Should Tour Operators Sell on OTAs or Focus on Direct Bookings?

A cooking class operator in Lisbon had a fully booked summer, almost entirely through GetYourGuide. Revenue looked great on paper. Then she sat down with her accountant and realized how much of it had gone straight to commission. The question she asked next is one a lot of operators are asking right now: should I be leaning into OTAs, or pulling back toward my own site?

The honest answer is that it's not really either or. But the data on where the industry is heading, and what each channel actually costs, is worth looking at before you decide where to put your energy.

The channel mix is shifting, and not in the direction most operators expect

According to Arival's State of Experiences survey, reported by PhocusWire, OTAs accounted for 37 percent of tour and activity bookings in 2025, up from 33 percent in 2024 and 28 percent in 2023. Over the same period, bookings through operators' own websites fell from 29 percent to 25 percent, and direct offline bookings slipped too. The survey drew on more than 5,600 responses from operators worldwide, so it's a reasonably broad read on where the industry actually stands, not a single company's marketing claim.

The trend matters because, as Arival's own writeup puts it, this shift tends to happen by default rather than by design. Operators who don't actively invest in their own channel will simply watch OTAs take a growing share of their business, whether or not that's the mix they'd have chosen.

What an OTA booking actually costs

Commission rates vary by OTA and by how much visibility you want. Viator's own partner pricing page puts the base commission around 20 percent of gross booking value, with higher tiers available in exchange for more prominent placement in search results. GetYourGuide's public pricing works on a similar sliding scale. Once you add in the cost of any promoted placement, the effective rate on many bookings lands closer to 25 to 30 percent.

That's not necessarily a bad trade. An OTA brings you a guest you likely wouldn't have found on your own, and takes on a chunk of the marketing work. The issue is when it becomes your only channel, since every guest who books that way is also a guest whose contact details you may never see again.

OTA versus direct, side by side

Neither channel is strictly better. Here's a simplified comparison of what each one actually offers.

Building a healthier channel mix

Most operators don't need to choose one channel over the other. A more realistic goal is to make sure OTAs are filling gaps rather than quietly becoming your only source of bookings. A few practical steps:

1. Keep a presence on one or two OTAs for discovery, rather than trying to be everywhere at once.
2. Track margin by channel, not just bookings, so you can see which one is actually paying the bills.
3. Invest in your own site, reviews and search visibility so direct traffic has somewhere solid to land.
4. Reserve your best pricing, add-ons or availability for guests who book directly, as a reason to come back next time.
5. Sync your calendar across every channel in real time, so an OTA booking and a direct booking can never double up the same slot.
6. Collect guest emails wherever the booking comes from, so you can market future trips even to guests who first found you through an OTA.

Don't run OTAs and your own site as two separate systems

This is where a lot of the pain actually happens, not in the commission itself, but in juggling two or more calendars by hand and hoping nothing gets double booked. TrekkSoft connects to more than 100 OTAs and marketplaces while keeping your own booking widget and website in sync with the same live inventory, so a booking on Viator instantly blocks that slot everywhere else. You get the reach of OTAs without the manual reconciliation.

Growing the direct side of that mix also means showing up where people are actually searching, which increasingly includes AI assistants, not just Google. GeoSnake's blog has a good rundown on how reporting needs to evolve once a business starts tracking AI visibility alongside regular search, which is worth a look if direct bookings are the channel you're trying to grow.

The bottom line

OTAs aren't the enemy, they're a real acquisition channel with a real cost attached, and that cost is worth knowing precisely rather than guessing at. The operators who come out ahead tend to be the ones actively managing the mix, using OTAs on purpose rather than defaulting into them.

TrekkSoft keeps your OTA connections, your own website bookings and your live availability in one system, so you can grow direct without giving up the reach OTAs provide. Book a free TrekkSoft demo to see how the two can work together instead of against each other.

FAQs

Should I drop OTAs and go direct-only?

Not necessarily. OTAs still bring in guests who'd never have found you otherwise, especially early on or in a new market. The Arival data suggests the risk isn't using OTAs, it's letting them become your only channel by not investing in the direct side at all.

How much commission is normal for tour and activity OTAs?

Base rates tend to sit around 20 percent, per Viator's own pricing page, and effective rates often land in the 25 to 30 percent range once optional promoted placement is included. Rates vary by OTA, location and volume, so it's worth checking the current terms directly with each platform.

How do I stop an OTA booking and a direct booking from double booking the same slot?

The safest fix is real time inventory sync across every channel you sell on, so a booking anywhere immediately updates availability everywhere else. Doing this manually across spreadsheets or separate calendars is where most double bookings come from, so a booking platform that connects to your OTAs directly removes the risk rather than just reducing it.