mark
Senior Member
- Location
- Frisco, CO, USA
I would like to know if anyone has any bad experiences touring (with a company) and what they may be?
I spent the summer of 2001 working for a US touring company and will never get involved with commercial cycle tours again! A few of the things I learned:
1. Do not make the tour seem easier than it is, and do not let your sales staff/booking agents do so either! One lady on my first tour was told "no need to ride a bike to prepare for the tour, just use the exercise bike at the gym, you'll be fine". She was not fine. Another lady who injured her knee just before departure was told "Plenty of wives spend the whole tour in the baggage van and have just as much fun as the people who actually ride". This was not true. Don't be afraid to give refunds or credit for future tours if a genuine medical issue arises, this will pay off in good will later on.
2. Be honest about the weather your clients may encounter, and be ready to help clients cope with bad weather (advice on what to wear, fit bikes with mudguards, etc.). A day of cycling in the rain can be miserable for the unprepared fair weather cyclist, but a set of fenders/mudguards and a little advice on clothing can make riding in the rain quite pleasant (up to a point).
3. Don't try to "stretch" the tour season. By this I mean, don't offer tours so early or late in the season that you don't have a reasonable chance of good weather for the better part of the tour. Lots of tour companies of every kind do this, partly because they get such good rates from hotel owners before and after the peak season. On the first day of my first tour, we had rain mixed with snow, changing to a steady cold rain later in the day.
4. Lots of cycle tour companies like to keep the entire group together at all times, mostly for the convenience of the guide (and to make the guide feel important). Not everyone wants to cycle in a large group, and not everyone wants to eat dinner at a single table with the entire tour group (especially the newly married couple on one of my tours).
5. All of the tour guides should be capable bike mechanics who enjoy working on bikes, and should be provided with a decent set of tools. If the guides aren't already good cycle mechanics they should be eager to learn. The company I worked for provided us with a truly impressive array of tools, but none of the guides could be bothered to do more than wipe the bikes off once in a while. It was truly frustrating, both for myself and for the guests whose bikes didn't work. What made it even more frustrating was that the bikes were actually quite good.
Sorry if this seems completely obvious, but the company I worked for made all these mistakes and more.