfully received.
Many thanks
Nicola
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Terry Divyak on
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A couple other things I might add.
We hired a consultant to help us when we were designing the business and working through the idea phase. The first thing he asked me when we sat down to talk, "Tell me ten things that makes your company unique?" In our market, I could think of six or so at the time, that would differentiate us from the competition. So my homework after that meeting was to come up with ten. The reason? You want to make your business so it's hard to duplicate. You don't want a whale with a fat wallet coming into your area and copying your idea and becoming the bigger player. He also asked us how big do we want the company to be? We formulated a plan to build it to where we want to be in five years from now.
He also told me that you never want to compete on price alone. My philosophy is that everyone will pay the same price at the retail end. I don't want a tour participant to say "I can't believe I only paid xx.x for this tour" when everyone else in the group may have paid more. Even my friends who have taken the tour, pay full price. This is tough, when orders for tickets don't come in fast enough, but it keeps things consistent and I never have to get confused about what discounts I may have given.
Just some rambling thoughts, hope it helps.
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Permalink Reply by Alex Bainbridge on -
My number one tip is not to over engineer your first website.
I so often see small tour operators wait until perfection until they launch their website. Really the first website should be sufficient to get you up and trading - then you can refine it.
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Permalink Reply by Indrek Peenmaa on -
Interesting post!
Let me also add few thoughts about launching your company:
1. do not spend too much time on first website. You will have to redesign it many times
2. TourCMS is great product, it can cover your booking needs
3. Focus most of the time on selling. Even though the competitive differentiation is important, your best strategy for launching the is looking at the most popular products and making something similar with also same price level. Hopefully slightly better. If you are running into analysis paralysis and have too many things in your plans - order Michael Masterson "Ready, Fire, Aim" from Amazon as it is invaluable resource about growing company through different stages.
4. However, I do think your logo is important. It is the identity for a company and without it or with cheap reusable logo from some website, it will just not feel right for yourself and to customers. Good logo is not too expensive, you can hire good designers from getafreelancer.com for 150-250 USD
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