Guided tours and barbecue food - a match made in heaven! If you want to get a taste :D of this hot new trend in food tours, here are some tips on what to look for in BBQ tour guide booking software.
In Kansas City, Missouri, known the world over for its barbecue, there is a first of its kind guided tour.
Following the format of the familiar guided tour, but with a delicious twist, guests of KC Barbecue Tours are treated to the best BBQ Kansas City has to offer. At the moment, and because the concept is so new, there are just four stops on the tour, two of which have "been world famous rivals for years", and two other two are at "undisclosed locations."
Television station KCTV's spotlight on the BBQ food tour says that the operator is tapping into what is already popular (BBQ) while finding secret "hidden gems" for those willing to make a reservation.
To date, KC Barbecue Tours has attracted people from England, Canada, California, Connecticut and, of course, Kansas City locals.
KCTV also notes that the operator previously ran a pizza tour in California before moving to KC. Changing locales to the self-proclaimed BBQ capitol of the world capitalizes on the expectations of visitors from out-of-town, and Europe and Japan too. Also of note is the expected peak demand for Father's Day mentioned in the KCTV, but more on that later.
When making the reservation in the tour guide booking software, guests select not only their preferences for dates and times, but for menu items as well. The four stop BBQ tour costs $65 and is an "all you can eat" experience coordinated with the individual restaurants as part of a B2B agreement.
TIP: Meeting Expectations & Demand
Food tours, with each stop being a different restaurant, can be tricky to coordinate. There is the expectation on the part of the guest that once they have gone through the reservation process, their experience is a set-and-forget task. Last minute changes (item choice, item type availability, etc.) by one or more stops on the food tour can lead to guest disappointment at the least, an outright cancellation at the worst.
During non-holiday periods, lead-out time (the time between booking and the actual tour) can be relatively long, like weeks, or even months. This gives the widest possible choice to tour participants as they plan their visit. The even keel during non-peak times also helps the food stops deliver on expectations by having exactly the items promised during the booking.
Conversely, during peak demand - and a BBQ food tour will find it is under huge demand for Father's Day - last minute additions to capacity must be made for maximum revenue. The concern is that during these big spikes in bookings, the tour stops may run out of a selected food item, then be unable to communicate that to the tour guide in time.
Meeting your customer's expectations includes not running out of a requested food item. Meeting your business expectations for revenue means having the ability to add additional tours to a calendar day to meet a spike in demand. Both expectations can be handled with the same tool - your choice in tour booking software.
Coordinating menu items for a food tour can be tricky. You may be too busy conducting tours to be talking to, or reading emails from, the restaurant stops. That's why ThunderTix food tour guide booking software offers the option of what we call "restricted access".
Restricted access feature is well suited for 3rd parties (like the restaurant tour stops) that need the ability to make changes to their menu - as displayed to your guests making reservations - inside your account. The restricted access saves you time since you don't need to decipher an email and edit the food tour description, you let the restaurant do it themselves. The restricted access feature ensures the restaurant only sees the minimal information, and doesn't give them access to other business critical areas of your account.
We also offer the tools for you to add more tours per-day during peak demand. With ThunderTix tour guide booking software, you can quickly modify individual tour names within a larger event for holidays ("Just added - two more afternoon BBQ tours for Dads and Grads!"). We make this easy to do and we include the ability to increase or decrease the reservation prices to match demand.
Interested in making your food tour more profitable and less of a chore? Please contact us at your convenience.
