This is the first in a series of posts from Erik Hormann, owner of successful San Francisco tour operator Vantigo. Here, he shares some of his best tips on how to tactfully utter those words that no operator wants to say: “You’re fired!”You did it! You created an amazing tour company, and you grew fast. You built a solid team around you and spent time making them great.But... then came the slow seasons, the economic downturn, the unpredictable weather. Now, you’re facing the prospect of letting some of your staff go. Sound familiar?I started my company five years ago, and in that time I’ve seen my fair share of tour guides come and go. As the man in charge, firing staff is a tough but necessary part of the job. The perfect guide shows up to work 30 minutes early, covers for other employees, gets five-star reviews and donates all his tips to Save the Whales. But we’re not talking about that guide. We’re talking about the guide you spent two months training. The guide who started out great, but then started showing up later and later for their tours - and sometimes not at all. The guide who, on more than one occasion, came into work smelling like the bar from the night before. Unexpected changes like these are a reality for any tour operator. Sometimes the guide doesn’t perform as expected, or slow season hits and you need to shrink your team.Whatever the reasons for firing your guide, here are some of my best tips for making the process as smooth as possible:

1. Run the numbers

Sometimes the financial realities speak for themselves. Can you really afford to keep a guide that isn’t booked out all the time? Slow seasons and slow profits often require reductions in staff. If this is the case, it could also be a chance to “clean house” and get rid of anybody not pulling their weight. After all, it’s hard to argue with the numbers. If the machine isn’t making money, your guides can’t rage against it.

2. Stay calm and take your time

I once had a guide who was due to co-lead a tour with me. The only problem: they didn’t show up until 30 minutes after it ended. At the time I wanted to explode - but instead, I told the guide to go home and take the rest of the weekend off. By the time Monday came around, I was calm and collected. I met up with the employee, gave them their last paycheck, and we parted ways with no hard feelings. Protecting your reputation as a boss as well as a tour operator is vital if you want to hire and retain the best guides.

3. Use the hard facts

Does this guide have a ton of bad reviews? Are there a bunch of emails from unhappy clients with their name mentioned? How much in refunds or canceled tours have they cost you? I like to make my staff imagine themselves in the shoes of the father-of-four who only had one day to explore the city with his family. How would they feel if their experience wasn’t top-notch?

4. Put yourself in their shoes

How loyal has your guide been? Did they see you through some hard times? If an employee was really there for you or even helped you grow your company, letting them go can be super tough. If this is the case, let them know how much you valued them and thank them for their help. Breakups are never easy, but sometimes they’re necessary. If you handle the situation well, your guide will understand.

5. Leave the door open (or open another door for them)

As a boss, one of my personal goals is to have every person that leaves my company be headed towards another great opportunity. Like I said, sometimes it’s nothing your guide did, and you want them to succeed. I found myself in this situation recently: one of my team members was burnt out in his role but didn’t have the network to find a new path. Using my connections, I reached out to several industry contacts to see if they had any positions available. Fast forward two years, and that team member is thriving with a nearby brewery —and even comes back to guide a tour with us from time to time.

5. If all else fails, keep it simple

I truly believe in meeting face-to-face when letting staff go. But occasionally, employees won’t want to face reality in person. If you’ve tried your best to get in touch with no response, send them a text thanking them for their service and mail them their last paycheck. After all - you have a business you need to focus on.

