Private tours can be a low-lift, high-reward new offering for your company. But how do you get them off the ground?

At this point, you have considered the benefits and potential drawbacks of offering a private tour—and have decided to go for it! (If you are still on the fence, check out our recent guide that will help you decide if this type of tour is right for your business.) 

This guide will cover everything you need to consider before launching your new tour. 

Pre-Packaged or Customized?

To begin, you will need to decide if you want to offer pre-packaged tours or have a customizable option. Let’s dive into what these two choices mean. 

Pre-packaged

This type of private tour would have specific details chosen by you, the tour operator. For example, if you offer a kayaking tour, you would design the exact route your customers would go on. 

Benefits:

• Easy to get started, you can simply repurpose every aspect of an existing tour, but market it to private groups. 
• Less of a lift for you and your tour guides when all planning is set. 
• You can set a fixed price for the tour since you know the cost that goes into running it. 

Customized

This type of private tour allows the customer and their group to decide on the details of their experience. For example, if you run a city food tour, you can have a list of potential restaurants and food trucks that your customers can pick from to create their itinerary. 

Benefits:

• Although not as easy to get started as a pre-packaged tour, a customized tour can still use different aspects of your current offerings. 
• Customers looking for a curated experience will favor this tour since they get to choose exactly what they are doing and where they are going. 
• Since you will need to plan more and may have added costs, you can charge more. 

Both options offer great benefits so you need to decide what works best for your business. (Hint, you can also offer both types!)

Pricing

Figuring out how to price your new tour is always tough since you have to walk the fine line of making a profit, yet not charging too much for your customers. 

Since a private tour will cost more money to run and organize, you can absolutely charge more than your regular offerings. For instance, if you outsource your bus transportation, the company may charge more for a smaller group. 

You also need to take into consideration that you and your employees will be spending more time with a reduced capacity group. Figure out the hourly cost of each employee, then ensure you are making up for having less customers present. Offering a private tour should increase your revenue (or at least be the same as your typical tours). 

Pro Tip: A great place to start for your pricing model is to look at your competitors. Check out the pricing structure of local companies offering the same type of private tour and set your prices accordingly. 

How to Market a Private Tour

One of the greatest benefits of private tours is the fact you are catering to a new customer type. And who doesn’t love that?! 

When you think about marketing your new tour, be sure to highlight all of the benefits your customers will experience. For example:

• Enjoy the undivided attention of their tour guide.
• Connect with their friends and family for an unforgettable experience.
• Feel the safety of being with your own group following the pandemic.

Whenever you decide to launch a new type of tour, you should share the news. For instance, you can run an email marketing campaign to your existing customers or a Google Ads campaign with keywords to reach a new audience. You should also post about your new private tour across your social channels.

Pro Tip: When you add your private tour social post to Instagram, consider boosting this post so you can reach a wider audience and attract new customers in your area. 

Offering a new type of tour can sometimes be a daunting task. But, if it is the right choice for your business you will be able to see increased profits and bookings. See below for other niche tour types you can try!