If you're staying in a major hostel, you'll be forced onto a Tour because has every major hostel in Australia by the balls. They're pushing out the smaller operators because of GREED!!! This is fact. The fun, happy go lucky crap they market themselves with hides the fact that they are ruthless. If consistently brings a number of guests to stay at a particular hostel, has a say in who the hostel owner books. forces the hostel owner to book only otherwise they will take their guests to another hostel up the road. The hostel owner has no choice, if he doesn't want to lose business, he HAS to push Tours.
is the McDonalds of Day and Overnight Tours in Australia. If you believe in choice and the little guy, then give them a big miss. If you're staying in a hostel around Australia and they're pushing onto you, there's a good chance they're being forced to push it onto you.

This is fact and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Small tour operators have been forced out of business because of this greedy company. Go with Greyhound. Its the same thing minus the wank.

quote:

If you're staying in a major hostel, you'll be forced onto a Oz experience Tour because Oz experience has every major hostel in Australia by the balls.

Hey there King, if you have a cruise through posts on this forum you will pick up that there have been requests from time to time about travel means within Oz.
You are not alone in being less than favourable about Oz Experience who in fact carry a very small percentage of travellers about.

People who ask/review what is about find out that greyhound offers far more services and at far cheaper rates per km. and that there are other options such as train passes and even airfares cheaper.

But as to being forced!, sure there can be some unscrupulous operators about who work in with Ozex, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, but in general the customer in Oz never has to feel forced.

You had a bad experience huh?, well the word gets around and you should tell yer mates that Boots is a great site where they can get valuable information beforehand to avoid bad experiences.

Hi Go North....You're spot on.

By meaning 'forced' I meant that OZ xperience stifles competition, therefore if there is no competition or choice for the consumer, then their is only ONE option to choose from if only one offer company ' Oz experience' is being put forward at the travels desk of a hostel. It works like this. A person walks up to the travel desk in a hostel and says they want to do a or local tour or are considering greyhound. They ask the desk their opinion which one to do, Even though the brochures racks are full with a sea of different and better tour companies to choose from, the person behind the desk grabs the the Oz Experience brochure and passes to the person making the enquiry. Usually followed by the words ' This is the best tour ', push push push, 'I wouldn't do any other', push push push. The person making the enqury doesn't no any better and books OZ Experience, because they trust the person behind the counter. Even if a person came to the travel desk with a tour companies brochure in their hand wanting to do another tour, they will still get pushed Oz Experience. The person behind the desk might make a bogus call to the company the person is enquiring about and then the person is told there is no space avaialble. There's heaps of tricks in terms of how travel agents and hostels push unsuspecting people onto certain tours. People don't even know this garbage is being forced onto them. All of this is coming from the top, I mean even if the travel desk want to promote and sell another tour which they know is WAY WAY better than Oz Experience, they are NOT allowed to otherwise they'll get fired because of the threats which are made to the hostel owners by Oz Experience.....This is going on all over Australia. Some of the big players have a strong hold over the little players because of 'preferred partnering 'between the larger companies and the travel agents and hostel owners. OZ EXPERIENCE ARE THE PREFERRED PARTNERS TO A LOT OF TRAVEL AGENTS AND HOSTELS BECAUSE THEY BRING SOOOO MUCH BUSINESS THEIR WAY.For an established smaller tour operator or for a start up tour operator it's practically impossible to crack in terms of getting 'in ' with the travel agents and hostel owners because they already have their 'preferred partners'

BOOK DIRECT PEOPLE, GRAB THE BROCHURE OFF THE SHELF AND BOOK DIRECT. JUMP ON THE INTERNET AND BOOK DIRECT. TAKE OUT THE MIDDLE MAN.

Oz experience = Bad experience, and that doesn't matter if you're a backpacker choosing their services and being let down or a tour operator being forced out of the game because of the strong hold Oz Experience has around the country. Boycott the bastards! There's a MUCH better way ( and cheaper way ) to get a REAL AUS Experience, it's by NOT choosing OZ Experience.

Please: go back and add some paragraphs to your post. It is absolutely unreadable.

here is the easier on the eye version for your viewing pleasure:-)

* By meaning 'forced' I meant that OZ xperience stifles competition, therefore if there is no competition or choice for the consumer, then their is only ONE option to choose from if only one offer company ' Oz experience' is being put forward at the travels desk of a hostel. It works like this.

* A person walks up to the travel desk in a hostel and says they want to do a or local tour or are considering greyhound. They ask the desk their opinion which one to do, Even though the brochures racks are full with a sea of different and better tour companies to choose from, the person behind the desk grabs the the Oz Experience brochure and passes to the person making the enquiry. Usually followed by the words ' This is the best tour ', push push push, 'I wouldn't do any other', push push push. The person making the enqury doesn't no any better and books OZ Experience, because they trust the person behind the counter.

* Even if a person came to the travel desk with a tour companies brochure in their hand wanting to do another tour, they will still get pushed Oz Experience. The person behind the desk might make a bogus call to the company the person is enquiring about and then the person is told there is no space avaialble.

* There's heaps of tricks in terms of how travel agents and hostels push unsuspecting people onto certain tours. People don't even know this garbage is being forced onto them. All of this is coming from the top, I mean even if the travel desk want to promote and sell another tour which they know is WAY WAY better than Oz Experience, they are NOT allowed to otherwise they'll get fired because of the threats which are made to the hostel owners by Oz Experience.....