This is a guest post from online marketing expert Milan Stojković. With a focus on the tourism sector, Milan’s business MS Travel Marketing is dedicated to helping bring tour operators more customers. In this post, he shares some insider tips you can apply to your business today - and watch your online bookings skyrocket! Take it away, Milan!Are you looking for more ways to get direct bookings through your website? It seems like there are a million ways to do this: Facebook ads, banners, link building. And yet, nothing changes. No matter how many people you attract to your website, those conversion rates remain stale. How can you change this? First, you need to understand the concept of warming up your website traffic. This is the cornerstone of online marketing, and vital if you want to see those bookings soar.Let’s run through the three types of website visits you can get: cold, warm and hot traffic: Cold Traffic - These are the guys who somehow stumbled upon your website. They’re not actually planning to buy your tours or even travel to your destination.Warm Traffic - These people are definitely interested in your destination and what you have to offer. But, they’re gonna need more info and a little more convincing before they choose you over the competition. Hot Traffic - These visitors know everything about your tours and are ready to hit that book now button. So what do you want? You guessed it. You want your traffic hot. Like, fresh out the oven hot. These customers know what they want and are just looking for your book now button to get the deal done. But what about warm traffic? How do you convince visitors to book from you now that they’ve decided on their destination? And the cold traffic? How can you spark their interest and create that desire to learn more about your tours? The first step is simple: Don’t assume that the majority of your website audience is hot traffic. You could fall into a trap if you expect most of your visitors to be extremely interested in buying your tours. The assumption that all your traffic is hot may cause confusion when you see your conversion rate is still low. It might even lead you to start making unnecessary changes to your website.I get it: you heard from some online marketing specialist that if you change the color of your booking button you can increase conversion rates by 300%, and you want a piece of that action! The problem is that in reality, you might have less than 2% hot traffic visitors on your website. By trying to optimize the website just for them, you’re forgetting about the other 98% of visitors.The booking button color is not the problem. I promise. What you need to do is to warm up the audience. When hot traffic visitors hit 20%, then we can start thinking about the booking process.

Warming up the traffic

So how can you warm up your traffic and convert 1000 cold visitors into something a little… hotter?Here are a few simple ways:

1. Get Featured.

One way to heat up your hits is to be featured in a respectable magazine or news portal. Pay them to write a story about your tours and include a link to your website. Why not go one step further and ask them to include your Facebook pixel as well.Examples of post titles could be:“A quick reminder that [destination] is the stuff dreams are made of - let this tour operator show you why”“Why this tour company’s [destination] honeymoon experience is something every couple should consider”“This tour operator has everyone talking with their innovative way to experience [destination]”It’s vital you get your article posted on a dependable website that people are going to believe. It may be pricey, but it’s worth it. Now comes the important part:Instead of buying Facebook ads and clicks that lead to your website, pay to promote the article from this magazine.“What?!” I hear you cry. “So we're paying to send the traffic to another website, not our own? Isn’t that illogical?” The answer is no. This can be extremely effective. It will warm our customers up. When an article from a reliable news source pops up on their Facebook feed, they won’t perceive it as an ad... It's news! An interesting read with useful information. Customers will feel more comfortable clicking. They’ll also believe this article way more than they would believe you telling them your tours are awesome. "If these guys are saying it, it must be true."Now, people who come to your website will be much more familiar with your services and definitely more willing to buy. Take one of our clients - New City Hotel and Restaurant - as an example. We wanted to market the hotel as the ideal venue for conferences and other business events. But as a new hotel, it was hard to get the word out about its quality and service. We decided to publish articles in a few respectable online magazines with links to the hotel website and Facebook pixel. Then we paid to promote those articles on Facebook. After a couple months, events started rolling in to the hotel. We seized the momentum and published more articles. Fast forward one year and every conference hall is booked at least 5 months in advance.By changing the route your visitors take to get to your website - otherwise known as your ‘funnel’, you’re engaging their interest on a deeper level.But hold on a second. The work doesn’t end here. Since your products do not fall under the customers’ essential needs, they probably won’t buy immediately. This is where your remarketing campaigns come in. After a visitor leaves your website, you can use targeted ads to reach them as they browse elsewhere on the internet. Set these up to remind visitors about your awesome tour a day or two later.So before your funnel looked like this:Facebook Ad ---> Website offerAnd now it looks like this:Facebook Ad ---> Magazine post ---> Website offer ---> (remarketing) ---> Website offerYep, you’ve extended the funnel a fair bit, and it’s gonna cost money. But now your website visitors are much more interested in your services. Plus, they have more confidence in your offerings because a respected magazine wrote about you.By changing your visitor’s journey, you’re sparking their interest before they’ve even clicked on your website.

2. It’s in the vid.

Another effective way to get your traffic heating up is a Facebook video. Why not create a short inspirational video, in square format with catchy titles? Upload this video to your page or use our previous tactic and pay a magazine to post it on their page. The video will warm up your audience because it gives them an initial spark, a way to imagine your tour as their next adventure. This is exactly what we did with another of our clients - Walk91 Tours.They had a Facebook campaign that led people to their website. Conversions were good, but not great. We convinced them to shoot a video for social networks and told them how it should look. Then we promoted that video to a wide audience who could potentially be interested in their tours.

