Connection to distribution channels is the most important factor in the global post-COVID19 experience market: GetYourGuide and Viator / Tripadvisor award bookingkit their top partner status

Berlin-based software provider bookingkit is one of only two reservation technologies that has been granted the highest “Connectivity Partner” status from both GetYourGuide and Viator/Tripadvisor, two of the largest international online marketplaces for tours, activities & attractions. This not only underlines bookingkit’s leadership position in the European experience market, but also highlights the strategic importance of excellent technical connectivity with distribution channels. In order to best serve the market, the performance of digital booking systems in conjunction with external sales platforms has become more important than ever.

“The global push towards digitization in the wake of the pandemic has prompted the need for increasingly professionalized booking systems. Nowadays it is no longer enough for such systems to be “digital” – they need to also be flexible, independent and, above all, have a proven track record and standing in the industry. The strength, quality and stability of the connection between reservation technologies and sales channels like OTAs can finally be measured in the truest sense of the word – the higher the status, the greater the potential revenue to be gained by operators using that channel”, says Matthias Wirz, CGO at bookingkit. “We are therefore delighted and honored to receive top marks from the two biggest international OTAs for our system’s technical performance and reliability, which hardly anyone else in the world can match.” 

The fact that more and more international marketplaces are not only focusing on improving their connections to booking systems, but also on making the quality of these connections more objectively measurable by creating specialized partner programs and rankings, speaks loudly to the increasing importance of connectivity within the market. Consequently, this creates new incentives for operators of tours, activities and attractions to invest in more professional booking systems in order to be ideally positioned across all sales channels.

GetYourGuide, for example, places particular emphasis on technical performance, a modern interface, and extensive integration processes as quality criteria to determine the ranking of their technology partners. Viator/Tripadvisor also evaluates and prioritizes the seamlessness of the booking experience along a set of carefully-defined quality criteria. This results in both a smooth synchronization of all relevant data between the experience operator and the platforms themselves, and in high-performance booking processing – an important criterion for growth in the currently booming market.