BusRates.com is back, and the timing couldn’t be better. The retooled website is generating daily inquiries for charter bus bookings in some markets.
“We have seen a positive trend in searches on the BusRates website,” said BusRates General Manager Roxana Melgar, who recently gave an update about the quality lead generator during a recent United Motorcoach Association Town Hall.
“We are happy to allow you to start to get those real leads coming in from real potential clients,” Melgar said.
Updated billing, site features
Billing for BusRates.com users has been suspended since the start of the pandemic, but with business picking up, operators are encouraged to update their online billing information by March 1, as BusRates is already generating more leads with the uptick in traffic on the website.
Melgar said recent improvements to the BusRates site allow unlimited photographs to be uploaded, along with video footage, so you can portray your fleet’s diversity, show your vehicles and team members in action, and engage potential customers with impactful visual imagery.
“BusRates was the original anti-broker site,” said Ken Presley, UMA’s Vice President of Legislative & Regulatory Affairs & Industry Relations, said during the Town Hall meeting. “Brokers steal your margins. And it’s already a thin margin in this industry.”
He explained the beginnings of this powerful lead-generating tool for operators. The website was created by a former employee of a bus broker, who wanted to put operators on par with those brokers who serve as the intermediaries in connecting operators to clients. The most recent improvements were made by UBT, the association’s tech partner on BusRates.com.
Business picking up
Things are looking up for individual operators, and site traffic is delivering leads right now, Presley said.
“Some operators have been getting good leads from BusRates despite the pandemic,” he said, “and some are reporting going from three a week to three a day lately.”
Key to making the most use of BusRates will be the speed of response to inquiries, UMA President and CEO Larry Killingsworth pointed out.
“There’s a direct correlation to how much business you get from it, based on how quickly you respond,” Killingsworth said. “We’re going to be providing some guidance in the upcoming weeks on ways you can optimize your response.”
Learn more about BusRates by contacting Melgar or visiting the site. You can also listen to the entire UMA Town Hall presentation.
Melgar also will be attending the upcoming 2021 UMA Motorcoach EXPO in Orlando, from April 21-25, to answer questions about BusRates.
