As you might have seen in our NEWS section we are 10 years in business this week, time has honestly flown! So you are probably wondering what has changed in the business in the last 10 years so here is a few thoughts (random as usual!)
1) Our customers we had a fairly predictable clientel when we started being mostly visitors from the US,England and Ireland but we really do now get a whole range of nationalities now which makes for an interesting and increasingly challenging life! Due to us not having as many English speakers on board we do sometimes miss the hilarious banter and fun of our early days but having said that some of our new visitors do have a good sense of humour! – a good laugh can break many international barriers!
2) Our vehicles have changed of course although I am determined to get our first coach BERTIE out of retirement since our trade bodies are telling us that vehicles over 5 years old should be retired from tourism work I will launch a 33 year old one and believe me he will still do a good days work in comfort (other than a bit of a bouncy ride!) but our current fleet really is a revelation in terms of comfort and reliability – I never like to boast about such things but 2 breakdowns in 10 years is not too bad and I honestly don’t believe such standards of reliability are achievable with brand new vehicles!
3) Seasons have changed – no, not climate change, but we are finding our peak is becoming shorter and the traditional “shoulder” season is becoming more challenging – our loadings are currently well down for a number of reasons, so we are going to react swiftly as we always do and go on Holidays! (only kidding!!) but we are going to expand our NICETOURS.BIZ side of the business to give more custom tours and imaginative itineraries – look out for a Murder mystery weekend soon!
4) We have changed personally in that we have grown in confidence and I hope, ability – its hard to believe that the quiet shy florist that I met 15 years ago has turned into the confident and talented tour driver/guide that Christine has become (she never reads this!) I think we both underwent a personal change this winter when Christine’s brother – Michael passed away suddenly and now we are much calmer and speaking personally, delays on tours, the odd rude and unreasonable passenger, our beloved Road Safety Authority and all our other cares really do not bother me as we have realized more than ever that life is for living! Our inner selves I suppose have changed with our holidays to Thailand– it has been a revelation to see such dignified and serene people who really have little in life still managing to smile – a lesson for us all there I think!
We never tire of our business but I think after 10 years the amount of corruption and “back scratching” in our industry still irritates us as we feel we never get the help and promotion we deserve – if we were judged on the quality of our tours we think we would be millionaires!
So I hope you enjoyed my ramblings this week and maybe next week might be a good time for another installment in our history unless of course, something more topical comes up!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
10.05.08 – why do you not have a tour on Fridays?
We are often asked that very question, so since I have spilled the beans on a typical working day I shall now reveal what happens on a Friday (which is our one day off work together!)
Well the story normally starts on Thursday night on which we always try to have a night out together and a dinner and a few medicinal drinks! This week we both finished fairly early on Thursday night – Chris had been to Kerry and me to the Cliffs so we were both in about 7.00, so then it was a quick shower and change into the glad rags and head off in our car to town (we leave the car and collect it Friday!).
We had a drink in a bar in town then went for a lovely Indian meal at one of our favourite restaurants – Poppadom. After a superb feed we headed to one of our newer haunts Smyths bar where as usual we were the oldest in the place – but never mind! We saw an excellent band there called The Wilful from Galway – great stuff – highly recommended if you have never heard a heavy rock cover of Abba! – we really enjoyed their set and it was just the thing to take away the cares of last week.
So rather late we took a taxi home and retired to bed for a lie in until woken by our first booking at 08.00! We then had a leisurely breakfast before I started washing and fueling busses and did a couple of repair jobs as well as ordering some parts for next weeks jobs. Chris did some e.mails and booked train tickets as well as another vital job – the washing.
We then headed for town in style on my new motorbike – Thanks again Chris! As we had to do some banking before taking off to do a bit of bike touring to Cashel for lunch then back to Limerick to pick up the car and a take away for Friday night and a peaceful night watching telly and of course answering e.mails and online bookings then an early night ready to start another week of tours!
