Online travel agencies (OTAs) and online marketplaces are the sites travellers use to research new destinations and book vacation plans \u2014 think Viator, GetYourGuide, Expedia, Booking.com, Civitatis, Airbnb Experiences, and more.<\/p>\n
These sites collectively reach hundreds of millions of travellers, offering excellent opportunities for tour operators to promote their experiences to audiences actively looking for<\/em> things to do in new places. By showcasing their tours on these platforms, operators can attract bookings from travellers worldwide (who otherwise might never have found them).<\/p>\n If you’re interested in using OTAs to earn more tour bookings, this guide has you covered. We’ll review how OTAs work, the most popular platforms to join, and the best ways to manage OTA bookings when you\u2019re selling across multiple sites.<\/p>\n OTA bookings are, as the name suggests, bookings you earn through OTAs. These are technically third-party bookings because travellers are booking your experiences through an OTA (vs. directly with you).<\/p>\n OTAs take a commission fee (between 15% to 30%) for any booking you earn through their site.<\/p>\n Direct channels include your own website, email, phone, social media, and in-person.<\/p>\n The only time there is a fee for direct bookings is when travellers reserve tours on your website, as online booking systems charge a small booking fee (between 1% and 8%, depending on your software provider).<\/p>\n OTAs help travellers search for and book a range of travel services \u2014 flights, hotels, car rentals, restaurants, and, of course, tours and activities.<\/p>\n When travellers use OTAs to search for things to do in a destination, they see listings from tour operators like you. They can compare options, read reviews, check availability, and book directly through the platform.<\/p>\n For tour operators, the deal is simple: OTAs promote your tours to their massive audiences, and in exchange, they take a commission on every booking they generate for you. That’s how they make money \u2014 by connecting travellers with experiences and taking a cut of each sale.<\/p>\n Essentially, OTAs handle tour marketing, while you handle the actual tour experience.<\/em><\/p>\n OTAs can be a game-changer for tour operators, especially for smaller businesses still trying to gain traction and grow their customer base \u2014 but they’re not without potential trade-offs.<\/p>\n While OTAs open your business to millions of travellers, create avenues to earn new bookings, and can be invaluable during a small business\u2019s initial ramp-up period, you shouldn\u2019t be totally reliant on them. Ideally, you should aim for a mix of OTA and direct bookings as you grow.<\/p>\n Join Viator here.<\/a><\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong>How to sell tours on Viator<\/a><\/p>\n Join GetYourGuide here.<\/a><\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong> How to become a GetYourGuide supplier<\/a><\/p>\n You can apply for Google\u2019s program here<\/a>, or connect with Things to do through an approved connectivity partner (like B\u00f3kun)<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong>How to get listed on Google Things to do<\/a><\/p>\n Join Airbnb Experiences here.<\/a><\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong>How to host Experiences on Airbnb<\/a><\/p>\n Join Expedia\u2019s program here.<\/a><\/p>\n Read more:<\/b> Expedia supplier guide for tour & activity providers<\/a><\/p>\n Join Civitatis here.<\/a><\/p>\n Join Klook here.<\/a><\/p>\n Join Tiqets here.<\/a><\/p>\n Join TourRadar here.<\/a><\/p>\n Join <\/a>Trip.com<\/a> here.<\/a><\/p>\n Join Headout here.<\/a><\/p>\n Join Hotelbeds here.<\/a><\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong>10+ travel distribution channels for tour operators <\/a><\/p>\n Joining OTAs is pretty simple. Most platforms follow one of two approaches:<\/p>\n Either way, the process is straightforward, and most OTAs walk you through the steps to join, so there is no guesswork.<\/p>\n We’ve linked to each OTA’s supplier enrolment page above, so you can easily get started with the platforms that make sense for your business.<\/em><\/p>\n Each OTA provides a dashboard to view bookings and manage your availability. If you’re only selling on one OTA, this works fine as your primary calendar.<\/p>\n This is also easy if you’re selling on your website and just one OTA. You can manage both calendars manually; you’ll just need to update availability in both places as bookings come in. It’s doable, but it requires some extra effort to keep everything in sync.<\/p>\n Once you start selling across multiple OTAs, though, manual management becomes impractical. That’s when you need a channel manager<\/a>.<\/p>\n A channel manager pulls bookings from all your sales channels (your website and all OTAs) into a single master calendar and syncs real-time availability back to every connected platform.<\/p>\n For example, say someone books one of your tours on GetYourGuide<\/a>. The reservation will automatically appear in your master calendar, and that calendar will send availability data back to Viator, Expedia, and everywhere else you’re listed, so the GYG reservation is accounted for across all sites.<\/p>\n This ensures customers see your most current availability no matter where they find you, preventing overbookings and saving you from manually updating each calendar every time you receive a reservation.<\/p>\n B\u00f3kun offers some of the most highly-rated restech systems<\/a> for tour and activity providers. Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n Here’s why B\u00f3kun is the best choice for teams looking to explore online booking channels and maximise their distribution strategies:<\/p>\n See how B\u00f3kun users have leveraged our solutions to see exponential growth in our case studies below:<\/p>\n And <\/em>keep up with the latest B\u00f3kun benefits here<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n Interested in other strategies to fill your booking calendars? Check out our guides below:<\/p>\n OTAs give tour operators a straightforward way to reach global audiences, build credibility, and generate bookings without upfront costs. Yes, commission fees eat into your profits, but the exposure and new bookings are well worth it \u2014 especially when you’re trying to achieve fast growth.<\/p>\n And B\u00f3kun is the best partner to support you as you expand your online reach.<\/p>\n Not only does our system help you organise and manage bookings across all sales channels, but we also offer a variety of other benefits to fuel your growth: exclusive OTA partnerships, our reseller network with thousands of travel industry partners, and Referral Tracking to work with any business or professional and build an expansive affiliate network.<\/p>\n Best of all? You get all of these benefits without paying premium prices. Our super-low fees mean more revenue stays in your pocket, so you can scale faster and continue to invest in your long-term success.<\/p>\n See how B\u00f3kun supports your growth goals by starting a <\/em>14-day free trial<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Related reads: <\/strong><\/p>\n Online travel agencies (OTAs) and online marketplaces are the sites travellers use…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,37,40,38],"tags":[438,439,44],"class_list":["post-6812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-channel-management","category-grow-your-bookings","category-increase-revenue","category-otas-and-resellers","tag-earn-bookings-through-otas","tag-operators-guide-to-ota-bookings","tag-ota-bookings"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOTA Bookings vs. Direct Bookings<\/h2>\n
How Do OTAs Work?<\/h2>\n
Pros & Cons of OTA Bookings<\/h2>\n
The Good<\/h3>\n
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The Drawbacks<\/h3>\n
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What Are the Best OTAs or Marketplaces to Join?<\/h2>\n
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How Do You Join OTAs?<\/h2>\n
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How Do You Manage OTA Bookings?<\/h2>\n
How B\u00f3kun Supports OTA Bookings<\/h2>\n
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Additional Resources for Selling Tours Online<\/h2>\n
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Try B\u00f3kun Today<\/h2>\n
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