Marketplace commission eats bookings
You may fill tours through GetYourGuide or Viator, then lose typically around 20 to 30 per cent of each booking. The work is yours, but part of the sale leaves before costs are covered.
Direct booking for walking tour operators
Take More Walking Tour Bookings Directly
We build direct booking websites for walking tour operators around the booking system you already use. Get found locally, sell scheduled tours and own the customer relationship. Website projects start from £2,495, excluding VAT.
From £2,495
Direct booking website build
£59 a month
Required Website Care
£169 a month
AI Receptionist
20 to 30%
Typical marketplace commission range
Every booking through GetYourGuide or Viator can bring a customer, but it can also take a large share of your sale. These marketplaces typically charge suppliers around 20 to 30 per cent. On £50,000 of annual bookings, that can mean roughly £10,000 to £15,000 paid away before your guide, staff and operating costs.
You do not need to abandon the marketplaces. They can help visitors discover your city and fill quieter departures. The sensible move is to give people another way to book. Your own walking tour operator website can turn searches, repeat visitors and recommendations into direct bookings without another marketplace taking a commission.
The problem
What is costing Walking Tour Operators work right now
Your tours are hard to compare
A basic page may list a tour without showing its route, pace, meeting point, duration or suitability. Visitors cannot quickly see why your experience deserves their limited holiday time.
Calls arrive during departures
You cannot answer every call while guiding guests, crossing roads or handling a group. Without a reliable follow-up system, private tour enquiries can disappear before you return to your phone.
The ACCC Framework
Attract
Convert
Capture
Compound
How the system works
What you get
Included in the build
Every client also takes Website Care at £59 a month. Everything else is modular.
01
Bokun booking integration
02
FareHarbor booking integration
03
Rezdy booking integration
04
Checkfront booking integration
05
Bookeo booking integration
06
Freetobook booking integration
07
Experience and tour pages
08
Live availability and booking
09
Online payments and deposits
10
Google Business Profile support
11
Post-tour review generation
12
Booking conversion tracking
Pricing
Packages for Walking Tour Operators
For tour operators, attractions, activity providers, accommodation and leisure businesses. Built to reduce how much of your business depends on the big booking marketplaces.
Direct Booking
£2,495
A conversion website wrapped around the booking system you already use.
Best for: Small operators already on a booking platform such as Bokun, FareHarbor, Rezdy, Checkfront, Bookeo or Freetobook.
- Up to 10 pages
- Booking engine integration
- Experience and tour pages
- Availability and book-now integration
- Payment integration where relevant
- Mobile booking journey
- Reviews and galleries
- WhatsApp and contact capture
- GA4 and booking conversion tracking
- Google Business Profile optimisation
- SEO foundations
- Audience Simulator access, included
- Copywriting and training
Booking Growth
£3,995
Built to shift demand away from the marketplaces and onto your own site.
Best for: Operators with several tours or experiences who want a direct sales channel they own.
Everything in Direct Booking, plus:
- Up to 20 pages
- Multiple tours and experiences
- Destination pages
- Service and location pages
- Advanced booking tracking
- Abandoned enquiry capture
- Email marketing integration
- Review generation
- Google Things to Do feeds where applicable
- Channel connectivity help where supported
- SEO content structure
- Google Ads landing pages
- Direct-booking conversion optimisation
Tourism Pro
From £5,995
For operators with real inventory and operational complexity.
Best for: Multi-location operations, accommodation, packages, ticketing and larger inventories.
Everything in Booking Growth, plus options such as:
- Multiple tours and attractions
- Accommodation and packages
- Ticketing
- Multi-location operations
- Large inventories
- Channel managers
- API connectivity
- Complex availability rules
- Supplier systems
- Bespoke booking workflows
Genuinely bespoke platforms move into custom travel and booking development, quoted separately from £10,000.
Website Care £59 a month Required
Hosting, SSL, daily backups, security monitoring, software updates, uptime monitoring, up to 30 minutes of content changes each month and email support.
All prices exclude VAT.
Monthly
Everything else is modular
Website Care is required for every client. Add anything else when you need it, and drop it when you do not.
Website Care
Required£59 a month
Hosting, SSL, daily backups, security monitoring, software updates, uptime monitoring, up to 30 minutes of content changes each month and email support.
AI Receptionist
£169 a month
Answers every call 24/7 in your business name, takes the job details, qualifies the caller and texts you immediately.
A human receptionist costs £24,000 to £28,000 a year. A live answering service runs £200 to £450 a month.
