New Website for Small Tour Operators

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Permalink Reply by Alex Bainbridge on July 3, 2009 at 10:42pm

Hi Justin

This is very interesting

Two quick questions
1) Where are you based? (country) - I couldn't see from your site
2) What % will you take of the transaction?

Cheers. Alex

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Permalink Reply by Toursbyme.com on July 3, 2009 at 10:47pm

We are based in the united states.
We charge 15%, out of which we pay the credit card fees.

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Permalink Reply by Toursbyme.com on July 8, 2009 at 7:53pm

Right now we are running a promotion. All tours activated in the next 12 days or so will lock a 9% rate instead of 15%.

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Permalink Reply by Ralph Foulds on July 8, 2009 at 9:57pm

Hi Justin,
Thanks for posting - a couple of points/questions, hopefully helpful.

- Are you really looking for medium sized tour operators to advertise on your site ? The way I read the site, it is more about individuals marketing experiences or day-trips. References are made throughout to locals and tour guides, not companies

- Can you clarify how your payment system works - from the user paying you, to you paying the operator or guide ?

- I'm rather confused by your terms & conditions. Are these designed for customers booking through the site, or for operators/guides advertising on it (seems to be a bit of both ?)
http://toursbyme.com/?p=terms

Cheers, Ralph

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Permalink Reply by Toursbyme.com on July 23, 2009 at 8:25pm

We would like to service companies as well as individuals wanting to get into the industry, or just looking for extra income. We have a pretty broad definition of what constitutes a tour, which is why we use the term interchangeably with the word experience. Right now, we have a variety of different "depths" of tour, ranging from a pub walk in New York, to a multi-day cycling tour in Israel. We just require the tours to be pre-scheduled, so that customers can make complete arrangements through the site.

That said, we emphasize the importance of personal interaction as integral to the travel experience. This should be possible with smaller and medium-sized companies, who rely on the talent of their guides rather than the elaborate marketing available to large firms. We want to serve as a marketing gateway for individuals and companies that otherwise can't afford advanced web marketing.

We accept payments online for pre-scheduled tours, on behalf of tour companies/tour sellers. We hold the payments until after the tour has taken place. Tour sellers can log into an account on our site and arrange payments to be sent to them, either by check or PayPal.

The terms and conditions may not be applicable to every user of the site, it's really just there for liability reasons. Our FAQ http://toursbyme.com/?p=faq offers a more succinct version of our terms.

Sorry for the delay in responding!

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