July 2, 2025 • 43 mins
This episode of Growth Powered by FareHarbor brings you an inside look at GetYourGuide, one of the leading online travel agencies (OTAs) in the tourism industry. Rebekah talks with Allie, Senior Account Executive at GetYourGuide, about how operators can succeed on the platform and how FareHarbor clients can leverage that connection.
Topics include:
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What it takes to get listed (and verified)
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How to write better listings that actually convert
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Why reviews and visuals matter more than ever
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The biggest misunderstandings about OTAs
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How GetYourGuide’s global reach and marketing strategy help small businesses thrive
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New features: AI tools, review responses, pickup UX
This episode is for you if you're:
✔️ A FareHarbor client looking to grow your bookings
✔️ Curious about selling through GetYourGuide
✔️ Want to better understand OTA partnerships and strategies
Learn more at getyourguide.com/partners
Join the FareHarbor Community at fareharbor.com/community
Helpful links:
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GetYourGuide Supply Partner Help Center:
https://supply.getyourguide.support/hc/en-us
This includes tons of helpful resources, including best practices for responding to reviews and optimizing your listings. -
How-To Video Series – Creating Products with GetYourGuide:
https://supply.getyourguide.support/hc/en-us/sections/ 14002453180061-Creating- Products-with-GetYourGuide- How-To-Videos
These short videos walk through key parts of the setup process and would be great visual additions.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, hello, welcome to another special episode of Growth Powered by Fair Harbor.
As you can see, I'm not in my living room again.
I'm actually at a fantastic event.
I don't know if you've heard of Fair Harbor Meetups.
I've mentioned them in the last like 75 episodes, I feel like at this point, but we areactually set pseudo live here at a Fair Harbor Meetup in Toronto, Canada, meeting our
(00:25):
clients.
And we have a special guest at this meetup.
We actually have a representative of Get Your Guide here with us today.
Allie, Allie, how are you doing today?
I'm great, thanks.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
I'm happy you're here.
I'm excited.
I'm happy.
Every, like, I wish I had a thesaurus and I would read out just every synonym for howexcited I am to have Get Your Guide here and Allie here.
(00:49):
Allie, tell us about you.
uh What is your role at Get Your Guide?
What do you do at Get Your Guide?
Yeah.
I'm a senior account executive at Get Your Guide, which means I'm in charge of onboardingnew suppliers and finding the best attractions and experiences out there to send our
customers to.
Oh, that's a good jump.
(01:10):
Yeah.
Do you get to experiment and go on a lot of tours?
I do.
Sometimes I get to go out there and do walkthroughs and go to fun attractions and museumsand
that's so exciting.
And you're based out of New York City, right?
my gosh, I bet you've seen it all.
I do love, yeah, it's an awesome city, but then it's also so easy to get to everywhereelse because it's such an international and great airport.
(01:36):
Oh, that's so exciting.
Okay, what is your, let's do a two first.
Typically I do a fun fact, but in light of your role, of your super fun job, and I have asuper fun job, so you know you have a super fun job if I'm jealous.
What has been your favorite place to travel to and what's been your favorite activity thatyou've done with an operator?
(01:58):
uh I would say recently, except being to a lot of places, but recently I went to Namibia,which was really awesome.
And I did some kind of dune excursions and saw the desert at sunrise and things like that.
A dune excursion?
(02:19):
the science fiction fantasy novel?
science fiction involved, but there was a vast desert with like, rolling deers involved,which was very cool.
That is We went up and down like quad bikes and stuff.
If I was not recorded in this wouldn't be on my digital footprint would be at the time Ican sing the Dune.
(02:41):
Yeah.
But I won't I'm terrified of my digital footprint.
I won't do that today.
Allie as I said I'm really grateful that you're here.
Thank you so much for coming on the podcast and for coming to Toronto.
I'm really excited.
It's my first time to are you noticing how nice people are.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Everyone's being really friendly.
(03:02):
Everyone is incredibly friendly.
I'm almost scared.
I'm almost like, you robbing me at the same time?
a New Yorker, Denver is getting close to that line.
But yeah, we have a meetup later this year in New York City.
Maybe you'll be there as well.
Very excited for that.
If someone didn't know what Get Your Guide is, how would you describe what Get Your Guideis for our probably one listener who may not know what Get Your Guide is?
(03:28):
What is it?