We created a custom audience of people who watched at least 75% of the video and served them with other campaigns that promoted Walk91’s tours.So this time the funnel looked like this:Facebook Ad ---> Website offerAnd now it looks like this:Facebook Ad ---> Facebook Video ---> Facebook Ad ---> Website offerThe results were much better.The Facebook video method may not be as efficient as a magazine post, but it is simpler to implement because you own all the channels.And there you have it. Simple and effective ways to get those conversions rolling in. Don’t forget, implementing these steps could require some technical skills such as:

• Setting up the Facebook pixel and understanding how it works.
• How to create a custom audience and remarketing campaigns.
• How to set up a funnel.
• Proper conversion tracking.

But don’t panic! You can learn all this and much more with my new online course Etourism Master Training. Good luck and happy traffic-warming!Milan StojkovićFounder, MS Travel Marketing

Here’s a simple fact: More Positive Reviews = More SalesTo gain an understanding of what makes guests write reviews, we analyzed over 4,000 reviews from Peek.com. We looked for the most commonly used words in both positive and negative reviews.Words like “experience”, “knowledgeable”, and “nice” are among the top 25 commonly used words in positive reviews. On the other hand, words like “disappointed”, “time”, and “guide” are among the top 25 commonly used words in negative reviews. What the data above means is that a customer is more inclined to write a positive review if their experience matched their expectations, and less inclined if their experience fell short of expectations. Alternatively, a customer’s overall impression is influenced by - and this is key - how they felt while interacting with members of your staff. Here are some tips to get more online reviews:

1. Create realistic expectations for your activities.

Get your guests excited about their upcoming experience with you, but be realistic about what they should expect.When describing your tours, we recommend writing with the senses. What will people see, hear, feel, taste and touch? Are there any highlights worth mentioning? Recreating the experience will make it easier for customers to imagine themselves on your tour, and will also give them a sense of what to expect.

2. Train your staff in excellent customer service practices.

This is especially important if you rely on tour guides. Take advantage of free online resources, like Be a Better Guide, which offers short tutorials on best practices for tour guides.

3. Leave a lasting impression on your customers.

Make a good impression by introducing customers by name to key staff members or by giving a tour of the premises. At the end of your tour, you can also gift customers with a token of your appreciation. This can be a thank-you card, gift bag or any other tangible souvenir.

4. Optimize Smart Reviews in Peek Pro.

We can’t talk about getting more online reviews without mentioning Peek’s Smart Reviews. This feature can automatically send email follow-ups to customers based on the reviews they gave to Peek. For example, customers who gave high ratings can be sent an email directing them to share their experience on other public review sites. Alternatively, guests who gave lower ratings can be sent a follow-up email to help remedy their potentially negative experience.Peek’s review system can also generate reports to analyze performance based on specific dimensions, so you can see what’s working and what needs improvement moving forward.

No-shows can have a negative impact on your tour or activity business.This is especially true if you need a minimum number of guests to coordinate an experience.It’s true some no-shows are unavoidable, but there are measures you can take to prevent them from becoming a regular occurrence.Here are 4 tips to help reduce no-show rates for your tour or activity business:

1. Charge a rescheduling or no-show fee.

One option is to consider charging a $10 fee to customers who want to change their booking less than 2 days in advance, or who do not show up.If you decide to go this route, make sure your Terms and Conditions clearly state any fees or charges you impose for no-shows. Ensure that your guests agree to follow these Terms and Conditions when they complete their booking.With Peek Pro, you can ensure your guests agree to your Terms and Conditions with custom questions.

2. Be easy to contact.

We looked at 50 of our Partners’ websites, and found that 12 didn’t have their contact information listed!It’s important for many reasons that your customers, and potential customers, are able to contact you. However, especially in the case that a guest has a change of plans, it’s important they know how to contact you to cancel their tour.

12 out of 50 operators didn't have their contact information listed on their website.

Ensure that your contact information is listed both on your website, and when you register your business with Google. This way, your customers can easily get in touch with you for last minute questions, or cancellations.

3. Send your guests text reminders.

If your staff has the capacity, you can send your guests friendly text reminders of their upcoming experience. Craft a simple message that communicates your excitement to see the guest soon. Just don’t forget to state in your Terms and Conditions policy that guests can expect to receive text alerts from you!Peek Pro’s mobile app lets you contact guests directly via the app, simply by searching for the guest’s name.

