Travel Shenanigans: Quick Tips from Bee Pt. 4

Forrest Kelly: 00:00:00

Pack your bags. Let's take a ride. 5 minutes fly and we'll explore the wide with forest. Kelly, it's travel time. It's The Best 5 Minute Travel Podcast, Let's go.

Forrest Kelly: 00:00:14

Just getting from point A to point B when you're traveling in an unknown world can be a bit of an adventure. And yeah, don't shy away from. Don't shy away from charging people because, you know, I can be as frugal as the next person.

But when it comes to expertise. Right.

Bee Davis: 00:00:29

It's.

Forrest Kelly: 00:00:29

And stuff that's gonna save me times, I have no problem paying for it.

Bee Davis: 00:00:32

Well, yeah, and the other part of that too, is that I'm also on call for you as well. So recently I had somebody who. Their husband got sick and they needed to leave the country the next day. And that was one of those things.

She was really overwhelmed. She didn't know what to do. She was already stressed out and worried about her husband.

And then now I have to come up with all these other additional plans that I have to do and how can I get home as soon as I can? And so basically she called me. Of course, I calmed her down. We got everything through it.

I told her to focus on her family and I would take care of everything else. So I found her a flight that day. She got home, it was late at night, later than I wanted her to, but she got home that night.

There was no issues whatsoever.

She was able to be there for her husband, and she didn't really have to worry about any of, like, the back stuff, like the canceling the hotel and getting the money back and the refunding and all of that stuff. I took care of all that for her. So he was able to really focus on what mattered.

And I think that it's helpful have that peace of mind in the back of your head that you know that, hey, somebody who's gonna take care of it for me.

Forrest Kelly: 00:01:32

Yeah, you really came through. Wow. Did she call you later and tell you that you're in the will?

Bee Davis: 00:01:40

Not yet, I haven't gotten that phone call, but I've done her soon.

Forrest Kelly: 00:01:44

Yeah.

Bee Davis: 00:01:46

She was also somebody that I had gone to high school with and was friends with for a long time. So it was good for her to know that she had that tape taken care of. So that's what I like to do to help people out as much as possible. And.

And I also like to give a little bit of a fun surprise too. So, for instance, for her, she went with her son down to celebrate her son's Birthday, and that's why they were out of the country.

So I actually had a little birthday cake delivered to the hotel for him. So when she got there, they had a little surprise, little celebration.

I had also planned a special dinner for them, so they had all that situated and she really enjoyed what time she did have on that trip.

Forrest Kelly: 00:02:24

For this particular trip, do you remember the cost, what you charge?

Bee Davis: 00:02:27

I think she spent around: 3200

Forrest Kelly: 00:02:36

The: 3200

Bee Davis: 00:02:41

Oh, yeah, yeah. I charge about 10% of the overall cost for a full concierge service.

Forrest Kelly: 00:02:46

So under 400 bucks?

Bee Davis: 00:02:48

Yes. It wasn't that much.

I feel like some people are charging more for that kind of service, but I'm doing it more for the fun of it and the fact that I'm being able to help.

Forrest Kelly: 00:02:59

So for this service that you did, because she had you doing the planning and everything out, what did it cost you? I mean, it was priceless for her. I mean. But what did she pay you, brother?

Bee Davis: 00:03:10

She paid me about 10% or so of the overall cost of the trip. So it wasn't too, too bad. I feel like, as far as, like what it cost me, it was really just a lot of time for me.

But it was so much fun because I had not been to the hotel that she was in specifically, so I was able to talk to a couple people there. I actually booked one of them for my podcast. So it's also about me being able to make connections too.

So I charge less because I'm able to get more out of it for myself too.

Forrest Kelly: 00:03:39

Oh, that's why the customers are keep coming back. Yeah, they love it.

Bee Davis: 00:03:44

Love you.

Forrest Kelly: 00:03:45

So when you booked the trip level, you're trying to find the best deal possible for them as far as to plug into their schedule of when they want to arrive and when they want to leave and stuff like that. But you're not, you're not just throwing being willy nilly and just saying, okay, whatever it costs, that's all right.

Bee Davis: 00:03:59

I have had a couple of people who have had, like limitless budgets, so those are a lot of fun to play with. But for the most part, for the most part, I have people who come with a very modest budget.

I think it Normally averages between 3 to 5k for two people. If you're looking for a family, it's closer between 5 and 7. It just depends upon what it is that you're looking for.

If you're looking for something that is all inclusive, we can definitely work things out cheaper.

But if you want that full on cultural immersion where you're taking cooking classes and, you know, you're meeting with people on a regular basis, or maybe you're doing like a homestay or something like that, those are just a tiny bit more costly because there's a little bit more things that have to go on in the background. You know, make sure you got reference checks for the people that you're home staying with and all of that as well.

So, yeah, it's a lot of fun I've had. I think my favorite trip was planning Belize. I actually just planned for a group. I think it was eight people. They were a lot of fun.

They were definitely going to party.

So that was one of the things that I had to do a lot of research in because I wasn't really sure what the safe places were that they could go and, you know, experience the nightlife and that sort of thing.

So luckily I was able to find a couple of locals that I had talked to before and met personally, and they were able to kind of steer me into the right direction and they had a lot of fun. Nobody got arrested, which was the main goal out of the whole trip.

So, yeah, it's been a lot of fun to make these connections with people and kind of give them different experiences that they're looking for.

Forrest Kelly: 00:05:33

Yeah, nobody wore camo and nobody got bit by karma.

Bee Davis: 00:05:37

That's right.

Forrest Kelly: 00:05:39

We've touched down and landed. The episode's done with five quick minutes of travel and fun.

Forrest Kelly: 00:05:45

This is your Captain speaking.

Forrest Kelly: 00:05:47

We have touchdown.

Forrest Kelly: 00:05:49

That completes this episode.

Speaker A: 00:05:50

Join Forest Kelly for the next big show, The Best 5 Minute Travel Podcast. Let's go.