Yeah, so we are an online booking platform that helps connect suppliers with travelers allover the world.
So we help customers find and discover and book all of the best experiences around theglobe.
I've definitely booked with you, just got a...
trip under my belt in Japan and I a lot of my uh excursions with you and they were superfun.
(03:54):
We'd love to hear it.
And I'll talk about it later in the episode but I had I wanted to use Get Your Guidebecause in Japan I'm not from there.
I don't know the language and I was just about as American as you can be in the good waysyou know just lost ah on what to do and I love to Get Your Guide UX so can only
(04:17):
I can only imagine how fun it is to work there.
With that being said, that's what would draw me in at Get Your Guide.
As a consumer, what drew you to Get Your Guide as a team member?
What made you want to work at Get Your Guide?
Kind of the same.
I was a customer first.
also used, also on an Asia trip, actually, Get Your Guide for a bunch of differentactivities out there a couple of years ago.
(04:41):
And it's just such a great customer experience to be able to find and book everything inone place.
And I think it's pretty unique and not a lot of people are doing that yet in this space.
And so was really excited to join kind of an innovative, confident,
company that is moving the industry forward.
(05:02):
Absolutely, and I 100 % agree.
I will also talk about this in the episode later, is what I love about Get Your Guide isthe insights that you guys come out with.
I think, it quarterly you do those insights or monthly?
um So we do, well, we're always posting insights in general for individual suppliers tohelp them, but the travel trend tracker, which I think you were referencing, that's
(05:25):
semi-annually.
We actually just came out with a brand new one.
Maybe they're seeing an overlay of it right now.
We love it.
Yes.
I love those insights.
I think they draw a lot of, not only attention, but they just give a lot of spotlight towhat operators should be focusing on and what they know they're doing right and what may
(05:49):
be just the way the world is going.
Yeah.
That's I mean.
So you're well traveled.
as is what I can hear it.
She, if you can't hear it, she has an English accent.
And as an American, when I hear someone with an English accent, I just assume they're welltraveled.
Like I'm immediately like, that's probably, they know Sherlock.
(06:09):
They've read it.
They've read Sherlock Holmes.
can solve any mystery.
just assume it.
What, assuming that you're well traveled, especially with that Dune story.
What makes you so passionate about the tourism industry and the travel industry?
It's really, it's the making memories of it all.
(06:31):
It's, you we spend so much time in our lives working and we can have awesome jobs like theones that we have, but everyone kind of lives for a vacation at some point and another.
it, those are the points of time that people look back on, you know, when they're 80 andthey remember, you know, I went through the dunes in Namibia and being able to make
(06:52):
memories for people is like really exciting.
I 100 % agree.
We always say at Fair Harbor, I say in every single episode I record that I drink the FairHarbor Kool-Aid.
I can feel a listener right now rolling their eyes at me, ah but I do.
And at Fair Harbor, you know, the Kool-Aid flavor is we're in the business of makingmemories.
(07:14):
So I think we share that core value with Get Your Guide for sure.
ah And I think that's partly why Get Your Guide is such an industry leader in the OTAspace.
Expand on that for me.
What do you think?
sets Get Your Guide apart from other OTAs and why is it such an industry leader?
I think our tech really sets us apart and there is definitely a tech mindset in that ourengineers are always working towards innovation both on the customer side and the supplier
(07:43):
side.
So we're constantly coming out with new product updates and exciting ways for customers todiscover new experiences, different ways that they can experience the app as well.
I would say also our
curation as well.
That's something that we're moving forward with that we haven't necessarily done in thepast, but now that we've gotten to the scale that we're at, we're really focusing on only
(08:12):
having those key best of the best experiences and cutting through the noise because thereare so many amazing experiences out there, but you you can't go through 200 of the same
similar tours in an area.
So we only want to have the best of the best and we're
on a mission right now to strategically select those and make sure that we're highlightingthose, which is better for both consumers and then also suppliers because they're only
(08:39):
getting competition with true competitors.
That is something I've noticed, you know, I am going to England really right after thismeetup tonight, which I'm really excited about.
love Europe.
I love London in particular is so fun, which is where I'm going.
And I was booking, I was trying to find a fun pub crawl.
(09:01):
And so I was shopping around for pub crawls and I was trying to book direct and I was justso lost.
