How to Get More Bookings on GetYourGuide (GYG)

Start with your GYG performance data

Before rewriting your GetYourGuide listing, look at the numbers. GetYourGuide’s Supplier Portal can show metrics including impressions, click-through rate, page visits, bookings, conversion rate, revenue and ratings.

That creates a useful funnel: Impressions → Page visits → Bookings. Start there.

Low impressions?

Your problem is probably discovery. GetYourGuide itself suggests looking at factors such as availability, categories and how the activity is set up when impressions are low.

Impressions but few page visits?

Travelers are seeing you but choosing not to click. Look closely at the information they see before reaching the full activity page — particularly your title and main photo.

Page visits but few bookings?

Now you have a conversion problem. Travelers showed enough interest to open the activity, but something stopped them from booking.

That could be:

• price;
• reviews;
• photos;
• description;
• unclear inclusions;
• logistics;
• availability;
• the experience itself;
• stronger competing activities.

Diagnose before you rewrite

This is a much better way to optimize GYG than changing everything at once and hoping bookings increase.

Improve the title travelers see in GetYourGuide search

Your title has one important job: make the experience immediately understandable.

GetYourGuide recommends a structure built around location + activity type + unique selling point.

For example: Lisbon: Alfama Fado Show and Petiscos Evening Tour rather than a vague title built around marketing language.

For a tour operator, that means prioritizing what the traveler is buying over your company name.

Compare Aruba: Sunset Catamaran Cruise with Open Bar with The Ultimate Island Experience by ABC Adventures. The first tells someone what the product actually is.

GetYourGuide also recommends using terms travelers actually search for. That doesn’t mean stuffing keywords into your title. It means using normal traveler language instead of internal company terminology.

Your main photo has to win the click

GetYourGuide puts unusual emphasis on the importance of the main image. And now operators have better data for measuring whether it’s working.

If your activity receives plenty of impressions but a weak click-through rate, the main image should be one of the first things you investigate.

GetYourGuide says its research found photos among the most helpful factors travelers use when deciding whether to book, and its current activity-creation tools even rate uploaded images for quality.

Strong activity photos generally show the actual experience.

• For a quad tour: show people riding quads through the landscape.
• For a food tour: show the food and people experiencing it.
• For a sunset cruise: show the boat, guests and sunset.

Generic photos don’t sell the product

A generic destination photo may be beautiful, but it doesn’t necessarily communicate the product you’re asking someone to buy.

Give travelers a reason to choose your activity

Once someone reaches the activity page, you’re no longer primarily fighting for the click. You’re fighting for the booking.

Look at your listing from the perspective of someone comparing several similar GYG activities. Can they quickly understand:

• what makes this experience different;
• what they will actually do;
• what is included;
• how long it takes;
• where it starts;
• whether pickup is available;
• who the activity is suitable for;
• what they need to bring;
• what is not included?

Lead with your strongest selling point

Don’t hide your strongest selling point halfway down the description. If it’s a small-group tour, say so. If you visit somewhere competing tours don’t, make that clear. If hotel pickup is included, explain it. If drinks, equipment or admission are included, don’t make travelers hunt for that information.

Clarity helps people make decisions.

Take reviews seriously — especially when the listing is new

A new GetYourGuide activity has a difficult problem: you need bookings to generate reviews, but reviews help travelers feel confident enough to book.

GYG’s own research shows how significant those first reviews can be. GetYourGuide reported that travelers are three times more likely to book an activity with three reviews than one with none.

Its research also found substantial increases in page views and bookings as new listings build their first reviews.

That doesn’t mean you should manufacture reviews. It means delivering a strong experience and encouraging genuine guests to leave feedback is particularly important when your listing is new.

GetYourGuide also recommends responding to reviews — positive and negative — to demonstrate that the operator is engaged.

The first handful of reviews can matter much more than review number 201.

Keep your availability open

A great listing can’t be booked if the traveler can’t find a suitable date.

GetYourGuide recommends setting availability at least 3–6 months ahead, with a full year described as ideal where practical.

This matters because travelers don’t all book at the same time. Some are looking for tomorrow. Others are planning a trip months in advance.

If your calendar ends too early, those travelers can’t buy your activity even if they want to.

Keep your availability accurate and regularly updated. Don’t open dates you cannot fulfill simply to appear available.

The objective is to maximize genuine bookable inventory.

Look at your booking window

GetYourGuide’s newer Performance reporting also shows how far in advance customers book. That can tell you something useful about your specific business.

Perhaps your walking tours are commonly booked two days before arrival. Perhaps your private boat charters are booked six weeks ahead. Those products should not necessarily be managed identically.

Your own data is more useful than a generic article telling every tour operator that travelers behave the same way. Use GYG’s performance information to understand your customers.

