Partnering With Hotels and Local Businesses to Grow Bookings

Local partnerships sit in a useful gap. Marketplaces bring travellers who do not know you, at 20–30%. Direct bookings cost nothing and require the traveller to find you. Partners bring guests who are already in your destination, warmly recommended, usually at a lower cost than a marketplace — and with somebody else doing the persuading.

They are also where operators waste the most effort, because a partnership that is commercially sensible and operationally awkward simply never produces bookings. This covers both halves.

Who is actually worth partnering with

The test is simple: does this business meet your customers before you do, at a moment when they are deciding what to do?

• Accommodation. The strongest by some distance — hotels, guesthouses, hostels and apartment hosts get asked "what should we do tomorrow?" every single day.
• Complementary operators. A walking-tour company and a food-tour company serve the same traveller on different days and lose nothing by referring to each other.
• Local agencies and DMCs, who book predictable volume and repeat far more reliably than individuals.
• Restaurants, cafés and shops in tourist areas, where staff field the same questions constantly.
• Corporate and institutional bookers — conference organisers, universities, companies with visiting teams — who are largely indifferent to the tourist calendar and useful in quiet months.

One caution worth checking early: many hotels already have an arrangement with a large platform or a local agency, and may be contractually limited in what they can recommend. Ask before investing effort rather than discovering it after three meetings.

Three commercial models

These get used interchangeably in conversation and they are not interchangeable. The differences decide who controls the price and who owns the guest.

Referral

The partner points guests at you — a card, a link, a verbal recommendation — and the traveller books with you directly at your normal price. You may pay a fee per booking or nothing at all. Simplest to run, easiest to start, and it keeps everything about the transaction yours.

Commission

The partner makes the booking on the guest's behalf at your published price and keeps an agreed share. You keep price control and usually the guest relationship. This is the model most hotel arrangements use, and for good reason — it is transparent in both directions.

Net rate, or reseller

You quote a lower net price. The partner sets their own retail price and keeps the difference. This is how agencies and DMCs generally prefer to work, and it is the one operators agree to without understanding the consequences.

None of which makes net rates wrong. They are frequently the only way to work with agencies, and the volume can justify it. But agree the model deliberately, check whether the partner is permitted to undercut your own published price, and know that you have traded price control for distribution.

What to pay, and why percentages fail

Rates commonly sit somewhere between 10% and 20% for hotel arrangements, higher for agencies working on net rates. But the percentage is the wrong thing to optimise, and here is why.

The recommendation is usually made by an individual — a receptionist, a concierge, a waiter — and on a €50 tour a 10% commission is €5. That does not change anybody's behaviour, particularly when the money goes to the business rather than to the person who spoke.

• A flat fee per booking is frequently more motivating than a percentage of a small number, and it is easier for everyone to remember.
• Make sure it reaches the person where the arrangement allows, since a commission absorbed by the business motivates nobody at the desk.
• Non-financial motivation matters more than operators expect. Staff recommend what they have personally experienced and what makes them look good — a guest returning delighted reflects on the receptionist who suggested it.
• Take partner staff on the tour, free, at the start of the season. It costs a seat that was going empty and consistently outperforms a higher commission rate.

One thing to keep clean: whatever you pay must not undercut your own published price or breach parity terms you have agreed with marketplaces. Check before agreeing anything unusual.

The thirty seconds that decide it

This is where most partnerships quietly die, and it has nothing to do with the commercial terms.

Picture the moment. A guest at the desk asks what to do tomorrow. The receptionist has perhaps thirty seconds, a queue behind, and no time to investigate. If recommending you means emailing to check availability, calling you, or logging into something they have forgotten the password for, they will recommend whoever is easier — and that is frequently the platform with an app on their phone.

What makes it work:

• Live availability they can see without asking you. A partner who cannot confirm tomorrow is available will not promise it.
• One link per partner — no login, works on a phone, and tags the booking to them automatically.
• A booking completable in under a minute, including payment by the guest at the desk.
• Something physical. Cards at reception with a QR code, so the guest can book later in their room.
• One page of essentials — what the tour is, who it suits, meeting point, price, duration — that a new staff member can read in two minutes.

