Part 4: Online Travel Agency Setup Strategy for Adventure Businesses

Look, I’m not going to walk you through clicking “Sign Up” on Viator’s website. You can figure that out. What I wish someone had told me is which OTA to start with for adventure businesses, how to avoid the integration disasters that cost real money, and when adding more platforms actually makes sense.

After two years of technical headaches and one very expensive inventory mistake, here’s what I’ve learned about the OTA setup decisions that actually matter for adventure tour operators. This is a long post so feel free to hop around to what applies to you.

The $10,000 OTA Integration Disaster (A Case Study from Our Business)

Here’s the OTA integration mistake nobody warns you about: our Viator integration looked perfect during testing, but it was quietly destroying our direct booking revenue for over a year.

The problem: People booked tandem kayaks through Viator, but our integration was pulling inventory from our single kayak pool. Every tandem booking made our system show fewer singles available, even though we had plenty sitting on the beach. We would question it and then get busy with other things. Daily, we had to go into the Viator system and check the bookings and then rebook them in Fareharbor correctly. If we forgot or got busy, we would end up with overbookings, boats sitting on the beach, and lots of confusion.

We were turning away direct customers because our adventure booking system showed “sold out” when we actually had equipment available. This went on for 12 months before we caught it, then took another year to fully fix. We did reach out to both Fareharbor and Viator to try to get it fixed. However, both parties kept saying the other party was at fault. FINALLY, during a quiet season, we decided to resolve it once and for all. It took hours of phone calls with Fareharbor support but it finally works now, even though it is a bit clunky.

Red flags to watch for in your OTA setup:

• Your available inventory doesn’t match what you actually have
• Direct bookings dropping while OTA bookings increase
• Customers calling about availability that contradicts your system
• Equipment categories that seem to affect each other

Test these scenarios before going live:

• Book every equipment type through the OTA
• Check how group adventure bookings affect individual availability
• Verify that cancellations restore inventory properly
  • Make sure your busiest day scenarios don’t break the system

Technical Setup Red Flags That Cost Adventure Businesses Money

• “Default settings” aren’t always right – Your booking system’s standard OTA integration might not match your business model. This is something we didn’t catch early enough.
• Test edge cases – Don’t just test one simple booking; test groups, add-ons, equipment variations. Don’t wait to make these changes until the middle of a busy season. This is good stuff to work on during the slow season.
• Payment reconciliation – Set up tracking systems before you need them, not after you’re confused about missing payments
• Customer communication limits – Know which platforms restrict your communication before you’re scrambling to reach someone. Next week, we will talk about some ways I have solved this issue.

Don’t make changes to your OTAs during the busy season. If you can, wait until slow season to make sure things are working properly.

Which OTA Should I Start With?

If you have decided that you want to start with an OTA, take a look at the list below for my recommendation on where to start. Some of the programs are much more complicated to get set up and integrated with your booking platform (Viator!) and some have more challenging requirements (insurance and documentation) while others are a lot easier. The simplest one is Airbnb Experiences.

Start with Airbnb Experiences if:

• You’re new to online travel agencies and want to test the waters
• Cash flow is tight (they pay next day)
• Your adventure tours work well for leisure travelers and locals
• You want the simplest OTA integration process

Start with Viator if:

• You need international reach for adventure tours immediately
• You can handle weekly payment cycles
• You’re willing to deal with more complex integration for bigger volume
• Your tours appeal to cruise ship passengers and international tourists

Save GetYourGuide for later:

• We love that Get Your Guide brings in a lot of European travelers but it does get complicated. We get reviews in foreign languages and it can be hard to reach out to customers if you don’t have specialized phone programs
• That monthly payment cycle is brutal when you’re starting out
• More complex booking system requirements than the others

What about Booking.com?

• We actually haven’t tried them yet but plan to. We will report back!

When to Add Multiple OTAs to Your Adventure Business

If you are already using one OTA, you might want to add another one. However, I would caution to do it strategically.

Don’t add more OTAs if:
– You’re still struggling with your first integration
– Your current platform isn’t consistently bringing bookings
– You don’t have systems to manage multiple payment schedules
– You’re spending more time on OTA management than customer service

OTAs should not be the focus of your business. They support it but they shouldn’t be essential to it.

However, there can be benefits to multiple OTAs for some businesses. For example, they have different customer bases. Viator gets more Americans and GetYourGuide targets the European market. This is an important consideration as there may be seasonal differences. We may know when Americans go on spring break, but when are the breaks in Europe? If you have GetYourGuide established, you can benefit from those seasonal bookings that you might not even know about.

The Bottom Line on OTA Setup Strategy

The technical setup for OTAs isn’t just about getting connected – it’s about setting up systems that won’t cost you money later. Start with one OTA, get it right, then expand strategically.

Learn from us. Our inventory disaster taught us that “working” and “working correctly” are very different things.

Next week in Part 5 we will be discussing some strategies that have helped us solve the OTA issues and in Part 6 we will be discussing how to make OTA clients into your businesses direct clients.

If you missed them, check out Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 in the series. With all of this information, you will be well prepared when you set up online travel agencies for your adventure based business.

See you next week!