Website Chatbot
Price on application
Answers visitor questions on your site around the clock, using only what it has been taught about your business, and captures the enquiry before they leave.
Most visitors will not ring and will not fill in a form. They ask one question, get no answer, and leave.
Google Ads Management
£449 a month
Campaign management, bid and budget optimisation, ad copy testing, negative keyword management, landing page optimisation and a monthly reporting call.
Your ad spend goes direct to Google and is never marked up. Minimum recommended spend is £400 a month.
SEO and Content
£249 a month
Two optimised pages or articles a month, local SEO, Google Business Profile posts, citation building, rank tracking and monthly reporting.
Automated Social Media
£99 a month
Plans, writes and posts your social media to Facebook and Instagram. You approve a month of content in one sitting.
Intelligent Marketing Coach
£49 a month
A marketing plan built around your business, broken into weekly tasks, so you always know the next thing to do.
Extra Support Time
£75 a month
An additional 2 hours a month for changes, new pages and seasonal updates.
Bundles
Bundle them and pay less
The same modules, priced lower when taken together.
Care plus Receptionist
£199 a month
Saves £29
Care plus Receptionist plus Ads
£595 a month
Saves £82
Everything
£795 a month
Saves £141
No Upfront Option
£199 a month , 24 month term
No setup fee. A template site built for your trade, with hosting, care and the AI receptionist included. For businesses who want to start now without the upfront cost.
Start with no upfront cost- No setup fee
- Template site built for your trade
- Up to 5 pages
- Hosting and Website Care included
- AI Receptionist included
- Live in 5 working days
Terms
- 50% on signature, 50% on launch.
- Monthly billing starts at launch, with a 12 month minimum term and monthly thereafter.
- Ad spend is billed separately by Google and is never marked up.
- Modules can be added at any time.
- All prices exclude VAT.
Quote request
Get a price for your walking tour operator website
Two minutes of questions and we will send back a real number, not a range. Website packages start at £1,295, ecommerce from £2,495, and there is a no upfront option at £199 a month.
- A fixed price, not a range
- Reply within one working day
- No obligation and no sales sequence
The result
What changes once it is live
More guests book with you
Visitors can find the right tour, check availability and pay through your own website. You keep more of the booking value and build a direct relationship for future visits.
Your booking system stays central
Your existing engine remains the source of availability, departures and payment information. The website improves the route into it without forcing you to learn a new reservation system.
Private groups arrive better qualified
Quote forms collect dates, numbers, tour preferences and practical needs before you reply. You can price suitable work faster and avoid long message chains with missing information.
01
Your website becomes the hub of every tour sale
A strong walking tour operator website works while you are leading a group through the city. It explains each experience, shows the meeting point, answers common questions and sends people to live availability. Visitors can choose a date, see the price and book without waiting for you to reply.
We build around the reservation system you already use. We are not trying to replace it unless you want us to. Instead, we connect a clear website to your existing booking flow, so your guide capacity, scheduled departures, deposits and online payments remain manageable. The result is one reliable route from search to confirmed booking.
- Experience pages for each tour
- Live availability and book buttons
- Booking engine integration
- Online payments and deposits
02
Local search puts your tours in front of ready buyers
City-break visitors often search for a tour before they arrive. They may look for a walking tour in Newcastle, a historic city tour in Durham or a food tour near their hotel. We build pages around the places, experiences and phrases people use when they are ready to choose.
Your Google Business Profile also matters. We help keep your hours, tour details, booking link, photos and service information accurate. We connect the profile to useful destination and location pages, giving Google and visitors a clear picture of what you offer and where your tours start.
This approach supports a walking tour operator website UK visitors can find before their trip. From Newcastle upon Tyne, we work with operators across the North East and the wider UK.
- Google Business Profile improvements
- Destination and location pages
- Tour pages built for search
- Clear meeting point information
More detail
More on websites for walking tour operators
The rest of what walking tour operators ask us, tidied away. Open what you need.
Some visitors are not ready to book a scheduled departure. They may want a private group tour, a school visit, a hen weekend or a corporate walking experience. A vague contact form creates more work because you still need to ask for dates, group size and requirements.
We build quote forms for the way walking tour operators work. They can ask for the preferred date, number of guests, age range, tour type, language, accessibility needs and meeting area. You receive useful information instead of a message saying, "How much for a tour?"
That helps you price private work properly and reply faster. It also separates a live booking from a group enquiry, so each person reaches the right next step.
- Date and group size fields
- Private tour enquiry forms
- Language and access questions
- Clear booking and quote routes
A visitor comparing several walking tours wants proof from people who have already joined. Reviews can settle doubts about the guide, pace, stories, meeting point and overall experience. They often decide which operator gets booked when several tours look similar.
