How to Sell Tours on Expedia: A Supplier's Guide

Most guides to selling on Expedia walk you through an application process. That is worth doing only if the door is open, and for tours and activities the honest answer in 2026 is that it mostly is not — which changes what a useful guide looks like.

So this covers the access question first, then the route that actually works, then what you need to know once your inventory is reaching Expedia travellers by either path. Figures below are current as of August 2026 and worth re-checking before you plan around them.

Can you actually list on Expedia?

Expedia's activities programme, Local Expert, has historically been the way tour operators appeared on Expedia. The current position is contested, and the contest matters enough to lay out plainly.

What most recent reporting says: the programme stopped taking new direct suppliers, with Expedia instead sourcing activity inventory from Viator and GetYourGuide. Guides published in mid-2026 describe it as closed to new partners, citing a booking software vendor's own support documentation alongside independent industry reporting.

What complicates it: Expedia's partner pages still host application forms, and an operator-facing guide published in May 2026 describes an active application route with commission negotiated against an assigned destination manager. Those pages are live and first-party.

Practically: applying costs you twenty minutes, so apply. But do not build a season's distribution plan around a direct Expedia account arriving, and read the next section as your actual route.

The route that works

If Expedia sources activity inventory from Viator and GetYourGuide, then for most operators listing well on those platforms is how you reach Expedia travellers. Not a workaround — the actual supply chain.

Which has three consequences worth understanding:

• You pay the intermediary, not Expedia. Your commission is whatever you agreed with Viator or GetYourGuide, and Expedia's share comes out of theirs rather than being added to yours.
• Your listing quality on those platforms determines your Expedia presence. The content, photography and reviews that make you visible on Viator are the same assets travelling onward — selling on Viator and on GetYourGuide cover getting that right.
• You have less visibility into what happened. A booking arriving through an intermediary may not tell you it originated on Expedia, which makes attributing demand harder.

The strategic read: if Expedia matters to you, the lever you actually control is your performance on the two platforms feeding it — which of those to prioritise is its own question.

If you have direct access

Operators holding a Local Expert account, or approved into one, work with an assigned destination manager rather than through a self-service portal. That is the structural difference from Viator or GetYourGuide, where onboarding is largely automated.

What that relationship covers in practice: your rates, which products are listed, how they are presented, and how you connect. It is a negotiated commercial arrangement rather than a set of terms you accept.

On content, the requirements are the ones any marketplace applies and are worth preparing before the conversation:

• Accurate product descriptions with inclusions and exclusions stated explicitly — writing descriptions that convert applies here as anywhere.
• Photography that shows the actual experience rather than stock scenery.
• Meeting point detail precise enough for somebody who has never been to your city.
• A cancellation policy stated in the terms the platform uses, not your own phrasing.
• Live availability the platform can rely on, which is the connectivity question below.

Also worth noting for anyone planning further ahead: Expedia Group has acquired Tiqets, an attractions and experiences platform — announced December 2025 and since confirmed as closed — and has been building a newer activities API. Both suggest the category is being invested in rather than wound down, so the access position may not stay as it is.

Commission and payouts

There is no published rate card, which is itself the most useful thing to know — your rate is negotiated rather than looked up.

Operator-facing guides consistently report a range of 15% to 30%, with some activity types reaching around 35%, set with your destination manager. Three independent sources give substantially the same range, which is about as much corroboration as exists for an unpublished figure.

• Go in with your numbers. Since it is negotiated, know your cost per guest at your real average load, and the lowest net you can accept — the pricing guide works through both.
• Establish whether it is commission or a net rate. Descriptions of the model vary, and the two are commercially different — the distinction matters because one leaves you controlling the traveller's price and the other does not.
• Check what the quoted rate must already include. Reporting indicates rates are expected to cover taxes and international transfer charges rather than those being added afterwards.
• Add your own tooling costs. If you connect via a channel manager with its own booking fee, that sits on top of the marketplace commission.

On payout timing, one source reports roughly net-30 for suppliers. Treat that as indicative and confirm it in writing, since payout timing is a working capital question rather than a detail — reconciling OTA payouts covers why the arriving amount rarely matches expectations line by line.

Connectivity

Two options, and the choice is the same one every marketplace presents.

Manual management means logging in to adjust availability. Workable if Expedia is your only channel and your volume is low, and a liability the moment either changes.

A connected channel means your booking system sends availability out and receives bookings back, so a seat sold anywhere closes everywhere. That is the requirement as soon as you sell in more than one place — how channel management works explains the mechanism, and what happens without it explains the urgency.

