In 1987 Nightlife Express Inc. was formed. Located in (Linda Vista) a suburb of San Diego in the back of a very small rental and garage. Our original Shuttle bus concept failed, we attempted to establish a nighttime shuttle bus service that would visit bars, clubs, and restaurants in San Diego’s major areas.
By the late 80s there was actually a local concentration of clubs, restaurants, and entertainment known as Pacific Beach, La Jolla, Mission Valley, and Downtown San Diego was just beginning with Croce’s Jazz Club and Sybil’s Nightclub, now Aubergine, being the only 2 Real players. Things have changed quite a bit, now you have to include Hillcrest and San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter and Pacific Beach rival and even surpass just about any concentrated area of bars, restaurants, and clubs in the country. However, nightlife in Mission Valley and La Jolla have mostly disappeared. Our continuous route also included the major hotels and SDSU.
Our dream was to help minimize and even eliminate drinking and driving. Soon after we had begun we realized that we were facing a huge challenge, as MADD turned us down for an endorsement, operating costs were sky high with fuel, maintenance wear, and even the cost of advertising our name “San Diego Limobuses” alone would sink us. We were facing bankruptcy in just a matter of months. With very few passengers on board, the numbers just weren’t there.
So now what? What could we do with this airport shuttle bus? Our original bar shuttle bus service plan was out the window and we had no backup plan. The shuttle bus was a slightly used airport shuttle bus from dollar rent a car that we purchased for 15 thousand; with taxes and new paint and upholstery, we had over 20 grand invested and at the time obviously, this was quite a bit of money to walk away from.
The one thing this Airport shuttle bus had that was unique at the time was the perimeter U-shaped seating. A charter bus company in San Diego at the time was row seating. When a group of people wanted to do a party bus, they just threw an ice chest full of drinks and brought their own music box system. After many discussions as to what we would do with our Airport shuttle bus, Chris Forcier commented “The answer is right in front of us.” We should become an SD Charter Bus Company. Our unique perimeter-style seating makes for a much better party bus. The interior is much nicer vs. our vehicle competitors' row seating, especially for corporate charter bus groups. After all our perimeter seating was much more conducive to conversations than a row seating Tour bus. Soon our party buses began to catch on after about a year.
As time passed we found it difficult to compete for the more conservative or day business so our next plan was to upgrade our mini fleet of luxury limousine party buses. We began to upgrade them to the point they had become nearly the luxury of a typical San Diego limousine of the time. It was at this time that "We owned the market for Luxury Limousine party buses in San Diego.” However, it had been nearly 2 years in business and our corporate transportation services and day business was still growing however at too slow of a rate. With most of our vehicles sitting around most of the week. In all of our advertising, our “Tag line” (what we are and do) had become more prominent than the name itself.
The Tag line had evolved from luxury party buses to party buses with limousine interiors as we attempted to shorten our explanation of what we do our name as we were known had also naturally evolved to a Limo Party bus.
We have these vehicles that look like a bus but have limo interiors. We knew this time around that our name had to say it all without any explanation. The name had to be short, and catchy with an easy recall to it. We were all set but someone reminded us of the one most important element in marketing that we were forgetting. “Recall” (how easy is it for someone to remember your name). He suggested San Diego Limo Bus the only drawback at the time was the order in which it was advertised in the phone book. We knew we had to emphasize Limo Bus so we wouldn’t be geographically restricted, it had to be bold fat, and progressive. Stars were a must as we strived to deliver a top Limo Bus service. The San Diego Limo Buses logo had to look cool, hip, and classy without being time-dated.
We remember having to educate people for years as to what an SD limo bus was. We invented a new type of vehicle for hire service – A new concept and market. Well, just like most inventors and pioneers, we were laughed at a couple of times. It took several years of expensive marketing and advertising until the public caught on to what a San Diego Limo Bus was and by the time the general public began to understand our vehicle concept, our company name and concept became synonymous with our service that was taking off.
The corporate and conservative day business was now accepting our perimeter-style seating charter bus with the limo interior. By the year 1999, San Diego Limo Buses had reached 18 limo buses. We were finally gaining market share on traditional row seating and limousine vehicles, but as quick as it started, regular limousine coach manufacturers began to see potential in our services and began to build limo coaches as they called them, and subsequently transportation service companies in San Diego purchased their buses. Now we were facing competition in our backyard from our own original Limobus idea!
Every type of SUV Limousine that you could think of from our first-class Black Cadillac Escalade Limousine followed by our snow-white Escalade Limo. Next, we purchased a white Ford Excursion Limousine and then our real party machine the Black H2 Hummer Limousine, a corporate styled Black Limobus, two of the newest model white Limousines, and lastly our new white H2 Hummer Limousine that was absolutely a masterpiece limousine; as it was proclaimed the “Best of Las Vegas Show” manufactured by Executive Coach Builders. Oh, by the way, we were also the first company to take a seat out of the back of these SUV limousines and replace it with a velvet rope, we replaced the back row seat with a J seat and added a curtain with mirrored ceiling for the first VIP ROOM, in an SUV Limousine.
Well you may say that we’ve made a full circle as we reintroduced to cater to the cheap party bus business in San Diego, it’s now called PB Party Bus. Today there are copycat limousines that are manufacturing Limousine buses all over the world, and now in our backyard party buses are being manufactured. Not only is there a glut of these shady party buses operating in San Diego less than half are operating legally. The bottom line is to be careful with your search. You could end up with Mr. Toads wild ride with no licenses, CHP’s safety inspections, permits, or insurance and if anything catastrophic goes wrong the lawyers can come after you because you booked it! For the record, we did not invent party buses or even luxury party buses. However, we did invent, create, and develop the limo bus market. The name and phrase limo bus with perimeter seating, mirror ceiling, and dance pole were all ours. We are the “Original Limo Bus Company.”
Please Don't Drink and Drive!