Why should I book with Ride Guides?
We like to think that your experience with us will be incredible. We have a serious commitment to safety, and have some of the best price points in the country for Guiding services. We are stewards of the areas in which we ride, and promote proper trail etiquette. One of the biggest reasons to choose us is our commitment to sustainability. No other guiding business (and very few other businesses) have even come close to Ride Guides level of sustainability. The proof is in the pudding, our pudding tastes way better.
What prompted you to create this business?
Both Sara and Matthew have travelled to the far reaches of the globe, except a trip to Indonesia is what really spawned the idea. While they were in Bali, they wanted to go mountain biking and found a local guide who was able to coordinate picking them up at their hotel, driving them an hour into the mountains (volcanoes), getting them rental bikes and equipment, providing their lunch, and guide them all over the Indonesian singletrack for the day. After experiencing that and realizing that the service didn’t exist in Ontario, even with all of the incredible cycling here, they opted to form Ride Guides to fill the gap.
How long have you been in business?
Ride Guides was brought online during the 2013 riding season with the intention of going live in 2014, however due to demand we had to get our act together (so to speak) and open our doors early.
What is your payment/deposit/return policy?
All of our policies can be found on our Policies Page
I want to book a ride, what is the process?
We have tried to make this as easy, and personable as possible. After all, dealing only with a computer for your booking is not really how we work. Cycling is a social activity, please be prepared to talk to a human when you work with Ride Guides.
First off, if you know what you want, please go to the Book Your Ride page to send us all of the information we need to start processing your request. After you do that, you are going to get a phone call – don’t be scared, as there is a human on the other end. At this point we are going to confirm everything you submitted to us and have a discussion about your expectations for your adventure. We also want to make sure that your activity selection is a good fit for you, because your safety and overall enjoyment are important to us. After that is all sorted and everything is exactly to your liking, you are going hang up the phone and you will get an email from your booking agent with your itinerary and all of the details you discussed and your invoice which has a link to pay your deposit. Once we receive your deposit, you are all set. 14 days prior to your ride, your total invoice amount must be paid in full. Please pay this promptly, otherwise we won’t show up on ride day – sad face.
Thats basically it in a nutshell. There is an exception to this and it is outlined below:
1. Our pre-scheduled Skills Boot Camps can be booked and paid for entirely online, avoiding the dreaded personal interaction, however sometime after you book it, a member of our team will contact you to confirm all your details and send you everything that you require.
2. Our “Introduction to…” experiences are usually paid for in person at the trailhead before your ride departs using our handy dandy mobile point-of-sale system. We accept MasterCard, Visa, American Express or Cash (exact change only).
How do I grow the business card you gave me?
So congratulations, you were the lucky recipient of one of the coolest things we have ever seen. That business card of ours you have can in fact be planted in the ground and it will grow wild flowers. Here is the jist of what you need to do to make it grow:
1. Get a pot and put some fresh soil in it
2. Put the seed card in the pot and cover it with 1/8″ of soil, very lightly packed down
3. Water it… alot
4. Sunshine would be a good idea too right about now
5. When it starts to grow, take it easy on the water and keep it damp
6. Enjoy!
Paperless, really? How do you manage that?
It true, we are really a paperless company. Nothing we do requires us to consume paper, however our relationships with some service providers (our lawyers for instance) require us to consume paper. We like to think of that like a “Swear Jar”. Every time we need to use a single piece of paper through our interactions with other vendors, enough money goes into the “Swear Jar” to plant a tree. That’s right, we plant ONE WHOLE TREE every time we consume a single piece of paper. Here is a link to the organization we support to plant those trees if you so desire to plant some yourself because you feel bad that you use so much paper every day- and you really don’t need to. Plant a Billion – Atlantic Forest
If I buy online, is my transaction secure?
Absolutely, and there are a number of reasons it is. Firstly, Ride Guides doesn’t store ANY of your Payment Card data, it is all processed through our payment gateway (Mijireh & Stripe, or Paypal) and each of those service providers have to adhere to strict PCI compliance regulations. Second, the checkout process on our site is secured using SSL, again through our payment gateway so your payment information is encrypted while the payment is being processed. If that still isn’t enough for you, please call us at +1-705-241-9938 and we’ll be happy to process your payment over the phone. It’s as easy at that.