Worth being precise when you ask a software vendor about Expedia support: whether the connection is direct, or whether it means your inventory reaches Expedia via Viator or GetYourGuide. Both are legitimate, they cost different amounts, and the distinction is easy to lose in a feature list.

Where Expedia guests come from

This is the part that genuinely differs from Viator or GetYourGuide, and it holds whichever route your inventory travels.

A traveller on an activity marketplace is looking for something to do. A traveller on Expedia is usually booking a flight or a hotel, and your tour appears alongside that. They did not come looking for you — which changes the demand in several ways.

• Longer lead times. People book accommodation earlier than they book activities, so tours attached to that journey are booked further ahead — which affects your cut-off settings and your booking curve.
• Less comparison. A guest adding an activity to a trip has typically not compared six similar tours, which cuts both ways: less price sensitivity, and less certainty they chose the right product for them.
• Demand follows accommodation. Your volume tracks where Expedia sells hotels rather than where activity search happens, so a destination strong for one may be weak for the other.
• Different expectations on arrival. Someone who booked in one click during a hotel checkout has read less about your tour than someone who chose it from a marketplace listing.

The practical response is in your pre-arrival communication rather than your listing: a guest who booked three months ago while sorting flights needs a clearer reminder of what they actually booked — guest communication covers the timing.

Cancellations, changes and reviews

Longer lead times mean more opportunity for plans to change, so this matters more here than on channels where people book two days out.

• Amendments are common when a trip shifts. A guest whose flights moved will want to change the date rather than cancel, and making that easy keeps a booking you would otherwise refund.
• Cancellation terms must match what the platform displays, not what you would prefer. A discrepancy between your policy and the one shown is resolved in the traveller's favour and generates a bad review on top of the refund — writing a policy that holds up covers the drafting.
• Reviews may not reach you. If your inventory arrives through an intermediary, review feedback lands on that platform rather than with Expedia, which fragments your reputation across places you may not be monitoring.
• Ask for your own reviews regardless, the same way for every guest, since that is the reputation you own wherever the booking came from — the reviews guide covers the rules.

And keep your own record of every booking regardless of origin. When a dispute arrives months after a trip was booked, the platform's record and yours need to agree.

How Travelity fits

Expedia is among the OTA partners on Travelity's integration list, alongside the other major activity marketplaces — though given the intake situation above, it is worth confirming which connections are available for your own account rather than planning around any single marketplace. Whichever route your inventory reaches Expedia by, the requirement is the same: availability shared live through the channel manager so a seat sold anywhere closes everywhere, and every booking landing in one place with its source attached — which is what makes net revenue per channel readable rather than reconstructed at the end of a season.

Frequently asked questions

Can new tour operators sign up to Expedia Local Expert?

Probably not directly. The weight of recent industry reporting says the programme stopped taking new direct suppliers, with Expedia sourcing activity inventory from Viator and GetYourGuide instead. The application portal still exists, so applying costs little, but treat approval as unlikely unless you already hold an account.

How do I get my tours onto Expedia?

For most operators, by listing on Viator or GetYourGuide. Expedia sources activity inventory through those platforms, so a well-performing listing there is the practical route to Expedia travellers. You pay that platform its commission rather than paying Expedia.

What commission does Expedia charge tour operators?

There is no published rate card. Operator-facing guides consistently report a range of 15 to 30 percent, with some activity types reaching around 35 percent, negotiated individually with an assigned destination manager rather than set by a standard schedule.

Why do Expedia guests behave differently from other OTA bookings?

Because many of them are booking your tour while booking a flight or hotel, rather than searching for something to do. That means longer lead times, guests who have not compared activity options as closely, and demand shaped by where Expedia sells accommodation rather than by activity search volume.

Do I need a channel manager to sell on Expedia?

You need one as soon as Expedia is not your only sales channel. Whether inventory reaches Expedia directly or through another marketplace, the requirement is the same — a seat sold anywhere must close everywhere, and manual updating fails on exactly the days when it matters.

Bottom line

Apply if you like — it costs twenty minutes — but plan on reaching Expedia travellers through Viator or GetYourGuide, because that is where its activity inventory currently comes from. Which means the work that gets you onto Expedia is the work that makes you perform well on those two platforms.

Then treat the guests differently once they arrive. They booked earlier, compared less, and added your tour to a trip rather than choosing it as the point of the day — so clearer pre-arrival communication does more for this channel than anything you could change in a listing.

Related guides

• Which OTAs should you list on? Choosing channels by tour type and region
• How to sell tours on Viator: a complete guide
• How to sell tours on GetYourGuide
• OTA commission rates in 2026: what operators actually pay
• OTAs explained: Viator, GetYourGuide, Expedia and how they work
• Channel manager for tours: the complete guide