I hope this answers why we do not have a tour on Fridays as we actually cant legally work 7 days and I don’t think either of us could stand not having the few hours to ourselves on Thursday night and Friday morning, so if you are trying to contact us on a Friday by phone and we don not answer straight away we might just be motorbiking!
Well the story normally starts on Thursday night on which we always try to have a night out together and a dinner and a few medicinal drinks! This week we both finished fairly early on Thursday night – Chris had been to Kerry and me to the Cliffs so we were both in about 7.00, so then it was a quick shower and change into the glad rags and head off in our car to town (we leave the car and collect it Friday!).
We had a drink in a bar in town then went for a lovely Indian meal at one of our favourite restaurants – Poppadom. After a superb feed we headed to one of our newer haunts Smyths bar where as usual we were the oldest in the place – but never mind! We saw an excellent band there called The Wilful from Galway – great stuff – highly recommended if you have never heard a heavy rock cover of Abba! – we really enjoyed their set and it was just the thing to take away the cares of last week.
So rather late we took a taxi home and retired to bed for a lie in until woken by our first booking at 08.00! We then had a leisurely breakfast before I started washing and fueling busses and did a couple of repair jobs as well as ordering some parts for next weeks jobs. Chris did some e.mails and booked train tickets as well as another vital job – the washing.
We then headed for town in style on my new motorbike – Thanks again Chris! As we had to do some banking before taking off to do a bit of bike touring to Cashel for lunch then back to Limerick to pick up the car and a take away for Friday night and a peaceful night watching telly and of course answering e.mails and online bookings then an early night ready to start another week of tours!
I hope this answers why we do not have a tour on Fridays as we actually cant legally work 7 days and I don’t think either of us could stand not having the few hours to ourselves on Thursday night and Friday morning, so if you are trying to contact us on a Friday by phone and we don not answer straight away we might just be motorbiking!
03.05.08 – A week at Barratt Tours
Well, that’s our hardest week over! The first of 26 and business is ok but a bit quiet still during the week. Of course with us not increasing our prices for 3 years the massive increase in fuel costs is proving a huge strain when we are carrying small numbers of passengers, but as usual we will keep at it and hopefully as the season wears on our investment of time and money into an online presence will start to pay off with more online bookings.
Talking of online bookings regular visitors to my blog will know that we have decided to make our tours from Dublin exclusively available online and because of that we reduced the price of our best selling D1 Moher Magic tour by six euros this season. We heard this week of one day tour operator that is offering hotels and agents a 25% commission on bookings – do you think this is right? I would love to know your opinions – why not CONTACT ME and tell me! One thing you can be sure of is that we will continue to offer you the best value we possibly can whilst still keeping a sustainable profit margin.
If any of you in the industry are shocked by me revealing details like this I will make no apologies as we have been dealt some severe blows over the last couple of years because we have kept Barratt Tours honest, and I can safely say that I have no regrets over the way we have grown over the years as it is on our terms and with clean hands!
Talking of online bookings regular visitors to my blog will know that we have decided to make our tours from Dublin exclusively available online and because of that we reduced the price of our best selling D1 Moher Magic tour by six euros this season. We heard this week of one day tour operator that is offering hotels and agents a 25% commission on bookings – do you think this is right? I would love to know your opinions – why not CONTACT ME and tell me! One thing you can be sure of is that we will continue to offer you the best value we possibly can whilst still keeping a sustainable profit margin.
If any of you in the industry are shocked by me revealing details like this I will make no apologies as we have been dealt some severe blows over the last couple of years because we have kept Barratt Tours honest, and I can safely say that I have no regrets over the way we have grown over the years as it is on our terms and with clean hands!
26.04.08 – Another season, hopefully another dollar – a day in our life !
I’am finally getting organized with my blogs so from now I promise Saturday will be blog day! If you are on our Cliffs of Moher tour on a Saturday look for me typing on my laptop at Caherconnell fort !
Today is the first day of our full season and while as I hope you realise I really do enjoy my job I must admit to not being too overjoyed at the 06.50 alarm this morning! As from here starts 26 weeks of hard work with no break!