4. Set up email reminders.

Keep your guests enthusiastic about their experience with you by staying in contact with them. This will also give them the opportunity to contact you about any changes to the time or date of their booking.With Peek, you can schedule emails and customize them to your business’s needs. Scheduling these emails allows you to remain on your guest’s mind without having to take time out of your (busy) day!

You probably already know how important it is to have a functional mobile website. But take a look at these quick stats:

• Over 50% of bookings through the Peek Pro widget happen on mobile devices
• 1 in 3 travelers say they discovered a new travel company while researching on their phones
• 52.2% of all website traffic worldwide was generated through mobile phones
• 84% of leisure travelers rely on search engines via smartphones to find local information

It’s clear having a mobile website is essential to capture new customers. So how do you improve yours? Here are 5 quick tips:

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1. Have a Responsive Design

A website with a responsive design automatically adjusts to the device the website is being viewed on. Depending on when you first created your site, changing to a responsive design could take some time. But given the stats above, it’s worth the investment! Making the switch does take some technical skills. We generally recommend that you hand it off to professionals (we like Tourism Marketing Agency and TourismTiger). But if you’re computer-savvy, there are free templates available to help you go mobile.

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2. Have Quick-loading Pages

Mobile visitors are visiting your site on-the-go. If you have pages that aren’t loading, or loading too slowly over the cellphone network, they are going to find a new website (probably your competitor’s). Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to see how fast your pages are loading, and to find what might be slowing down your website.

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3. No Bells and Whistles

It’s important to keep your mobile site simple. Videos, sliders, and anything flash-based will take longer to load, and make navigating your mobile site difficult. Flash-based features are the most important to take out of your website as they don’t work on Android or iOS. While you’re at it, just take out all Flash from your desktop version too; come 2020, Adobe Flash is dead.**If your videos are integral to your website, embed them to your site through Youtube. Youtube videos are innately responsive, meaning they will fit to the screen your customers are viewing from.

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4. The Bigger “Book Now” Button the Better

The main purpose for your website is online sales, and your mobile site is no different. The big difference on mobile is that your customers use their fingers to tap, not a mouse. Make the booking process extra easy by having a big Book Now button so customers see it. This will make it easy for them to tap it too.

The big difference on mobile is that your customers use their fingers to tap, not a mouse.

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5. Optimize Your Images For Speed

High quality images are great to have on your website! But these image files could be large and slowing down your mobile site. Fortunately there are free tools available to make your images smaller, without affecting their quality. WP Smushit is a great plugin if you use WordPress. It will automatically optimize the images on your site- you won’t have to do a thing! Alternatively, you can use ShortPixel to manually reduce the size of your images. This means you will need to reduce the size of your image, and then upload it to your site. Both work well and will help to speed up your mobile website’s speed!

Do you offer Rentals? We have great news: our iOS app for Rentals is now ready for you to download!Here is a quick breakdown of some of the features available for rentals on the iOS App:

Do essential tasks…

Edit booking details of your customers, check in guests, sign waivers, AND cancel or refund bookings.

Add rental bookings in a few easy taps with Peek Checkout POS.

Peek Checkout was designed to give you a Point of Sales for customers wanting to rent equipment. It syncs automatically with your Peek Pro account, so you get real time availability.It also connects with your advanced pricing rules, so you can be confident you are always charging your customers the right amount.This means you’re able to process walk-ups and manage your inventory simultaneously.Integrated credit card swipers, receipt printers, and cash drawers means you can capture walk-up bookings faster than ever. You can even create shortcuts to make bookings easier and to keep you organized!Learn more about how to use Peek Checkout for Rentals here.

Easily view your rentals schedule and manifest.

Your schedule has different viewing options to let you see how many pieces of equipment will be in use in a specified time range. Alternatively, simplify your view and choose to only display periods of time which have existing bookings.Your mobile manifest also allows you to easily manage your business on the go. How? Organize your daily schedule into a list of upcoming activities. You can also customize it to show only the info that's relevant to you. For example, specific guides or times of the day.Learn more about your rentals schedule on our app here and more about the mobile manifest here.We know that the ability to manage your rentals from your pocket means you can save time running your business and increase your bookings. We are so excited to be able to provide our Partners with this new functionality.