We build review requests into the follow-up after each completed tour. The message can direct happy guests towards Google, while giving unhappy guests a private route to tell you what went wrong. That gives you a regular source of honest feedback without relying on memory after a busy day.
Reviews can then support your tour pages and Google Business Profile. The aim is not to invent praise. It is to make it easier for genuine guests to share their experience soon after the job.
- Post-tour review requests
- Google review links
- Private feedback route
- Review prompts beside booking information
Calls often arrive when you are outdoors, carrying equipment or leading a group through a busy street. The AI Receptionist answers 24/7 in your business name, so a missed call does not automatically become a lost private tour or group booking.
It takes the caller's details, asks what they need and sorts urgency. It can collect the preferred date, group size, tour type and contact details. It then texts you immediately, giving you a clear lead to follow up when you finish.
The AI Receptionist costs £169 a month on its own. It costs £199 a month with Website Care. That bundle gives you hosting, security and website support alongside a way to catch calls you cannot answer yourself.
- Answers calls around the clock
- Uses your business name
- Collects tour and group details
- Texts you straight away
When you are ready to buy leads, Google Ads can put a specific tour in front of people searching for it now. We can build landing pages for private tours, food walks, history tours or seasonal experiences, rather than sending every click to a generic home page.
Google Ads Management is £449 a month. It includes campaign management, bid and budget changes, ad copy testing, negative keyword management, landing page improvements and a monthly reporting call. Your ad spend goes directly to Google. We never mark it up.
We also connect booking conversion tracking. That shows which advert and landing page led to a booking, enquiry or phone call. You can then see which campaigns support real tour sales, not just visits to your website.
- Google Ads landing pages
- Booking conversion tracking
- Ad copy testing
- Ad spend paid directly to Google
A new website gives you a stronger base, but city searches change with the seasons. Visitors search differently for Christmas markets, summer evenings, ghost walks, food tours and family activities. Fresh pages help your website stay useful when those demands appear.
SEO and Content costs £249 a month. It includes two optimised pages or articles each month, local search work, Google Business Profile posts, citation building, rank tracking and monthly reporting. We focus on useful subjects, such as what to wear, where tours meet and which experiences suit families.
You can add Automated Social Media for £99 a month. We plan, write and post to Facebook and Instagram for your approval. The Intelligent Marketing Coach costs £49 a month and turns your marketing plan into weekly tasks you can actually complete.
- Two pages or articles monthly
- Google Business Profile posts
- Automated Facebook and Instagram posts
- Weekly marketing tasks
Direct Booking costs £2,495. It suits an operator who wants a conversion website around an existing booking system, with clear tour pages, search foundations and direct booking routes. Booking Growth costs £3,995 and is the package most operators should take. It gives more room for tour types, destination pages, tracking and growth activity.
Tourism Pro starts from £5,995. It suits established operators with real inventory, several experiences, complex requirements or deeper operational needs. Genuinely bespoke platforms are quoted separately from £10,000. Every build is supported by Website Care at £59 a month, which is required for every client.
Website Care includes hosting, security certificates, daily backups, security monitoring, software updates, uptime monitoring, up to 30 minutes of content changes each month and email support. If you want to start without the upfront build cost, the no upfront option is £199 a month on a 24 month term, with no setup fee. It includes a template site for your trade, hosting, care and the AI Receptionist.
- Direct Booking, £2,495
- Booking Growth, £3,995
- Tourism Pro, from £5,995
- Website Care, £59 a month
- No upfront option, £199 a month
The honest comparison
Why do some websites cost £199?
It is a fair question, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a sales pitch.
If you simply need a basic online presence, a low-cost website builder may be enough. Somewhere to point people who already know your name. If that is genuinely all you need, do that and spend the money elsewhere. We would rather tell you that than take a fee for something you will not use.
Our websites are designed for established businesses that want Google traffic to turn into calls, enquiries and customers. Copy, tracking, conversion setup and ongoing management are built in. That is a different product solving a different problem, and it is priced accordingly.
A £199 builder site
Fine for a basic presence. Not built to win work.
A Look North website
Built so search traffic becomes booked jobs.
Who writes the words
A £199 builder site
You do, usually at 11pm, into a blank box.
A Look North website
We do. Copywriting for every page is included, written around the jobs you actually want.
Whether it shows up on Google
A £199 builder site
It will rank for your business name. Not much else.
A Look North website
A page for every service and every town you cover, structured so each one can rank.
