You can provide tourists with bicycles to get around in the area they are visiting. This will allow these travelers to bike around a new city or even mountain biking. If you love bikes and know how to work well with them you can start a business renting out bikes to tourists or anyone interested in having a healthy travel experience!
Seeing a new city flying by the windows in a car is not most people's idea of an ideal vacation. This is why many tourists prefer to rent a bike and see their destination close-up. This is especially true with the growing popularity of health conscious and 'green' tourist vacation packages.
People often rent different models of cars so that they can drive them around and get a feel for how the vehicle will handle before making a final decision on the car to purchase. Similarly, before making a decision to purchase an expensive piece of sports equipment, such as a bicycle, many people like to try them out first to see how it will handle and whether or not it will meet their particular needs. This will expand your target market from just tourists, to locals as well.
Depending on the styles of bikes, you make available to your customers, you could charge between $15 and $25 per day. You could also rent bicycle trailers so that people on vacation can also explore the city with their children safely behind them in a bike trailer.
You should remember that many cities have helmet laws and you will need to offer helmets as part of your rental agreement. You might be able to charge extra for the helmets if the local laws do not require them. You will also want to offer your rental customers maps of the area so that they do not get lost. If your customers get lost, how will they return the bikes? You can also give them maps of great places to explore and point out popular points of interest.
You will likely want to set up a website so that people planning their vacations can see the bikes and travel packages that you have to offer. Allow them to reserve any type of bike that they may want through your website. If a traveler waits until they have already arrived at their destination city, many times they are so overwhelmed that any thoughts of renting a bike might be forgotten. By allowing them to reserve their bike ahead of time (with a small deposit), they are sure to go through with their bike renting plans. You will want to offer a range of travel packages including some that are more moderately priced and then some that would appeal to your more affluent travelers.
In addition to networking with those in the travel industry, you may want to advertise your biking travel packages. Do this by running a visible advertisement in a local phone directory, listing your business with any applicable online business directories, and also by printing up flyers and posting them in places where people in your area might be in the market for a biking weekend. Be sure to take advantage of any public bulletin boards in your immediate area to find the people who are looking for you and your services. In no time at all, you will have built up a large client base, many by word of mouth after experiencing the excellent equipment and service you have provided them with!
Resources:
http://essay.en.alibaba.com
http://www.bikerentalsplus.com/
http://www.ehow.com/
http://www.gosojourn.com/
http://www.trektravel.com/
http://www.duvine.com/
http://www.rei.com/
http://www.vbt.com/
http://www.bikeriderstours.com/
http://www.ppolnews.com/
http://www.carolinatailwinds.com/
http://www.mountainbiketours.com/
July 27, 2008