Assume high staff turnover, especially in seasonal destinations. A partnership that depends on one enthusiastic receptionist ends when they leave, so the materials and the process have to work for whoever replaces them.

Setting it up properly

Partnerships do not need a long contract, but they do need the basics written down — because the disputes that arise are almost always about something nobody specified.

• The model and the rate, stated explicitly as referral, commission or net.
• How and when you pay — monthly in arrears against a statement is standard, and paying promptly is the single most effective thing you can do for the relationship.
• What happens on cancellations and no-shows, which is the most common source of argument.
• Whether the rate is exclusive, and whether they may also sell competitors.
• Who handles the guest if something goes wrong on the day.
• How either side ends it, without drama.

A one-page document covers all of that. The point is less legal protection than having agreed the answers before they are needed, in a relationship you want to keep.

Measuring, and pruning

Expect a heavily uneven distribution. Most partnerships produce almost nothing; a small number produce most of the volume. The mistake is treating them all equally and never finding out which is which.

That requires attribution from day one — a distinct booking link or code per partner, applied before you start rather than retrofitted. Then, once a season:

• Bookings and net revenue by partner, so you know where the volume actually comes from.
• Which ones sent nothing. Usually a majority, and worth one conversation to find out whether it is a materials problem, a staff turnover problem, or simply not a fit.
• Where your best partners' guests come from, which tells you which other businesses are worth approaching.

Then reallocate attention. Two or three genuinely productive partnerships, properly serviced with fresh cards, current information and prompt payment, are worth considerably more than twenty nominal ones nobody has spoken to since spring.

How Travelity helps

The operational half of this is a booking problem. Travelity gives you a booking widget and a hosted booking page showing live availability, which is what lets a receptionist confirm tomorrow and take the booking inside the thirty seconds they have — without holding seats back for anybody.

And because every reservation lands in one place with its source attached, partner bookings appear on the same manifest as everything else and partner performance is something you can read at the end of the season rather than estimate.

Frequently asked questions

What commission should I pay a hotel for referrals?

Commonly somewhere between 10% and 20%, but the percentage matters less than whether it motivates the person actually making the recommendation. On a low-priced tour a percentage produces a few euros, which changes nobody's behaviour — a flat fee per booking is frequently more effective than a larger percentage of a small number.

What is the difference between a commission and a net rate?

Under commission the partner sells at your published price and keeps an agreed share, so you keep price control and usually the guest relationship. Under a net rate you quote a lower price and the partner sets their own retail price, keeping the difference — which means you no longer control what the traveller pays and may never learn what that was.

How do hotels actually book tours for their guests?

Quickly, at the desk, with a guest standing in front of them. If booking you requires an email exchange, a phone call or a login they have forgotten, the receptionist will recommend whoever is easier instead. A single link that shows live availability and takes the booking in under a minute is the whole competitive advantage here.

Should I give partners an allocation of seats?

Usually not. Holding seats for a partner who may not fill them costs you departures, and shared live availability serves both sides better. The exception is a partner sending reliable volume on specific departures, where a small held allocation reviewed each season can be justified.

How do I know which partnerships are worth keeping?

Track bookings by partner, which requires giving each one a distinct booking link or code from the start. Most partnerships produce almost nothing and a small number produce most of the volume, so the useful discipline is reviewing the list once a season and putting your attention where the bookings actually came from.

Bottom line

Decide the model deliberately — referral, commission or net rate — because they differ in who sets the price and who owns the guest, and net rates are agreed casually more often than they should be.

Then solve the thirty seconds. Live availability, one link, no login, a card at the desk and staff who have actually taken the tour. Most partnerships fail on that rather than on the commission rate — and the ones that work are worth servicing properly, because a small number of them will produce nearly all of the volume.

Related guides

• Marketing your tour business: the complete playbook
• Building repeat business and referrals for tours
• Managing group bookings and private tours
• Direct bookings vs OTA bookings: getting the mix right
• Managing seasonal demand as a tour operator