What happens to an enquiry
A £199 builder site
A contact form emails you. If you miss it, you miss it.
A Look North website
Quote forms written for your trade, instant SMS and email alerts, and every enquiry stored so none are lost.
When the phone rings and you are on a job
A £199 builder site
It goes to voicemail. Most callers hang up and ring the next business.
A Look North website
Our AI receptionist answers 24/7 in your business name, takes the details and texts you straight away.
Knowing what is working
A £199 builder site
A visitor counter, if that.
A Look North website
Call tracking, conversion tracking and call attribution, so you know which clicks became real jobs.
Getting reviews
A £199 builder site
You remember to ask, sometimes.
A Look North website
Review generation set up so a request goes out after every job, with the results shown on your site.
What happens after launch
A £199 builder site
Nothing. It sits there until you cancel the subscription.
A Look North website
The Marketing Coach gives you a plan broken into weekly jobs, so the site keeps earning its keep.
Who owns it
A £199 builder site
The platform. Stop paying and it disappears.
A Look North website
You do. The code, the domain, the hosting account and the content are yours.
Speed on a phone
A £199 builder site
Template bloat, often slow, which costs you rankings and visitors.
A Look North website
Built mobile first, because that is where almost every local search happens.
When something breaks
A £199 builder site
A help centre article and a support queue.
A Look North website
Website Care at £59 a month: monitoring, backups, updates, and a person who answers.
We have a £199 a month option too. It is not the same thing.
If the upfront cost is the blocker rather than the quality, we do a no upfront option at £199 a month on a 24 month term. That is not a builder subscription. It is a real site built for your trade, with hosting, Website Care and the AI receptionist included, live in 5 working days. The difference between that and a £199 builder site is the difference between renting a van and renting a parking space.
What the difference buys
What you actually get for the difference
Not features. The things that change how much work comes in.
Every call answered
A missed call is a customer ringing your competitor. The AI receptionist picks up 24/7, qualifies the job and texts you. Most trades win back more than the cost of the whole website in the first few months.
Found for the work you want
One page cannot rank for eight services across twelve towns. We build a page for each, so you show up for the specific job someone is searching for right now.
Enquiries you can price
Not "how much for a bathroom?" but property type, scale, access, timing and photos. You quote accurately, first, without a site visit.
Proof that compounds
A review request after every job. In a year you have the review count competitors cannot catch up with, and reviews are the last thing a customer checks before calling.
Words written for you
Copywriting for every page is included. No blank boxes, no writing your own service descriptions at 11pm, no page that sounds like everyone else.
Proof of what paid off
Call tracking and conversion tracking show which clicks turned into jobs. You stop guessing which half of the marketing worked.
A plan for after launch
The Marketing Coach turns a strategy into weekly jobs small enough to actually finish. That is why our sites are still growing a year later.
You own the lot
Code, domain, hosting, content and your Google Business Profile. Nothing switches off if you leave, because nothing was rented to you.
If a basic presence is all you need, a builder is the sensible choice and we will say so. If you want the phone to ring more often, that is what we build. Get a fixed price.
FAQ
Walking Tour Operators ask us these most
Price, timescales and ownership, answered for a walking tour operator.
Direct Booking costs £2,495, excluding VAT. Booking Growth costs £3,995 and is the package most walking tour operators should choose. Tourism Pro starts from £5,995 for established operators with more complex needs. Genuinely bespoke platforms are quoted separately from £10,000. The build price is separate from monthly care and any marketing modules you choose.
The timescale depends on the number of tours, destinations, languages, content and booking connections. We agree the work and launch plan before starting. Having your tour details, photographs, prices and booking engine access ready helps keep things moving. A straightforward build can launch quickly, while Tourism Pro work needs more planning and testing around inventory and operations.
Website Care keeps the site hosted, secure and available. It includes an SSL security certificate, daily backups, security monitoring, software updates, uptime monitoring, up to 30 minutes of content changes each month and email support. Booking websites need ongoing attention because software, payment connections and security threats change. The £59 monthly service is required for every client.
Yes. We build around the system you already use rather than replacing it by default. We integrate booking engines such as Bokun, FareHarbor, Rezdy, Checkfront, Bookeo and Freetobook. We check how your account handles availability, departures, capacity, payments and customer details before recommending the right connection.
No. You can keep using those marketplaces for discovery and extra demand. The website gives visitors another route, so repeat guests, referrals and people searching directly can book with you. This helps reduce reliance on marketplace commission over time. You choose where to promote each tour and which channels suit your capacity.
