@dlasto I think it's a great idea to tackle this market. Trying to hire a mini-bus for a short trip to the airport, rugby, amsterdam, stag do etc has always been a pain in the arse! I know someone who started a similar service but the trouble he was having was that bus/coach companies (especially locally) tend to be smaller, family-run with older owners who historically used phone and more recently, email to take their bookings... When presented with the service to help streamline this and drum up more business was met with the classical 'sounds interesting, let us know further down the line'. My suggestion to him at the time was to allow users to go through the booking on the site, and for the final booking/inquiry, they get to email the bus company directly but keep something like "referral from website.com" so that when you go back to the company you can say... look we sent you X bookings this month. Gives you leverage and they can already see the benefit. You may have to dip into your own pockets for a while but I think it would be the best way to tackle the old-school style of some of these companies. What is your strategy? Have you encountered similar situations?

@bentossell This is great feedback. So this is something that isn't unique in this space. A non-internet industry has a hard time seeing the value of being online. We've found the best way to make this work is to show companies the business you're able to bring them, and spend time looking for charter companies that understand what you're building. They do exist! We have strong relationships with our bus suppliers, and they took a long time to build. But over the last year they've seen that we're able to drive real value for them, and that's made the difference. Our ultimate vision is to bring a full stack Sharethebus experience to all parties involved. One that's tech featured, customer focused, and seamless for all parties involved.

@dlasto so are you not spending energy chasing those that dont express an interest? How are you going about signing up companies?

@bentossell Honestly it's just trial and error for us. Send companies business, evaluate how the trip went riders, and decide if we can make it work between us. Truthfully, our co-founder Wolf is a bus expert. He's been organizing bus trips since he was 16 in Germany. At the end of the day, he knows exactly what he's looking for in a company and charter companies tend to appreciate his expertise in buses and the internet.

@walark Thanks! We're having a lot of fun building this out and are humbled to hear you had a solid experience riding with us.

@walark Thanks Walid!

@unchumbelge :) :) :)

@unchumbelge buses are huge for Quebec :)

@gabsong Thanks for hunting us Gabriel :)

@jpvalery Hey JP could you email me at jeremy@sharethebus.com with your trip ID, I'd love to look into that trip for you :)

@jpvalery Great point. So depending on the trip destination, bus used, etc – we do offer a scale. In fact, over the last could of weeks we've been able to get people a price immediately. It's actually the feature we shipped just last night. Because it's our algorithm was newly implemented, we expect there to be some things that it misses. Feel free to send me any direct feedback at dave@sharethebus.com. Will pass it directly to our tech team. Thanks, JP!

@guygal Glad we could make your dreams a reality :)

@guygal Aw thanks man! And we dream of people like you!

@sachinag You bet! if you're itinerary is more complex you can reach out to us directly and have a human help you out! jeremy@sharethebus.com

@sachinag Yup, we totally get it. Shuttling is HARD. That's why we're here :). We basically do everything you can think of when it comes to bus transportation!

@eyaltoledano Thanks Eyal! Really appreciate all the support :D

@eyaltoledano Thanks a lot for the kind words Eyal. These past three months have been another great sprint for our team :)

@flenguyen Frankie! Really appreciate this. Trying to make this as awesome as we've dreamed.

@davkovac @jeremykovac Thanks man! We're sharing and loving and busing all day :)

@oliviatli Thanks so much for the support Olivia!

@oliviatli Thanks a lot, Olivia! Travel is changing, we definitely want to be at the heart of it.

@rogerh1991 Thanks a lot Roger!

@andrunder This is something we're exploring. Would you be able to shoot me an email at dave@sharethebus.com? Would love to talk to you about this!

@fancyjeffs Oh man this looks really cool. We'll look into it :)

@brandonwaselnuk @kyleboulay We're definitely getting closer to the experience that we've all pictured. There's a lot more to do, but we're happy with where we've come thus far!

@kwindla Definitely use Sharethebus next time! We've got a few other things coming to make self organized trips like this easy as pie :)

@ajlawrence Solid question. We're focused on providing top bus service to events of all size and building a full stack technological solution for every party involved in the bus experience.

@chris_smeder I'm not sure I entirely follow. If you fill out the entire form, you will receive a price instantly once it's complete allowing you to either pay or ignore it entirely. Are you suggesting a simple page that shows some of our previous pages, their prices, etc as a sort of validation that people are using this? Thanks for your comment, appreciate feedback like this!

@dlasto wrote: >If you fill out the entire form I didn't want to fill out a form, I wanted to know how much a bus ride was in a general sense. Eg. is it $200 per person for 1 hour trip? Is it $15 per person for a 1 hour trip? >sort of validation that people are using this Not at all, I trust people are using it and don't really care either way. I just wanted some example prices people have paid for past trips so I could know if this fits inside my budget and friends budgets. If it fits my friends budgets I would recommend it to them. Eg. when I walk into an ice cream shop I don't want to have to fill out a form to find out the two scoop cone is $3? or $18?. With your service, I had no idea how pricey or inexpensive the service was. So I started to forget about it. Does that make sense? Chris

@chris_smeder Yup, I get what you're saying now. I'll have a chat with my product team and see if we can get some sort initial mocks for something like this. It's a pretty simple solution, it seems! > I wanted to know how much a bus ride was in a general sense. Thing is, you'd be surprised how much prices may fluctuate based on the variables involved. It's not as simple as scoops of ice cream or miles traveled or vehicle type. It's those things, plus where the vehicle is sourced, the borders it crosses, the relationship with the company, the length of the trip and the regulations that must be followed depending on length. Dave

@dlasto I'm glad I was able to better explain this the second time around. Thanks for taking the time to read through these PH replies. The end goal in my mind is that if someone visits your page, they leave (with out filling in a form) having a general sense of should I recomend this service to my friends (who make X dollars a year) or should I forget about this service because it is too pricey for my friends and I. >Thing is, you'd be surprised how much prices may fluctuate based on the variables involved. Hmm, yeah I agree this makes it a hard design challenge. The problem is clear, but a solution will take some brainstorming and ideation. Very excited for what you guys are creating, hope to try it out some time soon! Best, Chris