Viator Says Upgraded Accelerate Program Boosted Commissions

10.11.2023 - 19:59 / skift.com / Selene Brophy / Matthew Goldberg

Tripadvisor’s Viator has long been one of the largest online travel agencies for tours and activities. But to juice its revenue, it began letting tour operators spend more for better placement in Viator search results.

So, how lucrative is it?

Viator’s Accelerate program started in February 2022, and it’s still too early to call it a success. It recently introduced a beta 2.0 version available in the U.S. but has yet to launch it in all markets.

The upgraded service is seeing wider adoption among tours and attractions operators that list over 300,000 tours with Viator.

“The program’s upgrade to Accelerate 2.0 has further driven operator participation, with significant double-digit growth in product opt-ins and an increase in the weighted average margin,” said Matthew Goldberg, Tripadvisor CEO, during an investor update Tuesday. “This has resulted in improved take rates, indicating a successful exchange of higher commissions for greater exposure and business growth on Viator’s platform.”  

“More than half of eligible products are now opted into the program,” said Goldberg.

All operators with products listed on Viator are eligible to add active tour products to the program. Tours need to meet eligibility criteria set by Viator, broadly defined as “good or excellent quality levels and one active review.”

Eligible tours are seen on the operator’s Accelerate dashboard, which then tracks the impact of their increased exposure. By raising the commission rates they pay, operators can expect more prominent placement on results pages for relevant Viator tours and activities searches. Viator claims participants see a 15% increase in bookings.

The screenshot below is from Viator’s own explainer video published a year ago, detailing a visibility metric assigned to tours with increased commission rates to secure more visibility on related Viator searches.

Some industry observers have expressed concerns about what they get for increasing the commissions they pay.

In an example shown to Skift, a listed San Diego tour had a visibility score of 84. In contrast, an average competitor to this tour had a visibility score of 38, and the top competitor in the category had a visibility score of 99.

Viator doesn’t define how it reaches the visibility score. One operator called it a “nonsense metric” because it doesn’t demonstrate how the tour will be seen by more potential customers searching for tours and activities on the platform.

Skift has reached out to Viator for added detail on its Accelerate 2.0. program.

One of the differences between Accelerate 2.0 and its original version is the change from a visibility score to an advertising impressions metric. 

The ad impression metric on Accelerate 2.0 also works with a