There are two big mistakes clients make when looking for a party bus to rent in Phoenix area. The first is to assume there are a lot of party bus companies in the Arizona market. The truth is there are only about 7 companies that offer party buses in the Phoenix area. What happens to most clients is they start calling around maybe 5-10 companies and get some prices. Then they realize that they have an inbox full of emails from the companies they asked for quotes from. You will get quotes from what seems to be 20-30 companies but it’s not.
What usually happens is every company will represent to you that they offer party buses with great pictures on their website, etc. The truth is they will quote another usually larger company’s vehicles that they have negotiated a price with and then mark that price up to you. It’s called a “Farm Out”. This is a way for a company to make some extra money without really having to do anything. Some companies don’t own any vehicles at all they are just a website like Limos.com or Price4limo.com. These companies does not own a single vehicle but visitors to their website don’t know that.
This does inflate the price to the customer usually by 15-20%. If you booked with the actual party bus that was going to provide the service you will get a better price.
The second big mistake that clients make is assuming that all of the vehicles & services at these companies are the same and good. The truth is they aren’t. Clients expect a new clean party bus or limo to show up for their event and a lot are surprised at what some companies call luxury transportation. I had a call last Saturday from a frantic lady begging me to see if I could send her a Party Bus for her daughter’s wedding. I told her I didn’t have anything available and asked why the last minute, frantic call. She said she had booked a party bus with another company and thought she was all set up. When it showed up it was so bad she said no way she was going to let her daughter get on it. She sent it away. She went on to explain that it was obviously a very old beat up party bus that smelled like a saloon.
Turns out she had called me as well when she was looking for a party bus for her daughter’s wedding but we were $50 more so she chose this other company. For $50 she chose a party bus company with a terrible reputation and now she found out an old piece of junk.
If you search the web for party bus complaints you will find a lot of what I just eluded to in this blog.
That doesn’t mean every party bus company is bad but it does mean you need to dig a bit deeper to make sure you are not getting ripped off.
Here are some suggestions:
- Call at least 5-10 companies
- Check their online reviews
- Check BBB reports
- Go down and view the company’s fleet
- Use a credit card when making your reservation
- Ask what year the vehicle is
- Ask about insurance
- Ask about background checks for drivers
- Be smart, go with your gut not just the price
- Was the reservationist polite and helpful?
That last one is important, I have a lot of clients tell me that when they called around a lot of the companies they called were rude or just didn’t seem to care on the phone. They said they chose us because we took time with them and didn’t just try to sell them.
In summary, take the time in the end it will make a difference. If you have any questions or comments let me know.
Signing off,
Frankie