It’s that time of the year again. It’s that time that the Experience Voucher people get all excited about. A huge percentage of the experience vouchers sold each year are sold as Christmas presents – and this includes karting vouchers.

We all know how easy it is to buy someone a voucher and that they usually make really welcome presents. Rather than buying someone an item of clothing they may not like or a blu-ray movie they have already seen, an experience voucher gives someone a chance to either experience something you know they enjoy doing – or even a chance to do something completely new.

But, as with most purchases, you should take care not to pay over the odds for the voucher. A five minute research session on Google shows that you can pay a voucher company £40 for a karting experience voucher that gets you the same actual experience that would cost you just £20-£25 if you booked direct. Similarly you can pay over £100 for the chance to race alongside people who have paid only £60.

Of course the voucher experience company need to cover their marketing costs and need to make a little profit, but we firmly believe that the consumer should be aware of the actual costs of the activity. At Daytona, we sell vouchers directly to our customers. We don’t mark them up. We normally sell them at the same price as we charge for direct bookings. At Christmas, we go one step further and offer a 20% discount off vouchers. This Christmas, it means that the voucher purchaser can effectively buy a Daytona karting experience for just 80% of the 2012 price even though their voucher can be redeemed right through til the end of the 2013 – and we all know that prices will go up in 2013!

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for experience vouchers – I have purchased them as gifts for friends and family myself, but do make sure that you are not paying way over the odds for the experience.

Jim Graham
TEAM DAYTONA