I remember I found this operator.
and their website was just so confusing and I wanted a certain neighborhood to bouncearound in, but their website had so many clicks, I immediately had decision fatigue and I
had to hop apps and go over to get your guide.
(09:23):
And it was so easy for me to get the neighborhood that I wanted and see how many reviewsthere were for that particular tour.
um It made everything so much easier.
How does someone get on Get Your Guide?
And I'm sure you've noticed, I see it all the time in the community, that clients at FairHarbor particularly get frustrated and they get frustrated over like a wait time.
(09:49):
And I can hear that you're saying that y'all work so hard with a fine-tooth comb to ensurethat the tours on there are going to be legitimate, that they're going to be fun, that
they're going to be valuable and provide these unforgettable experiences for customers.
How do operators prove to you that they are all of those things?
(10:10):
Yeah, so we have a new verification process, which has really helped with this.
It's slow going as we're kind of back doing all of our current suppliers, but it's beenreally helpful in weeding out.
There's a lot of bots out there even that are trying to spam and take attention away fromactual suppliers as well.
(10:34):
So we've used a new verification process.
We work with a third party that
kind of verifies the identity of everyone who's signing up and then also their businessregistration information as well so that our customers can feel comfortable that there's a
real human who has safety checks and checks on their business in the background as well.
(10:57):
But the suppliers can just go to our site and then kind of sign up themselves and gothrough that process.
It usually takes about 15 minutes for the initial sign up.
Nice!
And for those who are frustrated right now with how long it takes to get listed on GetYour Guide, what would you tell them?
patient with us for that.
think it's definitely something that is a work in progress, but we've seen tremendousprogress in the past couple of months from our team.
(11:25):
And it's also a temporary moment in time.
It's not going to happen forever.
It's just a backlog that we need to clear in order to make sure that we are following thestandards of data protection and all the international laws as well as protecting our
customers.
But yeah, I can't give a specific timeline to it, but it's definitely a temporarysituation in that way.
(11:52):
Absolutely.
And that makes sense.
Again, there's been times where I, when I was an account manager, I'm looking at websitesall the time.
And there's so many times I would see a client's website and I've been on their tour.
I know it's fun.
I know it's real.
And I go on their website and I'm like, I would not want to put my credit card number intothis website.
(12:13):
Yeah.
Yeah, no, that is the good thing about us is customers can feel comfortable booking withus.
We also have certain guarantees and certain cancellation policies that make customers feelcomfortable booking with us.
And also the languages as well, like you mentioned, the language barriers can sometimes bean issue even with Google Translate, right?
(12:35):
Some widgets and plugins and things don't translate and you're like, well, I hope I'mpaying for the right thing.
We translate into over 37 languages and accept as many currencies as well in differentpayment methods so customers can feel more uh comfortable booking with us.
But then also suppliers, we cover all the foreign transaction fees as well and what, youknow, small tour operator is able to translate their site.
(13:00):
I didn't know that.
That's incredible.
Yeah, that's a great incentive.
What other incentives could you say for our clients who might be interested in having apartnership with Get Your Guide?
Yeah, I would say just the sheer scale and breadth of audience that we have is really theimportant thing here is being able to amplify their own current marketing efforts and
(13:25):
drive bookings at the end of the day.
I mean, there's a lot of different ways to work with us, but at the end of the day, Ithink what most tour operators care about is driving bookings and especially on their off
season, shoulder seasons, things like that.
We've been really able to help.
our suppliers with those seasons because we market to people all over the world.
(13:47):
So, you know, what is a school vacation in the U.S.
is not the same as a school vacation in France.
And so maybe the French customer is coming during that time.
And what small tour operator is really able to effectively target a French market bythemselves.
We're able to amplify that voice and drive bookings.
(14:09):
And, you know, we're
revenue sharing so they're not paying any up thing upfront for that extra marketing andbridge
What marketing em are you involved with at Get Your Guide?
So marketing is my buzzword.
I like awaken.
I feel like I'm coming back from the dead when I hear the word marketing.
(14:29):
I'm like, what?
I am curious what that marketing on behalf of the operator looks like with Get Your Guide.
I know it's kind of difficult on an audio medium, but maybe you can describe that a littlebit for me.
How does that work?
We work with so many different channels.
mean, 20 different channels of marketing, you know, from the influencers to we haveNetflix ads and Hulu ads and ads in the football playoffs, not a sports golf, but whatever
(15:00):
the playoff games are for them.