If around £50,000 of bookings comes through marketplaces charging typically around 20 to 30 per cent, the commission could be roughly £10,000 to £15,000. That is not a promise about your exact costs. It shows why moving even part of your existing demand to your own website can cover a £2,495 or £3,995 build many times over.
Yes, provided your booking engine supports those rules. We connect the website to your available dates, times and spaces rather than displaying a disconnected enquiry form. We also structure tour pages around the details guests need, such as duration, meeting point, walking distance, group size, accessibility and what happens in bad weather.
Yes. Alongside live booking routes, we can add quote forms for private groups, schools, hen parties, corporate teams and other custom requests. The form can collect the date, number of guests, age range, language, access needs, preferred route and meeting area. You receive enough detail to check capacity and prepare a sensible price.
The AI Receptionist answers calls 24/7 in your business name. It takes the caller's details, asks what they need, sorts urgency and texts you immediately. It is useful when you are guiding, driving, outdoors or dealing with guests. It does not replace your booking engine. It catches the conversation and gives you the information needed for follow-up.
The AI Receptionist costs £169 a month on its own. The Care plus Receptionist bundle costs £199 a month, including Website Care. Website Care is required, so the bundle is often the simpler choice. We set the receptionist up around your business name, common tour questions and the details you want collected from callers.
Google Ads Management costs £449 a month. It includes campaign management, bid and budget optimisation, advert testing, negative keyword management, landing page improvements and a monthly reporting call. Your ad spend is billed directly by Google and is never marked up by us. We also track which clicks become bookings, enquiries or calls.
Yes. We improve the website pages around your tours, city locations and visitor needs. We also help keep your Google Business Profile accurate, with the right booking link, details, photos and posts. For an operator in Newcastle upon Tyne, this may include searches around the city, nearby attractions and North East visitor demand.
You can keep the site growing with SEO and Content at £249 a month. This includes two optimised pages or articles each month, local search work, Google Business Profile posts, citation building, rank tracking and monthly reporting. Automated Social Media is £99 a month. The Intelligent Marketing Coach is £49 a month and gives you weekly marketing tasks.
You own the website created for your business, along with your business content and customer information. We provide the hosting, care and technical support under the agreed service terms. Your booking engine account remains yours too. We can explain the handover process if you ever decide to manage the technical work elsewhere.
The no upfront option costs £199 a month on a 24 month term, with no setup fee. It includes a template site built for your trade, hosting, Website Care and the AI Receptionist. It is designed for businesses that want to start without paying the build cost upfront. This option is different from the full package builds.
For a standard build, payment is 50 per cent on signature and 50 per cent on launch. Monthly billing starts at launch, with a 12 month minimum term and monthly billing after that. Modules can be added at any time. All prices exclude VAT. Google Ads spend is separate and goes directly to Google.
Where we work
Working across the UK
We build local landing pages for every town you cover. These are the areas we work in most often.
Newcastle upon Tyne
Gateshead
Sunderland
Durham
North Shields
South Shields
Whitley Bay
Wallsend
Jarrow
Washington
Cramlington
Blyth
Morpeth
Hexham
Ponteland
Chester-le-Street
Consett
Gosforth
Jesmond
Heaton
Tynemouth
Killingworth
Houghton-le-Spring
Seaham
Bedlington
References
Useful links for a walking tour operator
The bodies and tools a walking tour operator deals with, plus where to go next on our site.
More from us
Official sources
External sites open in a new tab. We link to primary sources and accreditation bodies only.
Also built for
Websites for similar businesses
Closest to walking tour operators in how they win work. Each gets its own page, quote form and set of searches.
Booking & Tourism
- Adventure Centres
- Axe Throwing & Social Venues
- B&Bs & Guest Houses
- Boat Tour Operators
- Brewery & Distillery Tours
- Castles & Heritage Sites
- Climbing & Bouldering Centres
- Coach Tour Operators
- Cycling Tour Operators
- Escape Rooms
- Event & Experience Operators
- Farm Attractions
- Food & Drink Tour Operators
- Glamping Sites
- Golf Clubs & Courses
- Holiday Cottages & Lets
- Holiday Parks
- Karting Circuits
- Kayaking & Canoeing Operators
- Museums & Galleries
- Paintball & Airsoft Venues
- Spa & Leisure Businesses
- Visitor Attractions
- Wildlife & Nature Tour Operators
Looking for a different sector? See all sectors we build for, or tell us your trade and we will quote for it.
Next step
Get a fixed price for your walking tour operator website
Tell us the walking tour operator work you want more of and the towns you cover. We will send back a real number with a scope attached, not a range.