Four hotels, one venue: draw the loops first.

Draw the map before you count coaches

A single hotel and a single venue make a line. Four hotels make a shape, and the shape decides the timetable. A coach that visits every hotel in turn is easy to explain on paper and slow in practice, because the first guests on board ride past everyone else.

So start with a sheet of paper. Mark the venue, mark the four hotels, and note the number of people expected to ride from each. Hotels that sit near each other belong on one loop. Hotels in different directions do not.

This page is about the routes and the timetable. If you want the arithmetic for how many coaches one hotel cluster needs, read how many shuttle buses your event needs first, and come back here when you have more than one starting point.

Three ways to run the loops

Most four-hotel events end up as paired loops, with one big hotel sometimes taken out as a direct run. The rest of this page uses paired loops.

A worked example: 240 delegates in four hotels

Assume 240 delegates and a first session at 09:00. We assume five in six of them take the shuttle in the morning, which makes 200 riders. The rest walk, share a taxi or arrive with a sponsor. Put your own registration data in its place.

Hotels A and B are one area, and C and D are another. A has 80 riders, B has 60, C has 40 and D has 20. We want everyone at the venue by 08:45. The coach seat plan is 45 per run on a 50-seater coach, which is a 90 per cent fill target, so there are spare seats for late registrations.

The legs below are assumptions chosen to show the method, not journey times. We use 5 minutes to load at each hotel, 5 minutes to unload, 6 minutes from B to A, 15 from A to the venue and 20 back to B. For the other loop: 8 minutes from D to C, 25 from C to the venue and 35 back to D.

Set the order of stops, and the load on each run

On the way in, stop at the farthest hotel first and finish at the nearest, because the coach is already heading for the venue. In the example the south loop runs B, then A, then the venue. The north loop runs D, then C, then the venue.

Loads follow from the headcount. The south loop has 140 riders. At 45 a run that is four runs, so each run takes about 35, which is 15 from B and 20 from A. The north loop has 60 riders, so two runs of 30, which is 10 from D and 20 from C.

One full cycle on the south loop takes 56 minutes with these assumptions. On the north loop it takes 83. That is why one coach cannot do two runs on the north loop before 09:00, while a coach on the south loop can.

The morning timetable

Five coaches carry all 200 riders. The last arrival is 08:43, two minutes inside the target. Coach S1 makes two runs, and its second run reaches the venue at 08:42, three minutes inside the target. That is a thin margin, and the next section shows why.

Stress the timetable before you trust it

Change one input and see what moves. Suppose the leg from hotel A to the venue is 25 minutes, not 15. The south cycle becomes 66 minutes. Coach S1 is back at B at 08:21, and its second run reaches the venue at 09:02, after the session has started.

There are three fixes. Add a sixth coach so no coach runs twice. Start the south loop 15 minutes earlier. Or move 20 riders to a direct run from A. All of them cost something, so you want to find out on paper, not at 08:50 on day one.

Time a trial run of each leg at the hour you will travel. Allow extra on the first morning, when every driver in the city is learning the route, and tighten once you have seen real times. Our event transport page says the same for the first day at a new venue.

Who rides where, and what to tell delegates

Give each delegate one loop and one set of departure times, printed on the key card or sent in the event app. A coloured card per loop works well in a lobby. If there are spare seats, let delegates board any loop that passes their hotel, as long as the printed plan is the default.

Name one place at the venue where every coach drops. Where it is and where coaches may stand is the organiser’s decision. Send us the organiser’s drop-off plan and the drivers work to it. For larger events a coordinator stays on the ground, calls each load and watches the gaps between coaches.

The coaches also have to fit the hotels. A mini coach reaches a narrow forecourt that a full coach cannot, so a small hotel can be on a 30-seater mini coach loop while the large ones use coaches. Our vehicle size guide shows what each carries.

The way home runs the other way

In the evening, flip the order. The coach leaves the venue, drops at the nearest hotel first and ends at the farthest. Agree a fixed departure time for each loop, such as every 20 minutes from the end of the last session, and print it next to the morning times.

Evening departures bunch, so size them from the queue you will accept, not from the morning plan. For a venue like Dubai World Trade Centre, plan one later run for delegates who stay to network.

What to send for a quote

Send the venue, the four hotels with the riders expected at each, the session times and the organiser’s drop-off plan. Add your own leg times if you have timed them. We reply with a fixed written quote listing each vehicle, each day and each hour, which you can check against the checklist in our ground transport RFP guide. How a private loop works day to day is on the shuttle service page.

Related: Event & conference transport · How many shuttle buses · Shuttle service · Coach rental Dubai · DWTC event transport · Ground transport RFP checklist · Get a quote

Keep reading

• Conference airport shuttle plan: How to turn a flight list into airport shuttle waves for a conference of 100 to 500 delegates, with a luggage limit per coach and a worked example.
• Shuttle service: A private shuttle for your hotel, residence, office or venue: a fixed loop, fixed times, a vehicle and driver dedicated to your group.
• How many shuttle buses: A working method to size an event shuttle loop: peak people per hour, seats per run, cycle time and the minutes between buses, with a 400-delegate example.
• Extra stops on an airport transfer: Can the driver stop for a SIM card, cash or a pharmacy on the way from the airport? How a stop is asked for, how it shows on the quote and when to book hours instead.
• Event & conference transport: Delegate shuttles, VIP cars and tour buses with drivers for conferences, exhibitions, galas and sport, run from one plan.
• Dubai Airport to your hotel: Metro, bus, taxi rank, app ride, hotel transfer or a driver in arrivals: how to reach your hotel from DXB, area by area.