Should You Start With a Marketplace or Your Own Website? The Real Answer for Small Operators

If you run one or two experiences, you've probably asked yourself this question already. Build your own website first, or get listed on a platform where travelers are already searching.

There's a whole thread of tour operators debating this exact thing right now, and the consensus is pretty clear. Start on existing platforms. Validate that people actually want to book what you're offering. Then build your own direct channel once you have bookings and reviews to point at.

That advice is solid. But there's a piece missing from it that costs operators real money for years without them realizing it.

Here's the part nobody's saying

Platforms are a great way to get in front of travelers who are already looking. Nobody's arguing that. The problem is what happens after you prove your experience sells.

Most operators get their first bookings through Viator, GetYourGuide, or Expedia, see the traffic come in, and just... stay there. Commissions sit at 10 to 32 percent per booking, and that number doesn't move once you're locked into the platform.

The plan is supposed to be: validate first, then build direct. But building direct usually means a shiny new website and some social posts, and then wondering why nobody finds it. A website with no traffic doesn't replace an OTA. It just becomes a page you link to in your Instagram bio.

The channel operators skip

While everyone's deciding between a website and a marketplace, there's a third option sitting in plain sight. Google Things to Do.

This is where travelers are already searching, the exact same way they search a marketplace, except it's not a marketplace you're renting space on. It's your own Google Business Profile, showing your own tours, with an Official Site tag pointing straight back to you.

No commission to Google. No bidding for placement. Just your business showing up where people are already looking for exactly what you offer.

Why this fixes the actual problem

The reason operators default to platforms first is trust and visibility. Travelers already trust Viator and GetYourGuide, and those platforms already show up in search.

Google Things to Do solves both of those without the commission. Your listing shows up on Google Maps and Search, right where someone is already looking up your attraction or your city. The Official Site tag does the trust-building work an OTA badge used to do, except every booking through it is yours, not shared with a reseller.

This isn't instead of getting started on a marketplace. It's the step most operators never take once they've validated demand. They keep paying the commission indefinitely because nobody told them there was a direct path that didn't require building an audience from zero.

Where most operators get stuck

Here's the catch. Your booking software might already claim to support Google Things to Do. Fareharbor, Bókun, Rezdy, most of the big platforms say they connect. What they don't tell you is that the feed data they send Google is thin. Minimal descriptions, missing details, nothing close to what would actually get you surfaced.

So operators check the box, assume they're covered, and never show up.

Getting this right takes an optimized feed, not just a checked integration box. That's the gap between having the connection and actually getting bookings from it.

If you're past the validation stage and ready to stop handing over a third of every booking to a platform, that's exactly what we help operators set up. You can get the full walkthrough in the course at thingstodomarketing.com/course.