GetYourGuide Originals Tours label on hold

25.08.2023 - 14:36 / skift.com / Travel Experiences / Selene Brophy / Peter Ulwahn

Improved customer experience was the driving hypothesis behind Originals, GetYourGuide’s private label offering. Reports that it is ending raise the question of why.

The online travel agent launched Originals in 2018 in partnership with local operators in popular destinations determined by its “wealth of customer booking performance data.” 

These operators run the tours under the private label, offering similar benefits to Airbnb’s super hosts concept. For example, GetYourGuide charged a higher commission for Originals than other products on the platform and provided more visibility for the offering in search results.

“We are not giving up on Originals,” said GetYourGuide co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Tao Tao, speaking to Skift in response to the noted change. 

The experience economy is a hotbed of digital acceleration as leisure travelers seek out once-in-a-lifetime options more than ever before. Within a fragmented tours and activities sector, any differentiation that adds to the simplicity of booking is excellent for supplier conversion and retention, but even more so for travelers looking for an improved customer experience.

TUI Musement CEO Peter Ulwahn recently outlined to Skift that building TUI Collections is a key focus, while Airbnb recently announced it would bring back its experience offering, paused during the pandemic.

So why the pause of Originals? 

Tao said data insights that worked to leverage Originals will be used to improve the customer experience across the platform’s entire marketplace.

The Originals tours have been successful on several fronts, he added, with data insights shaping the length of the tours, the adaption of booking times and extending brand visibility for a better customer experience.

“We’ve worked well with our suppliers to create better tour experiences, and we saw the average rating of the Originals tours was much higher.” 

These top ratings and reviews will remain visible for those tour operators who have nurtured their Originals offering, as they are still currently bookable on the site, just not in the standard Originals format.

The program in its current form is evolving, and these high-quality experiences remain in tack, added Tao. 

Tao did confirm the “Discovery Assistant” functionality, responsible for grouping similar tours, is being removed.  

“Our job is to unlock unforgettable experiences for customers and on the supplier side to simplify digital revenue growth. In that journey, we are constantly testing and adding things, and also removing or discontinuing things that don’t work.” 

The plan, he said, is to share what works in the form of a new insights feature launched in the GetYourGuide’s supplier portal.   

“It details data and insights