I thought that my blog today would be a good time to reflect on what a typical day for us might consist of, today is quite easy as we only have one coach out on tour so Chris came in to help me with my pick ups but this is how a typical day might go:
06.50 – Alarm (10 min to come round then 15 min to get ready)
07.15 – Out into the yard to prepare the coaches- visual checks and check oil levels etc, any final cleaning and loading water etc while Chris checks e.mails and compiles today passenger list or lists.
08.15 – Breakfast (if there is time!)
08.30 – 09.00 Leave the yard for first pick ups and meet at the Tourist Office
09.50 – Cliffs tour departs for Railway station to collect passengers from Dublin
10.15 – Tour leaves (train on time today) I will not run through all the tour so jump forward to approx 19.00 arrive back to Limerick Station for Dublin passengers before dropping passengers on our short breaks at their hotels in Limerick – finish around 19.20.
19.50 – Arrive back in yard, check e.mails, Chris will now sort bookings and answer e.mails from today, I start fuelling and cleaning, 2 coaches were used today with the pick ups so both are dirty and need fuel, also Celtic Pride needs a bulb replaced, Chris at least had chance to cook today so dinner is nearly ready.
21.00 – Dinner then a chance to relax at last but still some online tickets to book.
22.00 – online booking close for tomorrows' tours.
23.00 – Booking line closes
23.30 – so to bed! Ready for 06.50 alarm tomorrow and Blarney and Cork for me and The Cliffs of Moher for Chris.
Hopefully this will give you a guide as to what our life is like and why 26 weeks of this can be tiring! But having said that we wouldn’t change it, after all, who would then offer you great tours at the best price!
Today is the first day of our full season and while as I hope you realise I really do enjoy my job I must admit to not being too overjoyed at the 06.50 alarm this morning! As from here starts 26 weeks of hard work with no break!
I thought that my blog today would be a good time to reflect on what a typical day for us might consist of, today is quite easy as we only have one coach out on tour so Chris came in to help me with my pick ups but this is how a typical day might go:
06.50 – Alarm (10 min to come round then 15 min to get ready)
07.15 – Out into the yard to prepare the coaches- visual checks and check oil levels etc, any final cleaning and loading water etc while Chris checks e.mails and compiles today passenger list or lists.
08.15 – Breakfast (if there is time!)
08.30 – 09.00 Leave the yard for first pick ups and meet at the Tourist Office
09.50 – Cliffs tour departs for Railway station to collect passengers from Dublin
10.15 – Tour leaves (train on time today) I will not run through all the tour so jump forward to approx 19.00 arrive back to Limerick Station for Dublin passengers before dropping passengers on our short breaks at their hotels in Limerick – finish around 19.20.
19.50 – Arrive back in yard, check e.mails, Chris will now sort bookings and answer e.mails from today, I start fuelling and cleaning, 2 coaches were used today with the pick ups so both are dirty and need fuel, also Celtic Pride needs a bulb replaced, Chris at least had chance to cook today so dinner is nearly ready.
21.00 – Dinner then a chance to relax at last but still some online tickets to book.
22.00 – online booking close for tomorrows' tours.
23.00 – Booking line closes
23.30 – so to bed! Ready for 06.50 alarm tomorrow and Blarney and Cork for me and The Cliffs of Moher for Chris.
Hopefully this will give you a guide as to what our life is like and why 26 weeks of this can be tiring! But having said that we wouldn’t change it, after all, who would then offer you great tours at the best price!
19.04.08 – An online revolution?
Those of you that have been following our progress over the last few years will know that our business is slowly changing as the web plays an increasingly important role in our bookings. Last year we introduced online booking and it has slowly been growing to the point where this year we have taken the decision to make ourDublin tours exclusively available online as that way in these days of spiraling costs we can keep our prices as keen as possible. The reason our tours are so competitively priced is that we do not employ huge numbers of staff or directors and we do not offer commissions to third parties – what you pay comes to us! You might be surprised at how much of what you pay larger companies goes on commissions, lavish brochures etc etc. So we hope that our little business can compete with the big boys and win on the fairest sales market of all – the World Wide Web.
