[Safado]

You're in a city that gets visited by a lot of foreign tourists. You want to make some cash and get some flags at the same time. Why not start a pub crawl?

Round up all of the tourists staying at hostels in a 1km radius and bring them to 3 or 4 bars in the area. Negotiate with the bar owners to get free entrance and a discount on drinks. Charge $30-50 a head. Hostels get a commission for referrals.

It sounds easy enough in theory, but complications will arise from herding around 40 drunk people. How do you keep the group intact as you move from place to place?

I'm gonna hit the pavement tomorrow here in Rio and hustle to make this happen. Has anyone ever done anything like this before? Or if you've been on a pub crawl what are your thoughts on how to make this into a successful event?

[Sonsowey]

(09-01-2013 11:22 AM)Safado Wrote:  

You're in a city that gets visited by a lot of foreign tourists. You want to make some cash and get some flags at the same time. Why not start a pub crawl?

Round up all of the tourists staying at hostels in a 1km radius and bring them to 3 or 4 bars in the area. Negotiate with the bar owners to get free entrance and a discount on drinks. Charge $30-50 a head. Hostels get a commission for referrals.

It sounds easy enough in theory, but complications will arise from herding around 40 drunk people. How do you keep the group intact as you move from place to place?

I'm gonna hit the pavement tomorrow here in Rio and hustle to make this happen. Has anyone ever done anything like this before? Or if you've been on a pub crawl what are your thoughts on how to make this into a successful event?

I have never organized a pub crawl but I have participated.

Here's how the "keeping everyone together" thing worked.

Everyone got a small card/flyer type thing that could fit in their pocket with the name of the bars, in order, and a map. So you knew first bar with Alice's, then Mickey's, then Nicks, etc. And you knew where they were because of the small map printed on it with the bars pinpointed.

This little flyer was what you needed to show to get the drink specials at the bar. The drink specials were limited to 2 a place. This way, everyone gets there, grabs a few drinks, and leaves, keeping the flow going.

Of course some people straggle and you can't force every drunk person to follow you in an orderly fashion. But especially if it's a bunch of tourists in a strange city, it'll be obvious when they come and go, and people largely want to stick with the group.

So thanks to this map, showing the order of the bars that you're to attend, and the drink limit, people more or less follow the plan. Some may go do other shit, which is fine, they've already paid and everything so really who cares?

Might be best to do this as a day drinking type of event. Bars will be less packed so you won't have the issue of 40 drunk ass tourists showing up to an already crowded venue and everything sucking. They can go be their drunk selves and basically take over different bars, then leave after a little while. Bring in business the bar wouldn't have had without displacing people on a Friday night who would be paying normally anyway.

I don't know Rio but this is obviously best done in a very small easy to walk area where drunk asses can stumble from bar to bar without getting lost or confused. I'm sure you can think of an area.

[TheBulldozer]

Rio is a bit spread out for this. My mind has always thought about this idea, and decidedly voted no to Rio being a good city to do it in.

Your initial investment would be a party bus as a result. Also, from having talked to members on this forum and people on the ground, logistical things involved in starting a business are colossal problems in Brazil, and especially Rio. If you speak Portuguese fluently however, I'm sure this would help.

Also, gringos looking for a party and want to spend some cash just point in the direction of Lapa, where they'll find one any night of the week.

I'm all for you trying it out, though I just worry about the cost(time and money) in getting it rolling.

Here's a tip: I was out in Shaghai and ran into a couple Americans who had MBA's from UNC, and another university which I can't remember, who started their own Shanghai Pub crawl. I just happened to be at the same bar as they were one night, found them to be super sharp, chatted them up and got a free ride with them a few nights later. They did a really good job all around and would definitely be valuable to talk to if you wanted to find out what hurdles they had. China and Brazil might be apples and oranges on the surface, but I'm sure they can give you some pretty useful insights to the business. Just google "shanghai bar crawl".

[T and A Man]

That game is already ahead of you...

Things like... http://cityfreetour.com/

Started off as getting cash in hand for foreign students, etc. American's in paris would run it for English language yeah, and now the internet means they advertise for free instead of sucking up to lonely planet.

3 hour walks, recite from a history book, add a bit of flavour, and learn how to pitch a 'volunteer time', and then everyone throws a 5 or 10 euro at you at the end of the walk. usually get 15-20 walkers, 150 euro a day easy peasy.

Well I'm not sure if this mob, but they started adding 'night walks', which works well in cities like Paris and Amsterdam and they add in plenty of bars. They cut a deal with bar tenders and the cute chicks get hit on and plowed with alcohol.

The 'expert' tour guides have status, plus its a job that rewards charisma, so any other sandle wearing chode on the tour always gets friendzoned.

[paninaro]

My friend's g/f had a company that did this for bachelor parties. They'd offer up to the full package, where they meet you at the airport, take you to hotels, bars, day trips, etc. They also did night-only packages.

They basically have deals with the bar owners, so they get a kickback of the drink sales. So you present your "10% off" coupon which gives you a discount, and also signals to the bar owner that it's a customer from that bar crawl company.

For guides, they used local university chicks so the guys had a cute chick to be around, but she'd stay sober and take care of any problems.

The benefit to the bar owner is it brings in big-spending customers, and often at slower times of day (like if they start the drinking at 5pm or something).

They also had deals with some of the clubs so their people got in with no wait and often to the VIP level.

You could easily find customers from hostels -- give the hostel owner a kickback for each customer they refer.

It's actually a win-win all around - the venues get more customers, the hostel owners make some money, and the customer gets taken to cool places with VIP entry.

[Basil Ransom]

Check out https://www.vayable.com/

Style yourself as a professional love tourist and show travelers where they can tap the pussy wells, and make money for your efforts.

A walking tour is definitely the way to go. All cash, no logistical worries. I banged a girl I met off one, but I wasn't the tourguide of course. If you are, you should do like mine did, and end the tour in a pub where you'll be having a modest lunch or dinner, so groupies can stick around for a couple minutes and talk to you. "We're ending our tour at the famous Frankenschnausen beer garden. I'll be having lunch and a pint, and you're welcome to join me."