And also down to, you know, plug-in advertising as well on various websites.
But also really important is our strategic partnerships as well.
We work with over 2,500 strategic partners in the travel industry.
like credit card companies, if you book with Amex, you can book with your credit cardpoints.
(15:23):
Different airlines.
So if someone is booking with Air France, for example, flying into Toronto, then on theirconfirmation email, they get a plugin that says things to do in Toronto.
and then that will direct them to the Get Your Guide Toronto page and all of our operatorsthere.
That is so cool.
It's really interesting.
When I went on a trip to Amsterdam, I was pretty outside.
(15:47):
I was like in a neighborhood outside Amsterdam.
So was taking the train in, cleanest train I've ever been on.
I'm from America, so the bar's low.
So low.
Yeah.
But I looked around at one point as I was getting closer and closer into the Amsterdam.
And every person that I could probably see was a tourist, like I could kind of tell.
(16:10):
We have this look about us, know, was on their app on Get Your Guide.
We love to hear it.
It was really interesting.
Do you, if you're not able to share this, totally fine.
But I'm really curious to know like what markets regionally are kind of like the biggestones or where you see operators more easily thrive in the world.
(16:33):
Yeah, I mean, it definitely varies market to market hugely.
But in the US, more than half of our customers buying experiences in the US come from aninternational market.
Yeah, very heavily European because we are a European company.
We're a German company.
So that's probably our highest segment beyond Americans, but from all over as well.
(16:58):
You know, I hear people from Australia coming in as well.
Yes.
all of the globe.
Yeah, Christ to me.
That's interesting.
Well, we've really hit the nail on the head, I think, on how valuable Get Your Guide is totourists and to our operators, marketing to them.
um Let's talk a little bit about challenges.
(17:19):
um So what do you think are the biggest challenges operators face when it comes toreaching a thriving partnership with Get Your Guide?
And what advice can you give on overcoming those challenges?
Yeah, I think it's similar challenges to any place on the internet where we have so muchchoice out there.
(17:41):
We have more choices now than we've ever had in human history.
And, you know, Get Your Guide is there to try and help narrow that down for the customer,but you still have competition, right?
So how do you stand out and differentiate yourself from the competition is a commonchallenge that I hear from
our suppliers and I think that's really down to creating the best product that they can,the best product page that they can.
(18:08):
There's a few different ways that they can do that.
One of the things that we've really dug into research wise is having people in yourpictures, showing people, doing the activity.
It sounds really simple but it makes a big difference if a consumer can see themselves.
(18:30):
in the activity and see them, oh, like that I can kayak along the DC river in thisactivity.
There's me.
It just, think mentally we're visual creatures.
And then the title and description is also really important as well.
The description is what the short description is what pulls in to the search engineoptimization.
(18:55):
So making sure that suppliers know that and are
utilizing the description effectively to be able to really hone in on what are thekeywords that a customer would search for your activity for.
How do you have any experience in finding out what is the right SEO?
(19:17):
What is the right description?
How do you have a catchy listing on Get Your Guide, I guess?
You said there are, in the listing itself, we should have people, which I find reallyinteresting.
My ears kind of peaked when you said that because, or perked.
It's been a long day.
(19:39):
They perked when you said that because I just got done doing a tour today, a walking tour,and it was a friends and family tour.
everyone that was there was like a friend or family member of the operator because theywere launching a new tour and they're gonna be listing it and they need pictures for it.
And I thought that was a really interesting concept to have like a friends and family.
(20:00):
I've heard of that for restaurants, like Sange openings, and they did like a soft launch.
I know the kids think a soft launch is.
something completely different than what we're talking about.
But they did like a soft launch of their tour.
So I think that's a great tip to kind of throw out there as a friends and family tourwhere you can get some photos and stuff.
What do you think should stand out in the description when they're listing on Get YourGuide?
(20:22):
Definitely the location and any key highlights.
if it's a New York City tour, the description, the title will say New York City, but thedescription, if there's a certain neighborhood that you're in, if it's a Chinatown food
tour, make sure it says that in the description.
It sounds simple, but people don't always think to go that nitty gritty into things, butanything that is different about your tour.
(20:51):
that you would want to highlight, put it in the short description as much as you can sothat if someone is searching for a walking tour in Chinatown, you will...
