Planning shuttle coaches for a conference or event

Three kinds of movement

• Airport arrivals and departures: spread over one or two days, matched to flight lists.
• Hotel to venue: concentrated in the morning and the evening, often from several hotels.
• Evening programme: a dinner or gala venue, usually with a fixed departure and return.

Loop shuttle or timed departures?

A loop shuttle keeps coaches circulating between hotels and the venue at a fixed interval, such as every 15 or 20 minutes. It suits large events with several hotels. Timed departures, where each coach leaves at a set time, are cheaper and suit smaller groups staying in one or two hotels.

Plan for the peak

Most delegates want to arrive in the 30 minutes before the first session. Size the fleet for that peak, not for the average, and stagger hotel departures if the venue entrance is small. In trade-fair weeks hotels fill up far out of town and coaches are booked early, so book well ahead.

On the day

• Signs on the coach and at each hotel pickup point.
• Someone from your team at the busiest hotel during the morning peak.
• A shared contact list of drivers and the transport coordinator.

Getting a price

Send the event dates, the number of delegates, the hotels and the venue with 'Check availability'. We work out the coaches and hours needed, check availability and send the final price before any payment.