why come on sydney ghost tours?
Why come on Sydney Ghost Tours?
why we are a little bit more, & better ....
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of interstate ghost tour operators tried to break into in the Sydney Market. They started selling 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 directly targeted our business. In my case, they copied my business name, and even the name of my original ghost tour, the Haunted Sydney Ghost Tour.
Both of these operators 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 . Unfortunately - we have seen this kind of nonsense before. At least 12 other ghost tour businesses have closed shop in Sydney in the last 15 years, that have used similar strategies in order to try to "buy" market share. It is just not a sustainable business practice.
COVID -19 has sent at least 6 smaller Sydney based Ghost tour operators out of business, as well as having affected all tourism and hospitality based businesses.
What the general public does not know, is that 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 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 speaker in order to be heard. With a lower priced ticket, you can reasonably expect both large numbers, a short tour & a guide, who is working for peanuts. Who will probably be reciting, or worse, reading from a script. To do otherwise is not financially viable.
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 12+ 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. There is good reason that we have been called "Australia's most authentic ghost tours" - it is because we tell you up front that we have to talk about what happened to people when they were living, in order for the story we tell about what happened after they died to make sense - and we bring receipts to prove most of what we are talking about! 70% of our tours are provable historic fact, 10% is our own joining the dots from years of dedicated research, and the remaining 20%, our tales of the paranormal, are a completely make your own mind up exercise! With that being said - we don't pay people to jump out behind bushes, or try to trick you in any way. So when our guests see, feel and hear unusual things in the places we visit - it isn't just us!
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 15 + 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 directly targeted our business. In my case, they copied my business name, and even the name of my original ghost tour, the Haunted Sydney Ghost Tour.
Both of these operators 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 . Unfortunately - we have seen this kind of nonsense before. At least 12 other ghost tour businesses have closed shop in Sydney in the last 15 years, that have used similar strategies in order to try to "buy" market share. It is just not a sustainable business practice.
COVID -19 has sent at least 6 smaller Sydney based Ghost tour operators out of business, as well as having affected all tourism and hospitality based businesses.
What the general public does not know, is that 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 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 speaker in order to be heard. With a lower priced ticket, you can reasonably expect both large numbers, a short tour & a guide, who is working for peanuts. Who will probably be reciting, or worse, reading from a script. To do otherwise is not financially viable.
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 12+ 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. There is good reason that we have been called "Australia's most authentic ghost tours" - it is because we tell you up front that we have to talk about what happened to people when they were living, in order for the story we tell about what happened after they died to make sense - and we bring receipts to prove most of what we are talking about! 70% of our tours are provable historic fact, 10% is our own joining the dots from years of dedicated research, and the remaining 20%, our tales of the paranormal, are a completely make your own mind up exercise! With that being said - we don't pay people to jump out behind bushes, or try to trick you in any way. So when our guests see, feel and hear unusual things in the places we visit - it isn't just us!
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 15 + 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!