Yeah, so it kind of sounds like we're talking, well first I want to say the customer isalways right, but the customer is not always very smart.
(21:12):
Yes.
So you got to lay things out for a big old dummy.
And I swear, I always say when I walk into an airport, I immediately lose 10 IQ points.
And just as the day goes on, it's more and more IQ points that I'm losing.
And I feel like it's the same for someone who's traveling.
Like you're just so frantic that you're like, wait, what was that again?
(21:33):
What am I doing today?
Where was that meeting point?
So I completely agree that you really got to lay it down.
You got to say Chinatown six, seven, eight different times in your listing if it's goingto be in Chinatown.
So it sounds like there's some key pillars of a profitable partnership with Get YourGuide.
So we talked about an optimizing and a learning.
listing and in that we want to know how to stand out which you've mentioned.
(21:56):
um I think another pillar of a strong partnership with Fair Harbor and Get Your Guide isthe power of reviews.
Can you talk to me a little bit about why reviews are so important to Get Your Guide andwhat that importance looks like to you as like you're personified Get Your Guide today.
What do your reviews really mean to Get Your Guide?
(22:20):
Why should they be so important?
to the operator.
And then the icing on top of this question ah is how should an operator respond to anegative review they may get from a Get Your Act customer.
Yeah, so that's actually what I'm here to talk about today, and then we'll meet up later.
But we just launched a new travel trend tracker about reviews.
(22:45):
So our semiannual research this year was about that.
And that's open to the public, so we can shoot the link on there for those listening athome.
But there's some really awesome insights about reviews.
And obviously we know they're important, kind of preaching to the choir with a touroperator.
Important have a review strategy and know when is the best time to reach out to customers,how often you're asking for people for reviews, how you're making your experience
(23:16):
memorable to even want to make a review.
I think a good thing that is probably great news for most Fair Harbor operators is
that guided tours, vehicle, day trip, boat tours tend to actually have the highest reviewrate, as in the more people, right, than attractions.
(23:40):
And that's really down to the human connection, we found out, because that person affordsan opportunity to connect, to storytell, to personalize, and that...
Connection really incentivizes people and inspires people to write a review.
So as much as you can play that up in your experience, even if you don't have a guide, howcan you amplify the human connection that you do have with a bus driver or a ticket sales
(24:10):
agent, things like that.
Yeah, that's kind of just scratching the surface, but we have a lot of other insights inthe trend checkers.
Amazing.
I'll make sure to do a little screen read.
The link is on the screen as we speak.
Shout out to Lloyd, my podcast editor.
Thanks Lloyd.
You're the best.
um Interesting.
(24:32):
So the last bit of my question here.
Do you have any insight on how to or if you should respond to a bad review?
That is also part of our new product launch is there are now the opportunities forsuppliers to respond to our views, which is something that people have obviously wanted
(24:52):
for quite a while.
I'm not an engineer.
don't know how complicated that is to add.
so like that though.
Just add it in.
It'll take like 30 minutes.
then it just so much more complicated.
My space like maybe I should try this but no it's actually kind of hard.
(25:12):
Yeah
Exactly.
And our team is so good about really thoughtfully testing products so that the product isout.
Once it's out there, it works well.
There are no glitches with it.
So they've heard the requests.
We're always listening to our partners when we get these requests and now they can replyto reviews.
(25:35):
So if you do get a negative review, I think it's just really important to give context,right?
And say,
if there was a situation, respond gracefully and say, so sorry this happened.
And then maybe they can reach out personally to try and correct it as well.
But I think what we also learned in going through the review data is not.
(25:59):
Every person is going to love every tour.
The whole point is you've got to manage expectations and as clear as you can be from theoutset of this is what my tour offers and this is what it doesn't, then the happier
customers you're going to have and the less negative reviews you're going to have.
People, I think shy away from including any potentially positive, negative information ina page, but it actually can be more detrimental to kind of gloss over that.
(26:29):
Absolutely, 100 % with Birdie.
I just did a tour with Zoom Tours, shout out Zoom Tours, and they took me to Niagara Fallsyesterday, which is why my hair looks like this.
Sorry.
It was wet there.
was very wet there, yes.
And it was a weird situation because today is April 30th, and it's a weird time of yearfor a lot of operators, especially operators who operate
(26:59):
outside because it's no matter where you are it's either gonna be a great day for weatheror a really bad day for the weather.