We would love to hear your thoughts on this but when we were discussing this decision we thought of the budget airlines – who would imagine we could travel to England for less than fifty euro 10 years ago? When we first moved to Ireland we were paying at least eighty nine pounds! We are not getting into the green issues here but the reality is people are traveling more and demanding better value so hopefully small enterprises like us can prosper. So look out we are becoming a lean green touring machine!
We would love to hear your thoughts on this but when we were discussing this decision we thought of the budget airlines – who would imagine we could travel to England for less than fifty euro 10 years ago? When we first moved to Ireland we were paying at least eighty nine pounds! We are not getting into the green issues here but the reality is people are traveling more and demanding better value so hopefully small enterprises like us can prosper. So look out we are becoming a lean green touring machine!
11.04.08 – History as promised (a little late!)
Finally with the Cliffs situation resolved I can return to our history and I promise to all my fans (both of you!) to blog more often as I got a new laptop on hols so it makes things easier as I can write while our passengers are enjoying our various stops.
We left the story with our house in England sold and a house in Ireland bought, this was about September 97 and at this point I left my job only to be offered about 6 months more work as a consultant! At this point we both lived with my mother for a few weeks before Chris took the brave decision to move to Ireland on her own to start generating some business and sorting the vast amount of paperwork while I worked at delivering new trucks inEngland! It was a hard life living with my folks and being spoilt rotten but I made the best of it!
I really must mention the move before I go any further; we had quite a lot of furniture to move and half a bus – honestly! I bought another very rotten Bristol like Bertie which I broke for spares, so with my contacts in haulage I managed to buy a 40 foot trailer very cheap which I packed with the parts and the furniture. I then managed to borrow a 38 tonne tractor unit for a weekend (only a local job – honest!) to take the trailer to Ireland with my dad helping with the driving where it lived in our yard until the previous house owners had moved out – I then sold the trailer for a profit – ever the salesman! We then went across in our trusty Ford Escort van to do the move and get Chris settled in – I could only stay a week and so flew back with a heavy heart but it was the right thing to do as I could still make good money in England.
Chris came back for Christmas 97 and I was thrilled to see her at Teeside Airport although it made parting again in the new year even harder, in the meantime between working and trying to keep my old banger car going (company car long gone) I had time to put the finishing touches to Bertie often helped by my faithful pal and best man – Neil (thanks again!). Finally in February 98 Chris flew across and we made the best journey of all. With Bertie who typically never missed a beat and settled into his new home in our garage where he lives to this day! I then had to head back and finish some final business before I made the break together with Neil and headed across with our Sherpa Minibus (the only Barratt bus never to carry a paying passenger!). Neil stayed and worked at all the many jobs for six weeks and its fair to say we would never have got the work done without him. Finally we got to May and had all the red tape behind us and were set to operate our first tour but one small problem remained – we had no brochure, our printer at the time let us down badly and they were finally delivered a week late. I often think about the man at a certain Limerick print company who laughed at us when I complained – it gives me quite a laugh now 10 years and probably 250.000 brochures later – none of which they printed! I’am quite enjoying this revenge thing now so heres to the Area Manager at a well known Irish Bank (not Bank of Ireland who we are now with so there is a clue!) who told me that I was mad to start a tour company and would be better getting another job selling trucks! Well Mr Harry G – I think we have proved you wrong in fine style!
So our first job was a Private Hire for a well known Irish Professional Organisation and this was really a practice for our first tour on 12th May 98 – how did it go? WATCH THIS SPACE ……..
We left the story with our house in England sold and a house in Ireland bought, this was about September 97 and at this point I left my job only to be offered about 6 months more work as a consultant! At this point we both lived with my mother for a few weeks before Chris took the brave decision to move to Ireland on her own to start generating some business and sorting the vast amount of paperwork while I worked at delivering new trucks inEngland! It was a hard life living with my folks and being spoilt rotten but I made the best of it!
