Business Fortune
FloridaTours.com is a premier charter bus and luxury motorcoach provider serving Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and destinations across Florida. Founded by former cruise line executive Crane Gladding, the company was built around a simple idea: transportation should be more than getting guests from one place to another. It should be a comfortable, reliable, and enjoyable part of the overall event experience.
Since beginning operations in 2015, FloridaTours.com has grown from a team of one to more than 80 full-time employees and has transported hundreds of thousands of guests. The company takes pride in delivering personalized service, professional drivers, and carefully coordinated transportation for groups traveling throughout the state.
Like many businesses in the travel industry, FloridaTours.com faced one of its greatest challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the shutdowns, the company was growing by more than 100% annually and building a strong reputation. When the pandemic brought travel to a halt, FloridaTours.com went months without business and lost much of its team. As operations resumed, the company had to rebuild its workforce and operations from the ground up.
Rather than allowing the setback to define the business, FloridaTours.com used the experience as an opportunity to improve. The company reworked many of its policies and operational procedures, strengthening the foundation for its next phase of growth. As business returned, FloridaTours.com emerged stronger and better equipped than before.
Today, the company continues to serve groups across Florida, from Fort Lauderdale and Miami to Key West and Central Florida. With luxury motorcoaches, professional drivers, modern safety features, and a strong focus on customer service, FloridaTours.com aims to make transportation a seamless part of every event experience.
Business Fortune spoke exclusively with FloridaTours.com founder and president Crane Gladding about the company’s approach to transforming group transportation through luxury, safety, technology, and exceptional customer service. The conversation explores FloridaTours.com’s customized transportation solutions, fleet investments, technology-driven operations, customer experience, and lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gladding also discusses the company’s five-year vision, commitment to continuous improvement, and ambition to become the best charter bus company in the world.
Interview Highlights
FloridaTours.com serves corporate groups, schools, sports teams, weddings, and private travelers. How do you tailor your services to meet these different customer expectations?
Every event is unique, and our experienced operations team works closely with each customer to understand their specific transportation needs. From the initial planning stage to the final drop-off, we pay attention to every detail to ensure everything runs smoothly.
Our team coordinates schedules, routes, vehicles, and logistics while working closely with our guest service representatives and professional drivers. Whether it is a school trip, sports event, corporate gathering, or wedding, we tailor our transportation services to the requirements of each group.
With a modern, well-maintained fleet and direct service from our own operations team, we remain involved throughout the journey. Our goal is to provide reliable, comfortable, and well-coordinated transportation so our customers and their guests can focus on enjoying the event while we handle the logistics.
What does FloridaTours.com believe a truly successful group transportation experience should provide beyond simply getting passengers safely from one destination to another?
Safety is our number one priority, but from a service perspective, our goal is to make transportation a seamless part of every event. We do not want our clients to have to think about transportation or worry about the logistics. Instead, our experienced team handles the planning, scheduling, routing, and coordination so everything runs smoothly from start to finish.
Whether it is a corporate gathering, school trip, sporting event, wedding, or other group occasion, we tailor our transportation services to meet each client’s specific needs. Our professional drivers and dedicated trip planners work together to ensure guests travel safely, comfortably, and on schedule.
Ultimately, we want the event itself to remain the focus. Transportation should simply connect people to the experience, not become something they have to manage. Our role is to take care of the journey so our clients can focus on what matters most: their event and their guests.
How do technologies such as GPS tracking, vehicle monitoring, communication systems, and onboard amenities improve operational efficiency, safety, and passenger confidence?
Technology has played an important role in helping us enhance both our service and operational efficiency. With recent advancements, we are using AI to help evaluate driver safety, GPS technology to monitor timing and traffic conditions, and onboard diagnostic systems to improve vehicle performance and maintenance.
These three areas of technology are helping FloridaTours.com make transportation safer, more efficient, and more reliable for our customers. By combining technology with experienced operations teams and professional drivers, we can better monitor trips, respond to changing road conditions, and identify potential vehicle issues before they affect our customers.
Our focus has always been on providing safe, comfortable, and convenient transportation throughout Florida. From Fort Lauderdale and Miami to destinations across the state, we use technology as an important tool to support the quality of service our customers expect. Ultimately, these advancements help us improve productivity and safety while delivering a dependable travel experience and strong value to our clients.
How do you decide when FloridaTours.com should invest in new vehicles, considering passenger expectations, safety, technology, maintenance costs, and long-term business growth?
We consistently invest in new vehicles and fleet refurbishments to ensure our transportation services meet the high standards we set for ourselves. Maintaining a modern, dependable, and well-equipped fleet is an essential part of delivering the safety, comfort, and reliability our customers expect.
At FloridaTours.com, we own and operate our fleet, giving us greater control over vehicle quality, maintenance, and service standards. Our dedicated vehicle care team works to keep every bus in optimal mechanical condition, while regular inspections and maintenance help ensure our vehicles are ready for every journey.
Our goal is to become the best charter bus operation in the world, and achieving that requires continuous investment in our people, vehicles, technology, and operations. We believe that by continually improving our fleet and maintaining high standards, we can provide customers with a safer, more comfortable, and more dependable travel experience on every trip.
What do you believe makes customers choose FloridaTours.com repeatedly instead of selecting transportation providers based primarily on price, availability, or convenience?
Our team makes the biggest difference. We invest heavily in customer service to ensure that every guest receives a remarkable experience from the moment they contact us through the completion of their journey. Our goal is to make every trip comfortable, safe, reliable, and enjoyable, with our team and professional drivers focused on meeting each customer’s needs.
Most of our clients recognize the difference in our level of service, and that is one of the reasons they choose FloridaTours.com. We believe our commitment to exceptional customer service and our dedicated drivers sets us apart from other transportation providers.
Approximately 95% of our clients are repeat customers, demonstrating the strong relationships we have built with the people and organizations we serve. They continue to come back because they value the quality of our service, trust our team, and appreciate the professionalism and dedication of our drivers.
For us, customer service is not simply part of the business. It is the foundation of the experience we strive to deliver on every trip.
What is your vision for FloridaTours.com over the next five years, and which areas of the business do you expect to drive the company's next stage of growth?
We want to continue taking our service levels to new heights as we grow. Our goal is to become the best charter bus company in the world, and we believe we can achieve that within the next five years.
Reaching that goal will require us to continually invest in our people, vehicles, technology, and customer service. We will continue strengthening our operations while maintaining the safety, comfort, dependability, and professionalism that our customers expect from FloridaTours.com. Our state-of-the-art vehicles and focus on delivering a memorable guest experience will remain central to our growth.
As we look ahead, we want to build on the strong foundation we have created and continue improving every aspect of our service. We aim to make transportation easier and more enjoyable for every group we serve, while building lasting relationships with our customers. Ultimately, our five-year goal is not simply to grow, but to set a higher standard for the charter bus industry.
Under The Leadership of Crane Gladding
Crane Gladding is the founder and president of FloridaTours.com. With more than 20 years of experience in the travel and hospitality industry, he has built his career around creating exceptional experiences for travelers and continues to bring innovation to the charter bus industry.
Gladding spent his career in the travel industry and developed a strong passion for hospitality. After 20 years in the cruise industry, he saw an opportunity to bring a higher level of service and luxury to the charter bus business. Traditionally, charter bus transportation was not always associated with the same level of comfort, luxury, and service found in other areas of the travel industry.
At FloridaTours.com, Gladding set out to change that by creating a more service-oriented transportation experience. Under his leadership, the company combines luxury, comfort, professionalism, and personalized attention to deliver a higher standard of service for its customers.
