Viator is a popular travel site with hundreds of millions of monthly visitors and an expansive partner network (with airlines, hotel chains, rideshare companies like Uber, and more). Tour operators interested in driving new business often use Viator to promote their tours and activities to customers booking vacations and things to do.
Both Bókun and Viator are Tripadvisor companies, so we put together this guide to explain how to get started on Viator, the Viator + Bókun partnership, and how our platforms work together.
Before we dive into the steps to sell tours on Viator, here’s a quick background on our systems and how they complement each other.
We have a preferred partnership with Viator; you can connect the platforms to manage Viator bookings in our dashboard and synchronise availability across sites.
We waive Bókun booking fees on Viator reservations and offer extra perks (like four free monthly product checks) for Viator users.
In addition to Viator and Tripadvisor, Bókun connects with countless other sites (GetYourGuide, Tiqets, Klook, Expedia, etc.). Tour operators can
promote their experiences across dozens of OTAs — reach millions of potential customers — and manage bookings in one system.
This way, you can reap the full benefits of selling on Viator while also growing your sales channels with other platforms.
When the goal is to book out your calendar, you want to give yourself as many opportunities as possible to get your name in front of customers researching travel, tours, and activities.
Read more:
How to Sell Tours Online: 2 Methods + Tips to Increase Bookings
Anyone can create a Viator account and sell tours on their platform — you don’t have to be a certain business size or meet a number of monthly bookings to use the platform. Small one- or two-person teams and global tour companies use Viator’s website to promote their business.
Note: Viator has certain restrictions on the types of tours and products you can list, so all experiences meet their safety, ethical, and legal standards. (In addition, it’s also worth noting that some experiences may require you to have
public liability insurance.)
For example, tour guides who sell hunting experiences or tours where attendees are in direct contact with (wild or captive) animals can’t list those tours on Viator. Another example: Viator works with rental providers and allows you to list things like jet skis or ATVs, but they would not let you list a car or bus because a car rental is not an “experience.”
The first step is to create a supplier account on Viator.com.
Then, Viator’s account set-up tool will walk you through the following steps — you’ll have to answer a couple of questions about your tour business, and then it’ll prompt you to link Viator with your Tripadvisor profile. If you don’t already have one, it’ll also guide you through that setup.
This allows customers to read about your business, view and book tours, and leave reviews for you on Tripadvisor.
Note: Bókun also connects with Tripadvisor to display customer reviews on your website.
The next step is adding products (aka creating your Viator listings). You can add and edit product listings anytime in Viator’s Management Center.
Viator requires you to meet and maintain a “good”
product quality standard so that listings give customers a fair preview of the experience you offer.
For example, all products must have:
Viator also offers a
Badge of Excellence for tour listings that meet a higher quality standard. Tours with the Badge of Excellence are recommended more often and have higher booking conversions, so this extra legwork in building high-quality tour listings can make a significant difference in how much business you see from Viator.
You can
earn this badge by:
You can also see
personalised tips to improve product listings and achieve an “Excellent” product quality level within your Viator Management Center.
Now, this is where the review and approval process comes into play.
The Viator team reviews new products to confirm listings meet their guidelines.
Viator charges $29 for each product quality check.
If products are approved, they’re instantly displayed on the Viator site for customers to book. As mentioned above, Viator may also promote your tours on Tripadvisor and across their partner network to help you get found and booked more often.
Then, Viator provides you with a booking calendar to manage new reservations in their dashboard. They also offer tools to manage availability and respond to customer inquiries.
However, Viator’s booking management tools only let you view new bookings from their site — this is where Bókun complements Viator.
Viator lets you promote products to millions of travellers, while Bókun provides the tools to manage your staff, schedules, and operations. Not only that, but our centralised booking calendar lets you leverage all the benefits of selling on the Viator platform
and explore other OTAs.
As explained earlier, Bókun is a booking management software for tour operators and activity-based businesses. Our system keeps you and your staff organised as you explore new sales channels and sell tours on multiple sites. It includes:
Watch this brief overview video to learn more about Bókun booking software:
Here are some of the benefits of our partnership with Viator:
Joining Viator (and selling tours across other OTAs) is a no-brainer for business owners who want to expand their reach — and utilising booking software is the best step in maintaining organisation as you grow.
Otherwise, you have to manage Viator and every other sales channel independently — you have to jump between platforms to check calendars and consolidate bookings into a central calendar. Then, you have to manually update your availability on each site as you receive new bookings. (You can see how this could easily lead to headaches and issues like overbookings.)
Aside from maintaining organisation, booking software like Bókun provides tools to help you increase bookings and revenue. Connections with OTAs and the Bókun Marketplace help you fill up your booking calendar; we also provide upselling tools, dynamic pricing, and other advanced features to help maximise revenue from bookings and increase overall earnings.
Follow the steps above to get started on Viator. If you’re also interested in trying our booking software in combination with Viator, you can
explore the platform free for 14 days. After the 14-day free trial, you can opt into a Pro subscription to access all features.
Online Booking Engine • Channel Management
Inventory & Resource Management
B2B Marketplace • Reporting • Websites