In Niabara typically this is a tour that takes you out on to Niabara and then you hop on aboat and we couldn't hop on a boat because there's ice there.
so we've seen Titanic.
Yeah I don't if anyone's seen it.
(27:22):
There was room on the door if for anyone wondering that's just my hot take of the day.
But now we
we couldn't go on the boat because there was ice fair and they pivoted to having a partnerthat took us like a journey behind the falls and we got to like get out of the van and
like walk behind and that's something that um I saw very clearly in the description is ifyou're booking between this day and this date you're not getting on the boat we're going
(27:51):
to take you to the falls themselves and you're going to walk through behind them but therewere a couple of tourists from out of the country spoke another language
and they were like, what we're not going on the boat?
And I was like, oh my gosh.
And it was really interesting to see the tour guide.
really turn on like he was already on he's already doing such a great job but I really sawhim activate as soon as he saw a disappointment in them um and then by by activate I mean
(28:20):
like he was perky and he was like no we're not getting on the bow but like you're gonnaget right into the falls you're gonna be right behind it you're gonna feel the water on
your face and you're gonna be dry the rest of the day you're not gonna be soaked um and mepersonally I was like y'all I was prepared to get soaked I'm not wearing jeans uh
were in jeans.
was like, yeah, you guys would have been miserable.
(28:41):
You were that so but it was interesting.
I think that's completely goes into like managing expectations.
And then by the end of the tour, he was handing out cards and they were so eager to givehim a great review.
So it is all about like managing those expectations and looking at your tour and thinkingone with that story.
It's like, oh, how am I adapting seasonally?
Maybe I'm a boat operator, but I wonder if I can have some type of affiliate partnershipwith someone who operates year round who provides a great tour.
(29:07):
But two is my
managing those expectations as effectively as possible because the customers always write,but again they're not always smart.
Or they don't know what to read.
Or they like don't fully understand or things don't translate well.
But one also interesting thing that we saw in the review research, which kind of goes backto that point, is that 25 % of all positive review comments that we found mentioned
(29:33):
something that went wrong, that the supplier was able to pivot and make right.
So it's not about having a seamless experience, it's about how you handle it.
And I think that guy is a great example of that.
Oh, that's awesome.
Okay.
Well, that kind of goes into my next question.
I love when that happens.
It's like I get paid to do this.
(29:55):
Yeah, it's so easy.
But it sounds like there's a lot of successful operators on getting red.
So my first kind of pre-question is how does Get Your Guide kind of define like asuccessful operator or a successful partnership with an operator or supplier as you say?
What's that definition for y'all?
I mean, we don't have a definition on our side.
(30:18):
It's all about what is successful to the supplier because we can sell as many or as littletickets as we are kind of allowed to do with some suppliers.
And it's really every supplier's needs are.
So it really, would pivot it back to what is success for the suppliers is success for usbecause we are only.
(30:42):
doing great business and our suppliers are doing great business.
But I think something that can be really beneficial with suppliers in taking a look attheir success is our insights page and our product performance page.
And some of the best, most successful suppliers, if you measure it by a metric of justkind of ticket sales, are looking at those product performance insights and reviewing kind
(31:08):
of
Where, what does my conversion rate look like?
When is it better than, you know, seasonally?
it better in the winter or the summer?
Am I getting more bookings from a certain region?
There was, you know, insights about where the customers are coming from, kind ofinternationally, different countries, regionally, and also insights about how you can
(31:33):
improve the performance on your page as well.
So.
Yeah, the best suppliers are the ones that are actually actively engaging with theplatform and looking at how they can improve their business and taking the suggestions.
That's really interesting and all of that is available in like the get your guide.
Do you guys call it a dashboard?
(31:54):
Yeah, it's on the performance.
Awesome.
What are the biggest misunderstandings you see with uh Get Your Guide?
I'm part of the Fair Harbor community, obviously, join the Fair Harbor community, bigclub, but I'm also part of other groups like Torpreneur and Get Your Guide gets brought up
(32:15):
a lot.
And I think when you work out a software, it's really interesting and
really nuanced thing of like, like we talked about earlier where it's like, I'm not anengineer, but so many times I'm like, well, why can't we do that?
And I think it's the same for our operators because as I always say, like these businessesare their babies and you work with small businesses, I work with small businesses, I'm the
(32:41):
daughter to small business owners.