Test pricing and offers carefully

Price affects the booking decision, but the answer isn’t automatically to become the cheapest activity.

Compare yourself with genuinely similar experiences. Look at:

• duration;
• group size;
• inclusions;
• transportation;
• admission;
• food and drinks;
• private versus shared format;
• cancellation conditions;
• review profile.

Price in context, not isolation

A €90 activity that includes transport, lunch and entrance fees isn’t necessarily expensive compared with a €65 activity that includes none of those things.

GetYourGuide also provides suppliers with tools for creating offers and recommendations based on booking data.

Use discounts strategically rather than treating permanent discounting as your only growth strategy.

Make logistics painfully clear

Tour operators understand their meeting point because they go there every day. Travelers don’t.

They may be visiting the city for the first time, using unfamiliar public transportation and reading instructions in another language.

GetYourGuide has continued investing in clearer meeting points, pickup areas, maps and traveler communication for exactly this reason.

Make sure guests understand where to go, when to arrive, what to look for, what to bring and how pickup works.

Good logistics aren’t only an operational issue. They influence the entire customer experience that eventually produces reviews.

Use GYG’s Performance funnel to decide what to fix

This is perhaps the biggest difference between optimizing GetYourGuide today and blindly guessing. Use the funnel.

• Low impressions — investigate discovery, availability, categories and listing setup.
• Impressions but low CTR — investigate your title and main image.
• Good page visits but weak conversion — investigate price, reviews, description, photos, availability and the overall offer.
• Good conversion but not enough volume — you may simply need more people discovering the product.

When the listing is strong, look beyond GYG

And that’s where the strategy starts moving beyond GetYourGuide itself.

GetYourGuide cannot capture every traveler

GYG is a major travel marketplace, but not every traveler starts their research there.

Someone visiting Prague might search Google for Prague food tours. Someone visiting Aruba might search Aruba sunset cruise. Someone planning a trip to Gozo might search Gozo quad tours.

Those travelers haven’t necessarily decided to use GetYourGuide. They are searching for the experience. That’s a different acquisition opportunity.

Add Google as another discovery channel

If your GetYourGuide listing is already reasonably strong, the next question becomes: can more travelers discover my activity outside GYG?

One approach is to build an independent Google-facing website around your destination and tour type.

For example: Google search → your tour-focused website → GetYourGuide listing → booking.

The website doesn’t need to replace GetYourGuide. And you don’t necessarily need to build another booking system.

Your site can handle Google discovery, while GYG continues handling the marketplace booking.

This is the strategy we explain more fully in our SEO for Tour Operators guide.

Target searches close to the booking

Don’t chase traffic simply because a keyword has search volume.

If you operate Prague food tours, a page about “history of Czech cuisine” may attract readers. But Prague food tour, best food tours Prague, Prague beer and food tour and private food tour Prague are much closer to the experience you’re actually selling.

For tour operators, 200 highly relevant visitors can be more interesting than thousands of visitors researching something unrelated to the product.

The goal is qualified discovery, not the largest traffic graph possible.

Don’t just copy your GYG listing onto another website

A Google-facing site needs to provide its own value. Copying the GetYourGuide description onto a new domain and adding a Book Now button isn’t much of an SEO strategy.

Instead, answer the questions travelers have around the experience. Depending on the activity, that might include:

• private versus shared tours;
• itinerary;
• duration;
• pickup;
• meeting points;
• what to bring;
• suitability for children;
• weather;
• accessibility;
• morning versus afternoon departures;
• comparisons between similar activities;
• destination-specific questions.

Help research, then hand off to GYG

The website should help someone research the experience. Then, when they’re ready: View Tour on GetYourGuide →

Measure Google and GYG separately

Once you add an external channel, don’t mix the metrics together.

GetYourGuide gives you information about performance inside its marketplace. Your Google-facing site should separately measure things such as Google impressions, organic website visits and clicks from your site to GetYourGuide.

Then GYG continues measuring activity on its side.

Be careful with attribution. A click from your website to GetYourGuide is not automatically a booking. Unless you have reliable booking attribution, report it as a booking-link click, not a sale.

So, how do you get more bookings on GetYourGuide?

Don’t look for one trick. Work through the funnel.

• Not enough impressions? Improve discoverability and availability.
• Impressions but not enough clicks? Work on the title and main photo.
• Clicks but not enough bookings? Improve the offer, listing, reviews, pricing and traveler confidence.
• Strong listing but you want more potential customers? Look beyond GYG and build additional discovery channels.

Use both channels together

The advantage is that you don’t have to choose between them. Your GetYourGuide listing can continue doing what it does well while Google creates another opportunity for travelers to find you.