DC Food Tour Learnings → Part 1

I took a Georgetown food tour in DC last weekend, partially because I’d never taken one here before and wanted to learn more about Georgetown, and partially to check out how other local companies are running their food tours.

I’m so glad I took it. The tour was good, and I learned a bit about Georgetown, but I’m mainly glad because I learned SOOO much about the DC food tour business. Because I’m building, I really saw things in a new way, and through two very different sets of eyes: (1) as a business builder; (2) as a customer reviewer.

I’m still processing the second set of learnings, and I already have a LOT to say, so I’ll do that in a follow-on blog post.

So let’s take a look at what my business 👀 gleaned:

Logistics

• We made 4 food stops
  • 3 were for portions of “Mains” and 1 was for dessert & coffee
  • The guide provided 1 bottle of water to each customer
  • 1 stop was full service and the other 3 were counter service
  • 1 stop we carried out and ate on chairs outside the restaurant
  • 1 stop we carried out and ate at tables & chairs in a nearby park
• We made about 8 brief stops to talk about city & house history
• It took about 2.5 hours, but I could see it taking up to 3
• It was about 1.5 miles of easy walking/sauntering
• There was 1 guide, but also 1 assistant who worked ahead of us to pre-order food and set up tables & seats

Customers

• My group was 7 people (usual max is 8)
  • 86% couples
  • 57% men
  • 58% Gen Z, 42% Gen X
  • 100% found the tour by Googling “food tour DC” (not sure what % booked direct vs. Viator)
  • For 2 of the couples, it was a gift to the other person, and none of them had been on a food tour before
  • 71% were from the local DC area
• 50% of this tour company’s customers are local, with this % rising in the off-season
• Most of their public tours appear to sell out
• They seem to run lots of private tours
  • eg. a company or law firm hires a guide to take them on a food tour
  • They accept 2-60 people on these private tours
  • I don’t know how much they charge for these tours, but my guess is that these private tours account for > 50% of their revenue/profit

Costs

• I paid $79 + tax
• Estimated booking fees = $18
  • Booked through Trip Advisor/Viator which charges $16 per customer (20%)
  • The tour company uses FareHarbor for scheduling & ticketing, which charges ~$2 per customer (1.9% + $.30)
• Estimated food cost = $30 per customer (38%)
• Estimated labor cost = $13 per customer (17%)
• Total per-customer cost = $61 (77%)
• So, they earned $18 per customer (not including other costs that I had no insight into)
• So, for 8 people that’s $144
• Not a cost, but I’d say only 50% of the people/couples gave the guide a tip (I gave 20%)

I’ll do a post about my learnings as a customer reviewer next week.