I really must mention the move before I go any further; we had quite a lot of furniture to move and half a bus – honestly! I bought another very rotten Bristol like Bertie which I broke for spares, so with my contacts in haulage I managed to buy a 40 foot trailer very cheap which I packed with the parts and the furniture. I then managed to borrow a 38 tonne tractor unit for a weekend (only a local job – honest!) to take the trailer to Ireland with my dad helping with the driving where it lived in our yard until the previous house owners had moved out – I then sold the trailer for a profit – ever the salesman! We then went across in our trusty Ford Escort van to do the move and get Chris settled in – I could only stay a week and so flew back with a heavy heart but it was the right thing to do as I could still make good money in England.
Chris came back for Christmas 97 and I was thrilled to see her at Teeside Airport although it made parting again in the new year even harder, in the meantime between working and trying to keep my old banger car going (company car long gone) I had time to put the finishing touches to Bertie often helped by my faithful pal and best man – Neil (thanks again!). Finally in February 98 Chris flew across and we made the best journey of all. With Bertie who typically never missed a beat and settled into his new home in our garage where he lives to this day! I then had to head back and finish some final business before I made the break together with Neil and headed across with our Sherpa Minibus (the only Barratt bus never to carry a paying passenger!). Neil stayed and worked at all the many jobs for six weeks and its fair to say we would never have got the work done without him. Finally we got to May and had all the red tape behind us and were set to operate our first tour but one small problem remained – we had no brochure, our printer at the time let us down badly and they were finally delivered a week late. I often think about the man at a certain Limerick print company who laughed at us when I complained – it gives me quite a laugh now 10 years and probably 250.000 brochures later – none of which they printed! I’am quite enjoying this revenge thing now so heres to the Area Manager at a well known Irish Bank (not Bank of Ireland who we are now with so there is a clue!) who told me that I was mad to start a tour company and would be better getting another job selling trucks! Well Mr Harry G – I think we have proved you wrong in fine style!
So our first job was a Private Hire for a well known Irish Professional Organisation and this was really a practice for our first tour on 12th May 98 – how did it go? WATCH THIS SPACE ……..
05.04.08 – A victory for common sense
I know some of you have been following my blogs about the situation at The Cliffs of Moher and our protest last year regarding parking charges. I ‘am delighted to report that an acceptable compromise has been reached which now means there will be a one euro per head facilities charge payable to Cliffs of Moher staff on arrival. This allows us to use the new coach parking facilities which offer our customers a safe and convenient parking facility. I’am personally delighted that this has happened but I do wonder if this could not have been done this time last year if Clare County Council had negotiated with us rather than threatening and intimidating us by issuing Parking tickets and photographing us, all of which when combined with lost revenue must have cost an enormous amount of tax payers money.
I will not dwell on the negative aspects of this story but I must thank all the operators that supported the action and brought about the change – thanks and congratulations to you all. For those that did not support our action and continued to pay the exorbitant charges all I can say is I hope you enjoy the rewards that our action has given you!
So we look forward to working with the County Council to promote this superb facility and whilst we do not bear grudges the wounds that last year inflicted will be slow to heel however we are determined to make this work.
In conclusion I now promise you all part 2 of my history but events have rather overtaken my literary endeavors.
We have also had a lot to contend with on a personal level as sadly Christine’s brother Michael was taken from us far too soon in March and so my thoughts are still with her and her Mother at this difficult time.
I will not dwell on the negative aspects of this story but I must thank all the operators that supported the action and brought about the change – thanks and congratulations to you all. For those that did not support our action and continued to pay the exorbitant charges all I can say is I hope you enjoy the rewards that our action has given you!
So we look forward to working with the County Council to promote this superb facility and whilst we do not bear grudges the wounds that last year inflicted will be slow to heel however we are determined to make this work.
In conclusion I now promise you all part 2 of my history but events have rather overtaken my literary endeavors.
We have also had a lot to contend with on a personal level as sadly Christine’s brother Michael was taken from us far too soon in March and so my thoughts are still with her and her Mother at this difficult time.
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