GetYourGuide vs Viator vs Your Own Site: Where to Sell Your Tours in 2026

The online tours market is worth $254 billion globally, and in Italy it grows 18% a year. Yet most guides and small agencies are still stuck on the same question: “Which platform should I sell my tours on?”

The right answer is not “one”, but “the right mix for your case”. GetYourGuide brings international volume. Viator dominates the English-speaking market. Airbnb Experiences suits certain audiences perfectly. Your own site pays no commission. But which combination works for you?

This guide compares the four main channels with real figures and real commissions, and helps you build the most profitable multi-channel strategy for your business in 2026.

The online tours market in 2026

Understanding the context matters before choosing where to sell. Here is where the market stands:

In plain terms: if you sell tours and you are not on the main platforms, you lose access to 67% of the Italian market and 74% of the international one. Your own site alone is not enough — your customers look on the OTAs too.

GetYourGuide: strengths, weaknesses, commission

GetYourGuide is Europe’s leading platform for tours and experiences. Founded in Germany in 2009, it now handles over 60,000 activities in 170 countries and 75 million bookings a year.

How it works

1. You register as a supplier (verification and onboarding take two to four weeks)
2. You build your tour listings following their guidelines, which are strict
3. You set availability, prices and restrictions
4. GetYourGuide brings customers, handles payments and support
5. You run the tour and are paid monthly

Commission and costs

• Standard: 20–25% of bookings
• “Originals” (premium): 30%, but with more visibility and marketing
• No fixed monthly fee
• Payment at 60 days net

Strengths ✅

• A high-quality international audience (Europe, USA, UK)
• Invests heavily in SEO and advertising, which brings you traffic
• A very strong mobile app — 60% of bookings
• Dedicated support, with a real account manager
• A rigorous review system, which raises the bar for your tours
• Assisted dynamic pricing

Weaknesses ❌

• High commission (20–30%)
• Long, selective onboarding — they turn down 40% of applications
• Strict quality standards for photos, descriptions and operations
• Heavy dependency: if they drop you, you lose a key channel
• Low visibility for new tours until the first reviews arrive

Viator (TripAdvisor Experiences)

Viator is the TripAdvisor group’s tours platform: over 300,000 experiences across 1,500 destinations, strongest in English-speaking markets — the USA, UK and Australia.

How it works

1. Sign up through Viator Supplier — faster than GetYourGuide, one to two weeks
2. Your listings are synced automatically with TripAdvisor
3. The same logic applies for availability, pricing and bookings

Commission and costs

• Standard: 25% of bookings
• Payment: after the tour runs, on a 7–14 day cycle
• No fixed fee

Strengths ✅

• Two channels in one: Viator plus TripAdvisor from a single profile
• A strong English-speaking audience (USA, Canada, UK, Australia)
• Simpler onboarding than GetYourGuide
• Good presence in mainstream markets
• Automatic syncing of TripAdvisor reviews

Weaknesses ❌

• High commission (25%)
• Very strong internal competition — many similar tours
• An opaque algorithm: it is hard to tell why some tours rank better than others
• Support in English, with limited Italian
• A less modern interface than GetYourGuide

Airbnb Experiences: who it suits

Airbnb Experiences is Airbnb’s experiences arm. More selective, focused on authentic, local activities rather than tourism in the classic sense.

How it works

1. You apply through Airbnb — a competitive process; roughly 15% of applicants are accepted
2. A quality check by video call
3. The experience has to be genuinely distinctive and rooted in the place
4. Publishing and management happen through the Airbnb app

Commission and costs

• Standard: 20% commission
• No fixed fee
• Payment after the experience runs

Strengths ✅

• The lowest commission of the tour OTAs
• A young audience (25–40) that is willing to spend
• Fits the Airbnb context — the trip is already booked
• “Local” experiences carry enormous perceived value
• An excellent app and a very good booking experience

Weaknesses ❌

• Highly selective onboarding, with a high rejection rate
• Not suited to mainstream tours — coaches, classic group outings
• Lower volume than GetYourGuide or Viator
• Hard to scale beyond a certain size
• The discovery algorithm does not always favour newcomers

Your own site: when it makes sense, and what it costs

Your own site with a booking engine is the most underrated and most profitable channel. No commission. Your customer. Your data. Your brand.

How it works

1. Build a mobile-first site with a booking engine
2. Integrate a payment gateway (Stripe, PayPal, Nexi)
3. SEO-optimised pages for every tour
4. An availability system, which can connect to a channel manager
5. Direct marketing: SEO, social, email, advertising

Typical costs

• Initial setup: €3,500–8,000 for a site plus a professional booking engine
• Running costs: €40–150 a month for hosting, booking engine and plugins
• Payment fees: 1.5–2.5% with Stripe or PayPal
• Marketing: variable — SEO investment, optional advertising

Strengths ✅

• No OTA commission
• The customer is yours: email, data, the ability to market to them again
• Free pricing, your own rules
• Cross-selling and upselling — tour plus transfer plus lunch
• Brand building that compounds
• No dependence on someone else’s algorithm

Weaknesses ❌

• You have to bring the traffic yourself: SEO, social, advertising
• A meaningful upfront investment
• SEO results take six to twelve months
• You handle payments, customer service and disputes
• International travellers will not stumble across you

The winning approach: multi-channel

The right answer to “where should I sell?” is: do not pick one. Mix them deliberately.

The mix to aim for, by stage

The key point: your own site grows over time. At the starting stage it is 20%; once established it passes 40%. That is the slice of revenue that pays no commission at all.

Running several channels without losing your mind

If you sell on four or five channels at once, managing availability by hand is impossible and will sooner or later give you an overbooking or a pricing conflict.

The answer is a channel manager built for tours, which is a different thing from a hotel one. The main options in 2026:

• Bókun (owned by TripAdvisor) — complete, and free up to four direct bookings a month
• Rezdy — widely used globally, good for mid-sized operators
• FareHarbor — US-focused, with an excellent interface
• Trekksoft — European, with good support
• TourCMS — UK-based, for more structured operators

For more, read our complete guide to channel managers for tour operators.

A real comparison: multi-channel against single-channel

Two tour agencies of similar size in Naples. The same kinds of tour — historic centre, Pompeii, Capri. The same year, 2024. Opposite strategies.

Agency A: one channel only (GetYourGuide)

Agency B: multi-channel

Side by side

The conclusion is clear: multi-channel wins every time. Not only on revenue, but on resilience, brand and strategic independence.

In closing: the question is not where, but in what proportion

In 2026, selling tours on a single platform is short-sighted. GetYourGuide brings international volume. Viator opens the English-speaking market. Airbnb Experiences attracts a specific premium audience. Your own site is the asset that grows in value, pays no commission and gives you the customer data.

The winning strategy is not to choose one: it is to build a balanced mix, run it with a channel manager, and steadily grow your own site’s share. Whoever works this out before their competitors wins the decade.

Related reading

• Channel managers for tour operators: 100+ tours from one dashboard
• From 5 to 20 bookings a month: a Naples tour agency case study