Why Sydney Ghost Tours are a little bit more- ( and better) than some of our competitors
Recently, a number of interstate ghost tour operators have been attempting to set up shop in the Sydney Market. They have been selling large numbers of heavily discounted tickets, predominantly through third party, coupon style web sites.
One of which has been targeting my colleagues across the harbour at The Rocks Ghost Tour, another is directly targeting our business. Both of whom have been deliberately attempting to create confusion in the minds of the public, into thinking they are buying a well established service, with a good reputation, from a local business, when in reality they are not dealing with the real McCoy.
The simple truth, is that no business can run at a loss indefinitely. Basic arithmetic tells you that these businesses are losing money, cutting corners or both, by selling tickets that don't cover the cost of delivering a service, let alone make a profit. Unfortunately - we have seen this kind of nonsense before. At least 7 other ghost tour businesses have closed shop in Sydney in the last ten years, that have used similar strategies in order to try to "buy" market share. It is just not a sustainable business practice.
Like many services bought through such discount deal web sites such as Groupon for example, a half price ticket or less to the consumer is usually only 25% or less of the standard ticket price, to the service provider. The online marketing company takes half of the discount ticket price as commission.
The current bane of the NSW Department of Fair Trading's life, is people complaining, when they have bought discounted goods and services, through third party discount web sites, due to:
We operate in small tour groups, going through locations where 40-50-60 people on a ghost tour would be both undesirable, and impractical. We prefer having a conversation with you, rather than yelling at a group - or worse, going to a haunted location with a loud hailer in order to be heard. ( Which, with a very low priced ticket, you can reasonably expect both large numbers, a short tour - and the guide will probably be reciting, or worse, reading from a script.)
Our Adult tours are a product of a decade of research before the business started. They have been continuously added to and updated in the 11+ years we have been in operation. They are just under two and a half hours in length - a time that seems to go in the blink of an eye! The guide knows their stuff inside out, upside down and backwards.... If anything, Sydney Ghost Tours are known for running over-time. We just have a lot more stories to tell, than we have time to tell them! Each tour is effectively customised to the group, based on the questions our tour participants ask, and how they respond to the tour. When you know the story of nearly every person and headstone in a historic cemetery, and can find your way to it in the dark, no two tours are completely identical, as they tend to be tailored to the group.
We make sure that you are kept safe, by not only strictly enforcing Occupational Health and Safety guidelines, but by being properly insured for public liability insurance - something we have never needed to use yet, in nearly a decade of operation. We are certainly the only Ghost tour operator we know of in Australia, that has German Shepherd security when walking around in the dark! She stays on the leash when we are out in public, but she comes off the leash when we arrive in the cemetery. This allows the guide to relax and focus on the group, while Canine security checks out our surroundings, letting us know if there is something in the dark we can't see, but need to know about.
Sydney Ghost Tours has been running for 11 + years now, outlasting a number of other quite famous ghost tour businesses. We have built a good reputation for running fascinating, funny and creepy historic ghost tours, over a long time. We are not everyone's cup of tea,( we have learned the hard way, that not everyone likes history, or dogs. We now explicitly ask these people NOT to come!). However we do deliver what we promise. Something that is reflected in our online reputation that has been built during that time.
So if you want to have a night out with a difference - you can buy from us with confidence!
One of which has been targeting my colleagues across the harbour at The Rocks Ghost Tour, another is directly targeting our business. Both of whom have been deliberately attempting to create confusion in the minds of the public, into thinking they are buying a well established service, with a good reputation, from a local business, when in reality they are not dealing with the real McCoy.
The simple truth, is that no business can run at a loss indefinitely. Basic arithmetic tells you that these businesses are losing money, cutting corners or both, by selling tickets that don't cover the cost of delivering a service, let alone make a profit. Unfortunately - we have seen this kind of nonsense before. At least 7 other ghost tour businesses have closed shop in Sydney in the last ten years, that have used similar strategies in order to try to "buy" market share. It is just not a sustainable business practice.
Like many services bought through such discount deal web sites such as Groupon for example, a half price ticket or less to the consumer is usually only 25% or less of the standard ticket price, to the service provider. The online marketing company takes half of the discount ticket price as commission.
The current bane of the NSW Department of Fair Trading's life, is people complaining, when they have bought discounted goods and services, through third party discount web sites, due to:
- the end provider not providing the service or product,
- only providing the service, on the condition that you make an additional up-sell purchase,
- the business going broke, by the time you redeem your online voucher.
We operate in small tour groups, going through locations where 40-50-60 people on a ghost tour would be both undesirable, and impractical. We prefer having a conversation with you, rather than yelling at a group - or worse, going to a haunted location with a loud hailer in order to be heard. ( Which, with a very low priced ticket, you can reasonably expect both large numbers, a short tour - and the guide will probably be reciting, or worse, reading from a script.)
Our Adult tours are a product of a decade of research before the business started. They have been continuously added to and updated in the 11+ years we have been in operation. They are just under two and a half hours in length - a time that seems to go in the blink of an eye! The guide knows their stuff inside out, upside down and backwards.... If anything, Sydney Ghost Tours are known for running over-time. We just have a lot more stories to tell, than we have time to tell them! Each tour is effectively customised to the group, based on the questions our tour participants ask, and how they respond to the tour. When you know the story of nearly every person and headstone in a historic cemetery, and can find your way to it in the dark, no two tours are completely identical, as they tend to be tailored to the group.
We make sure that you are kept safe, by not only strictly enforcing Occupational Health and Safety guidelines, but by being properly insured for public liability insurance - something we have never needed to use yet, in nearly a decade of operation. We are certainly the only Ghost tour operator we know of in Australia, that has German Shepherd security when walking around in the dark! She stays on the leash when we are out in public, but she comes off the leash when we arrive in the cemetery. This allows the guide to relax and focus on the group, while Canine security checks out our surroundings, letting us know if there is something in the dark we can't see, but need to know about.
Sydney Ghost Tours has been running for 11 + years now, outlasting a number of other quite famous ghost tour businesses. We have built a good reputation for running fascinating, funny and creepy historic ghost tours, over a long time. We are not everyone's cup of tea,( we have learned the hard way, that not everyone likes history, or dogs. We now explicitly ask these people NOT to come!). However we do deliver what we promise. Something that is reflected in our online reputation that has been built during that time.
So if you want to have a night out with a difference - you can buy from us with confidence!