* This is going on all over Australia. Some of the big players have a strong hold over the little players because of 'preferred partnering 'between the larger companies and the travel agents and hostel owners. OZ EXPERIENCE ARE THE PREFERRED PARTNERS TO A LOT OF TRAVEL AGENTS AND HOSTELS BECAUSE THEY BRING SOOOO MUCH BUSINESS THEIR WAY.

* For an established smaller tour operator or for a start up tour operator it's practically impossible to crack in terms of getting 'in ' with the travel agents and hostel owners because they already have their 'preferred partners'

* BOOK DIRECT PEOPLE, GRAB THE BROCHURE OFF THE SHELF AND BOOK DIRECT. JUMP ON THE INTERNET AND BOOK DIRECT. TAKE OUT THE MIDDLE MAN.

* Oz experience = Bad experience, and that doesn't matter if you're a backpacker choosing their services and being let down or a tour operator being forced out of the game because of the strong hold Oz Experience has around the country.

* Boycott the bastards! There's a MUCH better way ( and cheaper way ) to get a REAL AUS Experience, it's by NOT choosing OZ Experience.

Besides Greyhound (ie: point to point), are there smaller "hop-on, hop-off" bus companies that do it better than Oz Experience that you would recommend?

I would go point to point with Grey hound, then organise day and over night trips and accommodation independently. This affords you much more flexibilty and can save you money as well. With the smaller tour operators in big cities and regional areas, quite often they can discount the price of your ticket if you book direct because the commission which has been factored into the ticket price can be removed to allow for a discount.

The power of the internet and a search engine, will simplify everything. Type in 'hostel' and 'Byron Bay' for example, 'tours' and Byron Bay' will work a treat. It's all quite basic, and will entitle you to be more flexible and independent.

You can support Goliath which sets up a monopoly of David that gives you more flexbilty, service and a cheaper price.

www.greyhound.com.au has extensive coverage of australia with JOJO passes based on area or distance in addition to buying point to point.

There are also point to point tour companies such as www.waywardbus.com.au and www.desertventurer.com.au just to mention a couple and many more that a lot of people use.

Many of these have been referred to in previous threads on this forum but if people want to go travelling without some research, then for sure they can be totally unaware of what is out there.

When I was in Australia OZ experience was very popular with the 18-22 set that were really set on partying their asses off all the way throughout Australia. If you are not part of that group OZ experience probably isn't for your however Australia is full of Canadians, Irish, and Brits who fall into this category who are on the working holiday Gap year, away from home the first time and like to get out of control. Cool for them , I wouldn't have chosen that tour for myself but I've talked to plenty of people that did it that were more than happy.

Most major hostels had brochure racks with millions upon millions of brochures so it's hard to decide what's best for what to do. It took me forever to figure what company to go with. I was at Footprints in Sydney and the travel agent suggested Advneture Tours because I told her exactly what I was looking for. She said she went on one and had a good time. She could have been bullshitting, I don't know but was pretty descriptive of the tour so I booked it. It was cool, I had a good time. I dont' think it's anything wrong with travel agents suggesting OZ experience or any other tour. Travel Agents work on comission and they push the tour where they get the highest comission. Let's say they get 20% comission on OZ experience and 5% on Greyhound (I'm just pulling a number but as a travel agent I don't think Greyhound would really give them a comission)who do you think they are going to talk up? That's the way it is in every industry in case you didn't know. Cars, clothes, restaurants, pharmaceuticals, furniture, real estate, etc, etc,etc. It's up to the consumer to to compare everything and do their own research. I did Greyhound because I wanted more freedom and talked to a bunch of people that said the OZ experience didn't run every day and that sometimes they'd go to small towns with only one hostel. So I picked Greyhound, it was easy to make reservations when i wanted to go somewhere and no one made my decision for me but me.


''By meaning 'forced' I meant that OZ xperience stifles competition, therefore if there is no competition or choice for the consumer, then their is only ONE option to choose from if only one offer company''

I totally disagree with this!!!! You are not in a communist country. Did you even go to Peter Pan? There are a million choices, you have to do your research.



"If you're staying in a major hostel, you'll be forced onto a Oz experience Tour because Oz experience has every major hostel in Australia by the balls."



Come on, this is a bit dramatic. You make it sound like they are the Italian Mafia in New York last century. I'm not surprised if Oz experience has preferred hostels that have an agreement with them. It's just like going into STA travel and they have preferred hostels in their system but you can find many more on hostels.com

You may have had a bad experience but I believe there are many choices in Australia to the point where it's completely intimidating. It takes time to look around and choose but I really didn't feel there was a monopoly of anything there.

There are always drive yourself options- I see "Wicked' Campers all over the place- a couple of girlfriends of mine looked at going to Broken Hill- they found it cheapest to rent a car. Additionally- they can see all of the places in between.

Also now that there are a few Regional airlines and budget airlines- www.WebJet.com.au has awesome specials to many cities if you are flexible. While the whole Bus trip sounds romantic- Honestly- if you are pressed for time- there is a lot of space inbetween certain areas that makes flying a much better option. Definately do your home work- see for a couple of ideas: http://www.australiablog.com/planning-a-trip/daily-dose...acker-resources.html

Other options- you don't need to rely on Hostels. Australia has TONS of little motels that are not online. Unlike some other countries- I regularly just drive into little towns and find a motel at the last second. If you are traveling with at least one other person- most motels or local B&B's are less expensive than two spots in a hostel. http://www.australiablog.com/planning-a-trip/hostels-mo...-on-country-nsw.html