What changes when a family books the same company for years?
We stop starting from scratch. After three years of trips this family does not have to explain the car seat situation, which resort they favour, or that the younger one gets restless around the thirty minute mark. It is in the notes and the chauffeur has read them before pulling up. That is the quiet advantage of a company small enough to remember you and structured enough to write it down. They described everyone as pleasant and helpful, which is a comment about the office as much as the car, and that is fair. The booking, the confirmations, the change you need to make in March because a flight moved. All of that is people rather than a form. Guests who have been with The Genie Transportation Services for years mostly stay because the second booking is easier than the first, and the fifth is easier still. The service pages describe what we do. Returning families are the evidence it holds up.
It cuts both ways. We also know which of our chauffeurs a returning family got on with, and where the roster allows it we will put the same person back on the booking without being asked.
What kind of tips do drivers actually give for the next trip?
The kind that only come from driving the same roads every day for years. This guest said their driver gives them helpful tips on future trips, and that is a specific thing rather than general enthusiasm. It is knowing that a particular resort's bus stop is a long walk from the rooms at the far end, so ask for a building near the lobby when you book. It is which week in September is genuinely quiet and which one has a race weekend that fills every hotel on property. It is the fact that a drive you are planning for a Tuesday afternoon is fine and the same drive on a Friday at five is not. Visitors cannot know any of this and it does not search well, because it changes. Ask on the way in. The written version of the traffic half is our Orlando drive times guide, and the resort half turns up on every Disney World transfer we run.
Seasonal advice is the most valuable kind. Which weeks bring a race or a convention that fills every hotel on property, when the parks run extended hours, and which month is genuinely the quietest are all things that change year to year and are worth asking about while somebody who watches it closely is driving you.
How do you keep children entertained on a transfer?
By treating them as passengers rather than cargo, which sounds obvious and frequently is not. This family's chauffeur knows how to keep the kids entertained, and after three years he knows these particular kids. That is the easy version. The harder version is a first ride with children you have never met, and the honest answer is that it is a skill. Ask them what they are most excited about and let them talk. Put the music on. Point out the thing out of the window that they will care about. In the VIP Escalade ESV there are seat back screens, which help on the longer runs out to the coast. Mostly though it is not equipment. It is a chauffeur who is not treating twenty five minutes with a four year old as an obstacle. Families notice, and it is why they come back to book their next airport transfer with us rather than shopping around again.
Longer runs need more. A twenty five minute resort hop is easy, but the hour out to the coast on a cruise morning asks a good deal more of a four year old, and that is where a screen or a well chosen playlist earns its place.
What Our Guests Say
"We are always so happy with Genie. We have been returning customers for more than 3 years. Everyone is pleasant and helpful. Our driver is wonderful and gives us helpful tips on future trips and he knows how to keep the kids entertained."