Exceptional Experiences - Sarah Colgate

Exceptional Experiences - Sarah Colgate Tourism, hospitality & events growth on the Gold Coast. Start with the free Health Check

Founder Sarah Colgate has 20+ years as an operator, not a consultant, helping owners build businesses that are more profitable and run without them carrying it all.

Your OTA listings are not just a place to be found. They are a sales channel.Most operators upload their product and hop...
10/09/2026

Your OTA listings are not just a place to be found. They are a sales channel.

Most operators upload their product and hope for the best. The operators winning on Viator, GetYourGuide and Klook are treating those platforms like a shopfront that has to convert.

My Growth Action Guide walks you through exactly how: ranking, listings that convert, pricing and availability, and using reviews to drive more bookings.

More exposure should mean more profit, not more stress.

👉 Download the free guide: https://www.exceptionalexperiences.com.au/resources/p/growth-action-guide-maximising-your-tourism-product-sales-on-online-travel-agents-otas

Sarah Colgate

08/09/2026

When should you hire an operations manager?

It changes for every business, but the questions do not. Can the business afford it? Is the business profitable right now? And are you really clear on what that person is responsible for? Not the tasks. The responsibility.

Is their job to make sure the tours go out, operations run smoothly, and you are out of the day to day? Paint that picture properly before you hire, or you will hire the wrong role.

I have seen owners hire an ops manager to escape a business that was not ready for one. It does not end well.

👉 Weighing it up? Book a call: https://www.exceptionalexperiences.com.au/booking-fc

Raising your prices is not greed.You need to cover the cost of delivering the experience. You need to cover your busines...
07/09/2026

Raising your prices is not greed.

You need to cover the cost of delivering the experience. You need to cover your business expenses. And you need to make a profit, because that is why you are in business.

The thing that lets you put your prices up? Knowing your value. Knowing exactly what makes your experience unique. When people are drawn to that, the price matters far less.

Work out your message and who you are talking to first. The price rise follows.

👉 Know your price needs to move but scared to touch it? Let us talk: https://www.exceptionalexperiences.com.au/booking-fc

Sarah Colgate

Think about the German visitor who does your tour once and you never hear from them again. Single-use customer? Not quit...
05/09/2026

Think about the German visitor who does your tour once and you never hear from them again. Single-use customer? Not quite.

The lifetime value of a customer is how many times they come back to you, plus how many people they refer. In tourism we forget the second part constantly.

At Aquaduck we had people who came back every school holidays. Southern Cross was mostly international one-offs, so we focused hard on getting those visitors to refer us to family and friends.

Lifetime value is what you get from a customer today, in the future, and through every person they send your way.

👉 Treating every guest as a one-off? Let us fix that: https://www.exceptionalexperiences.com.au/booking-fc

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When your tourism business gets past $1M, the decisions get heavier.Pricing. Staffing. Growth. Cash flow. Expansion. Suc...
03/09/2026

When your tourism business gets past $1M, the decisions get heavier.

Pricing. Staffing. Growth. Cash flow. Expansion. Succession.

Business Improvement Coaching is for operators who want someone experienced in their corner. Not another generic business coach who has never actually run a tourism business.

I have owned eight businesses, including Aquaduck and Southern Cross Tours. Real conversations. Real numbers. Real strategy.

👉 Learn more: https://www.exceptionalexperiences.com.au/services/business-improvement-coaching

01/09/2026

The previous owners of Aquaduck told me the price could never go past $40. I did not believe them.

When I took over, it was a walk-past product. People saw the ducks on the street and booked in. It had not made much money for years.

So I started with capacity. Three ducks, a set number of tours and seats, and worked out the revenue we needed to run profitably. Then I changed how we sold it. Not a duck ride. A city tour and river cruise, two experiences in one. People had no problem paying more for that.

So we pushed the price past the ceiling the previous owners swore could not be crossed. And we kept going.

Most pricing ceilings are not market realities. They are inherited assumptions.

👉 Suspect your price has more room in it? Book a call: https://www.exceptionalexperiences.com.au/booking-fc

A healthy net profit margin is between 15 and 25%.I know a lot of businesses are nowhere near that. But that margin is w...
31/08/2026

A healthy net profit margin is between 15 and 25%.

I know a lot of businesses are nowhere near that. But that margin is what gives you money for rainy days, money for the off season, and cover for when something goes wrong.

If yours is nowhere close, the answer is usually one of three things: pricing, market mix, or costs. All fixable.

👉 Want to know where yours is leaking?

Book a call: https://www.exceptionalexperiences.com.au/booking-fc

30/08/2026

Are you a small operator? No problem at all.

I keep six spots every week for operators turning over less than a million dollars a year.

How it works: you complete a tourism health check, we have a conversation about what you want to achieve, and over twelve weeks we work through the areas one by one until you are where you need to be, with the support to stay profitable.

Small does not mean waiting until you are bigger to get help. It usually means the opposite.

👉 Grab one of the six spots. Start with the Health Check: https://www.exceptionalexperiences.com.au/tourism-business-health-check

Sarah Colgate

If your business only works when you are working, it is not sustainable yet.A lot of operators confuse personal effort w...
29/08/2026

If your business only works when you are working, it is not sustainable yet.

A lot of operators confuse personal effort with business strength. But a real business does not rely on constant owner input.

If everything slows down the moment you step back, that is not a capacity problem. It is a systems problem.

You do not need more effort. You need structure that runs without you.

👉 Let us build it. Book a call: https://www.exceptionalexperiences.com.au/booking-fc

Sarah Colgate

28/08/2026

Turning over more than $1M a year? The reason I start with a business analysis is it shows me every aspect of your business.

You complete a questionnaire with your figures and your information. Then I do the market research piece. I interview six of your customers and six of your suppliers about your business. What you do well. What you do not.

Most owners have never heard what their customers and suppliers really think. It is absolute gold, and it changes everything about where we focus.

👉 Want to see your business from the outside? Book a call: https://www.exceptionalexperiences.com.au/booking-fc

Address

Gold Coast, QLD
4217

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+61491729043

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