Compare with Competitors
First of all, most of our competitors are good. Their pricing may not include everything, however. You really need to look at their itineraries and see what their bang for the buck is. Most of them price in US dollars, we price in Canadian, but take USD at the book rate. That is an immediate 3% discount if the price is nto in your native currency.
1) Price: What do you look at first? Price, right? If you don't, you are not the norm, or you have unlimited wealth. For most people this is the bottom line. It may be a mistake, once you find out what is not included or you get blindsided with extra charges. We have stopped posting a chart of price comparisions, they mean little. Some of our competitors do that. The problem is you are frequently comparing apples and oranges, since different companies include different services and options. What you want is the Price/Quality ratio.
2) Tours: How many Tours are included and how are they advertised? A trip which has more tours than days in length is a sure indication that they are exaggerating or at least wording it to sound better. A pee stop for the bus driver maybe counts as an event. Seriously though, we do not break down every stop on a tour as an event or tour. If we have several stops on a days tour, that is still one tour, not 5 or 6. Do they use licensed tour guides? Some use the wagon master or will occasionally hire an "on site" guide. That is technically illegal in Mexico. We only use only fully registered bilingual tour guides. A Wagon Master may have some knowledge, but he won't be anywhere near the level of a registered tour guide who actually lives in the area and has passed exams on knowledge.
3) Transport: Do they use proper air conditioned transport or do they expect you to use your own vehicles, or are you piled into the Wagon Masters van for example.?
4) Meals: Do they include meals or do you have to pay for your own? We use the best restaurant we can find in an area and include some drinks. Hot sit down meals, not a Taco Stand. Nothing wrong with a Taco stand and we have used them, but not as a scheduled meal.
5) RV Parks: Do they include RV Parks (One company does not). They are no longer cheap. We use full hookup RV parks where available. Expect some dry camping, however, that is unavoidable especially on our Yucatan loop.
6) Language: This is a Biggie. Accidents, breakdowns and police incidents can happen. Can our competitors handle those in Spanish? The answer is marginally, or not at all. We are based in Mexico and although not all our Wagon Masters are fluent in Spanish, they have a support network ranging from the company owner down to our many bilingual tour guides throughout Mexico. If you have to be left behind for some unforeseen reason, we can provide language support and/or someone to stay with you. We can also call on the Green Angels (Like AAA) to escort you to catch up. On some trips we offer free Spanish lessons. Sometimes we will discount a customer who is fluent to do this, as well.
7) Optional: This is the word to watch for in our competitors itineraries. You may even find it once in one of ours. You will likely find it all over some of the other companies. Those optional's can add up really quickly.
8) Safety: We are not about to sanitize things, but Mexico is a lot safer than you think. However, there are issue from time to time in certain areas. Does the company you are using have access to the police and government officials and the ability to identify potential problem areas, so they may be avoided? Chances are the answer to that, is no. We do have all those resources and are in constant touch with organizations like the Green Angels to assess local conditions.
9) Customer Loyalty: Do they give previous customers a discount? We do, ranging from 5 to 10%. We have the highest repeat rate in the industry, even some customers taking the identical trip twice. Do they allow you to change your deposit to another trip or even push it ahead a year (we usually do)? We have the odd unhappy customer, any company that tells you they don't, is lying. We do try to discourage people we feel are not the type who should be in a caravan. We would rather lose a customer than have them degrade the experience for everyone else. We actually have had a few customers who have done a trip with a competitor or 2 and told us there is no comparison, we are better by far. We can even put you in touch. Here is a page of interviews: testimonials. Are all our customers ecstatic? Would you believe us if we said yes? I thought not, but it was a good try. We do our best to make sure potential customers know what to expect and have a fun enjoyable time. Generally speaking, an informed customer is a happy customer. Paul, our technical service rep is always available by phone (604-200-1342) to deal with any concerns you may have before signing up. He will provide honest, frank answers to your concerns. We always try to treat customers as guests, not just a source of income.
10) Is the Company technically operating legally? I believe ours may be the only one. Is that a problem? Certainly not so far, things have always been lax in Mexico, although some say they will be clamping down. We are, we believe, the ONLY RV Caravan company legally registered with a business license to operate inside Mexico and our taxes are paid in Mexico. Regardless, it does mean we can access a lot of government support, others cannot. We actually have provided our services to some of our competitors under contract.
11) Clubs: We have in the past been contractors for Club Caravans. Vagabundos del Mar, the International Airstream Club, and the LTV club.
12) Wagon Masters: We generally draw Wagon Masters from previous customers. We are starting to hire Mexican RVers who are bilingual for obvious reasons. Regardless, we have a wide network of support for our Wagon Masters all over Mexico should they need assistance with language or other issues. We pay our Wagon Masters a fixed daily rate. This discourages them from trying to cut corners, if there is any financial motivation for them to do so. We always look for Wagon Masters who are into it for the enjoyment, not the money. We use the Green Angels (Like AAA) as tailgunners on most segments. Some of our competitors have no tailgunner or tailgunners who are not mechanics, but Wagon Master trainees.
We are pretty confident that when you take all into account, we are confident you will see we are the best bang for your buck. We refuse to compromise quality to make our trips cheaper. The old saying that you get what you pay for is true. My old pappy also used to say that the cheapskate ends up paying more.