Please assist with your comments

[Legin]

Hello all

Your asistence would be much appreciated - just a comment please:
I'm starting a 'bike touring' outfit in South Africa, and I would like to test reaction to pricing.
1) 10 days - actually 8 days of touring due to arrivals & transfers to hotel.
2) Price includes hotel accommodation; dinner, bed, breakfast; fuel; rental of bike; airport transfers -
basically everything except: return air fares to Johannesburg International; extra meals outside breakfast & dinner; refreshments / alcoholic beverages.
3) This is not a bike rental outfit: you ride in a group through amazing countryside in two seperate areas of SA, and get taken to historic sites & places of interest; certificate, 'T' shirt, group photo, badge etc. Back up vehicle & trailer.
4) Rain or shine - we ride, unless visibility is poor, in which case we all hop into the vehicle and continue the tour for that day anyway.

The price is heading for around $ 4 500 at current exchange rate.

Reaction please - package/price ratio????

I really need to get this off the ground, please consider carefully before answering.

Thank you

[Louis]

We don't have a lot of members from South Africa. Try PM'ing 'Dwayne Hicks'

[Rickster]

I think you are going to have to get your price down, $4500 seems a bit steep to me. Sounds like a nice ride though, hope you get it worked out.

[Uncle Bob]

I find the price kind of steep.

Let's see roughly 9 sleepovers @ $100/night= $900 + 8 days bike rental @ $100@day= $800 + 10(9?) breakfasts @ $10(?) = $100 + 10 dinners(9?) @ $50(?)= $500 + guide @ $100/day= $900. Total $3400 That leaves about $1,100 to cover fuel, you must rack up a lot of miles.LOL

Factor in getting there for the "Guests", I'm guessing more european than americans and it's getting pretty pricey.

[Trapper]

It also depends on the quality of the accomadations, meals and bikes. Is bike insurance included?

[Legin]

Thanks for all the replies. Yep, it's all inclusive only the exceptions I mentioned. Hotel digs are between 3 & 4 star- so not 'upmarket' but certainly not shabby. Food is typical hotel - continental breakfasts, dinner menu or sometimes 5 course set menu.
The exchange rate to Rands is now around R6 to the $. This has dropped considerably the last few days, and of course affects the calculation.

I'm getting the impression folks think the price is a bit high. Anyway, further comments will be much appreciated.

Thanks

[inspiron]

There are plenty of touring companies in Europe that you can use to compare your prices. Most of the companies I know are in the German speaking parts of Europe. Here's one near Switzerland with an english-language web page:

http://www.mototours.com/sites/english/default.html
(A friend of mine works part-time in their office)

Maybe you can contact them to set up a partnership - then you can offer tours to Europeans, and you can offer people in SA a chance to tour the alps!

[Legin]

Originally Posted by inspiron

There are plenty of touring companies in Europe that you can use to compare your prices. Most of the companies I know are in the German speaking parts of Europe. Here's one near Switzerland with an english-language web page:

http://www.mototours.com/sites/english/default.html
(A friend of mine works part-time in their office)

Maybe you can contact them to set up a partnership - then you can offer tours to Europeans, and you can offer people in SA a chance to tour the alps!

Thanks for the tip - I'll follow that up.

[Rickster]

I would love to take one of your trips, but at that price, it would have to be the only thing I did that year. With air fair, it would cost me about $7000, and I can do 3, or 4 real nice trips in my own country for that money.

[Legin]

Originally Posted by Rickster

I would love to take one of your trips, but at that price, it would have to be the only thing I did that year. With air fair, it would cost me about $7000, and I can do 3, or 4 real nice trips in my own country for that money.

Yes, the problem with the costing is once you try and turn into a paying business operation. Paying for bikes and making sure you can replace them eventually. So far I see we are not far off the mark though compared to some tours I have studied.

I guess one has to approach it as one of those once / twice in a lifetime overseas 'adventure' trips.

Thanks for the comments