Viator: Your Guide to Becoming a Tour Guide

What is Viator?

Viator, a division of Trip Advisor, is a travel marketplace that connects tourists with independent guides, who are willing and able to provide tours and excursions.

How it works

The rules for setting up as an independent tour guide vary based on your location. However, Viator offers a step-by-step guide to help people get started, which includes how to determine what kind of tour might sell well in your area and whether or not you need to be licensed.

You can follow the steps in this guide, and create a profile and tours for sale.

Viator Review:

Viator allows you to register as a local tour guide and advertise tours of your own making.  You design the itinerary, determine when the tour is offered, set prices, and determine how many people you can accommodate. The site does not hamper your imagination nor your ability to charge anything your heart desires.

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The site’s is a subsidiary of travel giant Trip Advisor, which is a significant positive. Trip Advisor is the #1 ranked travel and tourism site, according to SimilarWeb. That means that millions of Trip Advisor’s site visitors can be exposed to your tours on any given day.

It’s also important to note that the site accepts anyone from one-man/woman operations to full tour companies. So, if you sign up to offer tours here, you’ll face plenty of competition. The site does try to help you compete with it’s tutorial (mentioned and linked to above). And we highly recommend paying attention, particularly when it comes to designing your tours. Check out the competition; their pricing; and how you can differentiate yourself.

Differentiating on price is a losers game. Only offer tours here that you can make unique and special.

Commissions and fees

Viator charges just $29 to list a tour. If someone buys it, the company will deduct a 25% commission from the revenue to pay for its marketing and collection services.

Cancellations

You can also set your own cancellation policy for your tours. And this is a smart thing to do because, if you don’t, the site’s liberal cancellation policy applies. And that means you’d have to refund customers, even when they cancel within 24 hours of the event. You have the ability to change that any way you want — from offering no refunds at all, to charging a fee for last-minute cancelations.

A tough cancelation policy can deter some bookings. But, since most tours require a significant amount of pre-planning, deterring bookings that are likely to flake out at the last minute saves you a lot of time and money.

Getting paid

Payment is slow here. Viator pays suppliers once monthly in the month following booked events. It also demands that suppliers accept “instant bookings,” so the ability to cancel events that don’t draw enough tourists appears to be missing.

Recommendations:

We like this site’s ability to advertise your tours and to leave the pricing to you. You can sign up to offer tours here.

Listing here also does not preclude you from listing your tour guiding services elsewhere. We also recommend signing up with Tours by Locals.

Want to offer tours on Viator?

Sign up here!

or

Book a trip here

 

Updated 2/2/2023