One thing I've learnt over the years working in tourism is that you can think you've created something brilliant... but until your guests start telling you they've enjoyed it, you never really know.
That's probably been the most rewarding part of the last few weeks.
When we first started planning The Heart of the Royal Mile, we weren't trying to create just another walking tour. We wanted to create something that told one complete story. We wanted people to come away understanding how Edinburgh grew from a small medieval town into one of the world's great capital cities. More importantly, we wanted them to enjoy every minute of it.
Reading the reviews that have started coming in has been a bit surreal.
People have said the time flew by. They've said they learned so much. They've described the tour as one of the highlights of their visit to Edinburgh. Those are exactly the things we sat around the table talking about months ago when we were writing the tour. We wanted history to be entertaining. We wanted storytelling to make people forget they were on a 90-minute walking tour. Reading comments that say exactly that is incredibly satisfying.
Another little milestone quietly crept up on us this week.
Experience Edinburgh has now broken into the Top 200 Tours and activities in Edinburgh chart on TripAdvisor.
Now, I know what you're thinking. "Top 200 doesn't sound that impressive."
But when you remember just how many attractions, museums, tours, visitor experiences and activities there are in Edinburgh, for a company that's only recently launched, it actually feels like a pretty significant achievement.
Of course, we're under no illusion that there's still a long way to go. We're ambitious. We want to keep climbing that list. More importantly, we want every review to be earned, one guest at a time.
Every review represents someone who chose to spend part of their holiday with us. That's not something we take lightly.
If you've been on one of our tours already, thank you.
Thank you for booking with a brand-new company.
Thank you for trusting us.
And thank you to everyone who has taken the time to leave a review afterwards. It genuinely helps more than people realise. Not only does it help other visitors decide whether to book, but it also tells us that what we're trying to achieve is working.
We're still at the beginning of this journey. There are more tours to write, more experiences to launch and, hopefully, many more stories to tell.
Here's to the next review... and maybe climbing a few more places up that TripAdvisor list.
If you've already joined us on The Heart of the Royal Mile and enjoyed your experience, we'd be incredibly grateful if you could leave us a review on TripAdvisor. Every review helps a small local business like ours continue to grow, and it helps more people discover the stories of Edinburgh.