Price v Expectations

The other day I received an email that astonished me with one particular phrase from a potential client who decided not to make a reservation with us (it happens sometimes!!), this phrase being "your prices were jaw droppingly expensive", not a normal reaction to quotes we provide, so this set me to thinking about the gap between peoples expectations and what is in reality 'doable' in respect to price.

Lets be clear about one thing straight away, private tour services are expensive compared to per person prices for general groups as they are just that, private and for one group/family/couple/individual person with personal guide and personal transportation (where asked for). Regretably prices for private tour services for the disabled are much higher than for the non-disabled and there are many reasons for this, mostly bad it has to be said.
As this blog site is all about accessible travel for the disabled I'll just focus on this aspect of the preamble above.
So why is it more expensive for the disabled to have private tours? The answer almost 100% relates to transport. Accessible transport is by and large in short supply especially for cruise shore excursions and as any student of economics will confirm where demand exceeds supply prices are usually high (after all someone will pay them!!). As an example - in one city we work in there is just one accessible vehicle available for private hire and depending on the company quoting prices the range for this one vehicle is from €600 to €800, now remember this is for the SAME vehicle! As commercial companies have to have income these prices will increase by whatever margin an operator cares to add before retailing the service. So transport is expensive to hire for travel companies and doubly so for private non company clients who do not have the discount benefits enjoyed by travel companies. So the bad aspect is that many vehicle companies place premium prices on services to the disabled that are in many cases double the price of a standard non-adapted vehicle service. That is reality and makes life jaw droppingly expensive. Note that the example above does not include the cost of a personal guide.

Personal guides, the cost factor.
What many people do not realise is that prices quoted for licenced personal guides are often set by national, regional or local governments and are frequently based on a single guide working with a group of up to 25 people. This means that for a private tour with one person the cost to that person is the same for a day, lets say €300, as for a group of 25. From the maths we see that our one person on a private tour pays €300 for the guide, the group however pays €12 per person. There are few if any personal guides who have any training to work with the disabled and even fewer who are prepared, where possible within the legal framework, to adjust prices to cater for small private groups. So the price of a private guide is jaw droppingly expensive.
So lets return to the opening remark, the gap between expectations and reality. The reality is that accessible travel facilities for private tours and shore excursions is an expensive business if the numbers of people involved is small. Expectations are such that many clients ask for quotes and itineraries based on what they'd like and not on budget considerations nor taking into account that international money exchange rates can increase prices greatly. Reality is that travel agents and travel companies prepare many detailed quotes etc for clients which never translate into business as the price exceeds the expectations of people looking to enhance their holiday experience.
So the last question remains and I know that you, the reader of our blog are just dying to know the answer to this one, are we jaw droppingly expensive? I like to believe not and I feel that the clients we've enjoyed working with haven't felt that about us. We carry out indepth competitor research which leaves us to believe our prices are some of the most competitive available in Europe, but the real answer to the question is "where does expectation meet with the reality of cost and price?"