By taking a different approach to training tour guides, creating tours to fill a white space, and always putting the customer first, Hollywood Bus Tours has seen continued success.
Chris Leschinger has spent much of his career in the sightseeing business, starting as a tour bus driver in San Francisco and working his way up. He learned a lot about the industry over the years and eventually decided it was time to try it out for himself.
Hollywood Bus Tours launched in March of 2020 — 17 days later, the pandemic shut down all operations. In just under four years since, the company has expanded in both scope and success, offering three different tours across a fleet of 17 vehicles and amassing nearly 4,000 five-star reviews on Google and about 1,000 on GetYourGuide.
The success of Hollywood Bus Tours is two-fold. First, they take a different approach to training tour guides. “With a lot of other companies in our industry, guides like to hear themselves talk. Our guides ask questions about specific movies and celebrities that may interest our guests and go from there. It’s interactive,” said Chris. Second, tours are created to fill white space in the market using insights gathered from guest feedback and interactions.
When Chris heard guests wanted a short tour option, he launched one of the only hour-long tours in Hollywood. When he heard the typical full-day tour offered by other companies was too long, he condensed the best stops into a shorter, half-day tour.
Above all else, Hollywood Bus Tours is adamant about putting the customer first, which has become even easier to focus on as their partnership with GetYourGuide has ramped up. Here, Chris Leschinger tells us more.
How and when did Hollywood Bus Tours begin?
“I’ve been sightseeing for a long time. I started as a driver in San Francisco and worked my way up. After working for a major tour company in LA, I thought I had done this long enough for other people and decided to give it a try myself. We did our first Hollywood Bus Tour in March of 2020 and were open for 17 days before the pandemic shut us down. In 2021, we jumped back in starting with one van doing our Celebrity Homes Tours. Fast forward to the last couple of years, we’ve seen a lot of growth.”
Can you briefly describe your marketing strategy? Where does GetYourGuide fit in?
“In the beginning, it was ad campaigns and Facebook marketing. It was always an uphill battle to get market share. In the last 16 months, we changed our strategy. Now, we’re focused on building our brand with content and blogs and letting partners like GetYourGuide just go. A lot of the work GetYourGuide has done has filled our seats. Everything is working and the guests seem to like it. Now I just get to focus on building a better company.”
What was the 1 key problem you were facing in your company that GetYourGuide helped solve?
“GetYourGuide is amazing globally.
We get guests from all over the world and we don’t have to spend a dime for it.
The areas of the world GetYourGuide covers has made it really easy to get global customers.”
What makes content important and how did you leverage that to build your brand?
“When I got here, most of my competitors' ads and descriptions were very simple; stock photos and generic descriptions. Early on, I sent friends and family on a tour with a videographer so guests could see exactly what they were getting. I really try to show what the experience will be like. Guests want to know where they’re going to go, what they’re going to see, and exactly what they’re getting. Our content helps bring that to life.”
Do you work with other OTAs? What are some differences you’ve observed between them and GetYourGuide?
“What I love about GetYourGuide is that it makes my job so much easier. If you go on the GetYourGuide app and click on a product, it shows you how many times someone has bought a ticket that day.
You can see Hollywood Bus Tours was booked 22 times yesterday, while our biggest competitor was booked two times yesterday. If you can go on and see the last person who was looking at a Celebrity Homes Tour booked with us, it builds confidence with potential customers. Aside from that, GetYourGuide makes it easy and simple for the customer. There’s a lot of great content, guides, and videos. The format is really good, that makes a difference”
What’s the hardest thing about being in the Experiences industry from your point of view?
“Business is hard in terms of sales and marketing. There are hundreds and hundreds of tour companies in LA, so holding the higher-ranking spots on OTAs can be hard. It’s all about brand differentiation through social media, blogs, and content. Showing people who we are.”
What is the single most important thing to think about if you want to be successful on online platforms?
“The customer. A lot of businesses just think of themselves and the customer gets forgotten. When we got bad reviews in the beginning, we listened to the customer. If they had a bad experience, we gave refunds.
We lost a lot of money because we were not competitive on the budget side early on, but all we worried about was the customer. That’s why we have good reviews and a good brand. I thought if we just focus on the customer, it’ll all work out.”
What’s the weirdest question you’ve ever been asked by a customer?
“Doing celebrity home tours in Hollywood, there’s a chance you’ll see a celebrity but there are no guarantees. Some people think they’re going to go to Rihanna’s house, sit on her couch, and swim in her pool. So we have to work around those expectations.”
Key takeaways
- Up 200% in ticket sales year-over-year.
- About 15% of Hollywood Bus Tours’ business comes from GetYourGuide, making it one of the company’s largest Online Travel Agency (OTA) partners
- Hollywood Bus Tours launched in March of 2020 with one van. Today, they have a fleet of 16 vehicles and three tour products.
- Hollywood Bus Tours takes a different approach to training their tour guides — it’s about being interactive and customizing the stories and insights to suit guests interests.
- Having high quality photo and video content, including vivid tour descriptions, has been a key strategy helping Hollywood Bus Tours stand out on GetYourGuide and with other OTA partners.
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