How to Get More Direct Bookings: A Tour Operator Checklist

Every booking made on your own website instead of through an online travel agency keeps more money in your business. OTAs typically take 20–30% commission (see our article on Viator and GetYourGuide commission), while a direct booking costs you card fees and whatever you spent attracting the guest.

But travellers only book direct when two things are true: they can find you, and booking with you feels as easy and safe as booking with the platform they already know. This checklist covers both. Work through it one section at a time and tick off what you already do.

1. Be found when people search for you

Claim and complete your Google Business Profile

For many travellers, your Google Business Profile is the first thing they see. Make sure it has:

• Your exact business name, category, phone, opening hours and website.
• Recent photos of real tours, not stock images.
• A link to your booking page, not just your home page.
• Responses to reviews, both positive and negative.

Get on Google Things to do

Google shows tours and activities with prices and booking links in Search and Maps. Google describes free listings for operators and recommends that smaller businesses connect through a connectivity partner, typically their booking system. A free listing that links straight to your own checkout puts you next to the OTAs on the same search results page.

Rank for what people actually search

Write a dedicated page for each tour and destination, using the words travellers use: “sunrise hike Mount Batur”, “Annapurna base camp trek 10 days”, “Lisbon food tour”. Generic pages called “Our Tours” rarely rank for anything.

2. Earn trust before the guest arrives on your site

Collect reviews systematically

Reviews influence whether a traveller books you or a competitor. Make asking a routine:

• Send a review request automatically a day after each tour.
• Use your Google review link or QR code. Google’s help page explains how to create a link or QR code to request reviews.
• Show a QR code at the end of the tour for guests who prefer to review on the spot.
• Reply to every review politely and promptly.

Do not offer discounts or gifts in exchange for reviews. Google’s review guidance treats incentivised reviews as fake engagement and prohibits them.

Show reviews where decisions are made

Put a selection of genuine, recent reviews on each tour page, close to the price and booking button, not on a separate testimonials page nobody visits.

3. Make the tour page answer every question

A traveller who has to email you to ask what is included often books elsewhere instead. Every tour page should show:

• The price, clearly, with what it includes.
• Live availability for the next few months.
• Duration, start time, meeting point and what to bring.
• Inclusions and exclusions.
• Group size, age limits and fitness level.
• The cancellation policy in plain words.
• A way to ask a question quickly.

Our tour booking website checklist goes through each element of the website in detail.

4. Remove friction from checkout

The best marketing is wasted if checkout loses the guest. In the Baymard Institute’s survey of US online shoppers who abandoned a checkout, 40% cited unexpected extra costs, 18% said the site wanted them to create an account, 17% found the process too long or complicated and 9% said there were not enough payment methods. The research covers ecommerce in general, but each point applies directly to tour bookings.

So:

• Show the full price early. No booking fees appearing on the last step.
• Let guests book without an account.
• Keep the form short. Collect detailed traveller information after booking, not before payment.
• Offer the payment methods your guests use, including local methods in your key markets. See our guide to international payments by region.
• Offer a deposit option on higher-priced tours, so committing feels easier.
• Test on a phone. Many travellers book on mobile, often on the move.

Recover abandoned checkouts

Some guests start a booking and do not finish. If your system captures an email address early, an automatic reminder a few hours later, with a link straight back to their selection, recovers some of those bookings at no cost.

5. Give travellers a reason to book direct

Read your OTA agreements first: some include price parity clauses. Within those limits, you can make direct booking more attractive without undercutting:

• A more flexible change or cancellation policy for direct bookings.
• Small extras: photos, a drink, a guidebook or a pick-up.
• A returning-guest discount on the next tour.
• Gift vouchers that can only be bought and redeemed on your site.

Say so clearly on your website: “Book direct for free date changes up to 48 hours before.”

6. Turn one booking into the next

Your cheapest booking is from someone who has already travelled with you.

• Build an email list from direct bookings, with clear consent.
• Send useful emails, such as new routes, seasonal departures or local tips, rather than constant discounts.
• Encourage referrals. A simple “bring a friend” offer for past guests costs less than any ad.
• Cross-sell. If you run several tours, suggest a second one in the confirmation or post-tour email.
• Sell gift vouchers, especially before holidays.

7. Build local partnerships

Hotels, hostels, guesthouses, cafés and tourist information centres all speak to travellers deciding what to do tomorrow.

• Offer partners a commission you set, typically far below OTA rates.
• Give each partner their own booking link or reseller account, so bookings are tracked and availability is live.
• Supply printed cards with a QR code that links to your booking page.
• Visit regularly and keep staff informed about new tours.

8. Use social media and content to feed the site

Social media rarely produces bookings on its own, but it keeps you in front of people who are planning a trip and gives past guests something to share.

• Post real footage from recent departures rather than polished stock content.
• Link every profile to your booking page, not just your home page.
• Write a few genuinely useful articles for your destination, such as the best time to visit, what to pack or how to get to the meeting point, and link each one to the relevant tour.
• Answer common questions in public, so the next traveller finds the answer.

9. Measure what is working

You cannot improve what you do not measure. At a minimum, track:

• Bookings and revenue by channel: direct, each OTA, each reseller.
• Commission paid per channel.
• Where direct bookers came from: Google search, Google Things to do, social media, email, partners.
• Conversion rate on your tour pages, from view to booking.
• Abandoned checkouts and how many you recover.

Review these monthly. If a channel brings bookings but costs a high share of revenue, shift effort elsewhere. If a tour page gets traffic but few bookings, look at its price display, photos and availability.

The checklist at a glance

• Google Business Profile complete, with booking link
• Listed on Google Things to do
• One page per tour, written in searchers’ words
• Review request sent automatically after every tour
• Reviews shown on tour pages
• Price, availability and policy visible on every tour page
• Guest checkout, short form, local payment methods
• Abandoned checkout reminders switched on
• A clear reason to book direct
• Email list and repeat-guest offer
• Partners with their own tracked booking links
• Monthly report of bookings and commission by channel

How Tourtify helps

Tourtify gives you a booking website on your own domain with guest checkout, live availability, deposits and payments straight to your own Stripe, PayPal or local gateway account, with no commission on bookings. It connects to Google Things to do, sends review requests after trips, recovers abandoned checkouts, and gives resellers their own rates. See the pricing page or start a 30-day free trial, no card required.