And then really these businesses are like just their babies, their pride, their legacy,their joy.
their misery and a lot of the neostenses.
And with that comes a lot of passion and what passion can sometimes come likemisunderstanding.
And so I know my perspective on this question when I'm asked about Unfair Harbor.
I would love to flip it over to you on like those, what are the biggest misunderstandingsyou see and how could we kind of clear the air on those misunderstandings?
(33:10):
Yeah, I think a few things there.
I often hear people kind of confuse us and think that we are a discounter and turnundercut their current business and discount their tickets, things like that.
That off the bat is just not true.
We're not a discounter.
We always want to be selling at the same price as our partners and just expanding theirreach.
(33:33):
So that can be a challenge to get, you know, operators to understand that we're not agroup of the world.
We're very different.
entity.
And then I would say also in misconceptions that the suppliers are going to pay us forservices.
We're completely revenue-share.
We are always paying them directly.
(33:55):
We are never taking money from them.
We're just sharing in any profits of bookings that they can make.
So the Commission
or group rate discount that we're getting, we are really investing right back into themarketing.
So that is going to those Netflix ads.
It is going to the Chicago campaign where we are advertising all our Chicago operators tosomeone who's sitting on their couch in Germany, who is the boat tour operator in Chicago
(34:29):
currently marketing to someone who's sitting on their couch in Germany.
And I think that's also a misconception as well is that we would be kind of targeting thesame audiences.
So are we just undercutting them and taking a revenue share of a customer that they wouldhave gotten on their phone?
And I would say that 99 % of our customers are not crossover with customers that theywould have gotten themselves because we have a much larger reach.
(35:00):
We're global.
We're fully national.
We are not targeting the local markets and what supplier kind of has the budget to haveNetflix ads and NFL ads and things like that by themselves.
So we're just trying to amplify that reach, not kind of cut into the audience that theyalready have.
(35:22):
I love that amplify the reach, not cut into what you're already getting.
And I think that's so true.
Cause there's many a time where I signed to operator.
I think I went to not be bragging about my travels.
I did a walking tour in Ireland once and I knew nothing about it.
And, I did extensive Googling and I couldn't quite like grasp exactly what I was lookingfor at the tour.
(35:49):
wanted, and I'd love to get your vibe in there.
It was.
uh And I went back and found the company on Google.
I never would have found them if I didn't have their company name.
And you know, that says a lot about the company themselves.
They had a great product, not great marketing.
um And that's where I see Get Your Guide really shining is for those operators that maybehave that great product down.
(36:13):
And once they can get their reviews when they're out there, they can get the more exposureand SEO at one point.
But right now they need to get feet in the door.
And I think that Get Your Guide is a great vehicle for that.
Yeah, it's so hard to do.
mean, the walking tour in Ireland, the person is, when they first Google, right, they'relooking for things to do in Ireland or things to do in Dublin.
(36:38):
And there are so many things to do there.
And especially for tour operators, I think it's really important because the attractionsare always going to come up first.
That small walking tour in Ireland is probably going to be on page like five.
On page five, it's just not.
happening, whereas condensing it into one platform, giving the customers the opportunityto make a wish list with all of the attractions and sit alongside the attractions and the
(37:09):
tour operators is really impactful.
that you ex y'all goes crazy.
It goes crazy.
All right.
So speaking of the user experience, we've talked about a lot of it for really both sidesof this episode, which I've loved.
But as we kind of close out the episode before I warned Ali before of the humble brag,they like to do every episode this season.
(37:29):
Before we get into your humble brag, what is the hot gossip?
What's the 411?
As the kids say, are there any, you've given us little nuggets this episode of things thatwere honestly just announced today.
really cool.
I have the hot scoop.
I love that for me.
uh What new features can you tell us, our listeners, about from Get Your Guide?
(37:51):
Yeah, so
have the hot new product launch that's coming out.
are so many of them, too many to list all of them.
But like I mentioned, the AI Insights for the product pages are going to be reallyhelpful, I think, for suppliers to better, easier, make create their product pages and
(38:11):
really have a better understanding of how that impacts performance.
Also, we have the reviews, replying to reviews like I mentioned.
And then also we have
a brand new pickup feature, UX experience that I think is going to be a lot easier forsuppliers and customers to manage and have a much smoother experience, which is really
(38:36):
important because we do hear oftentimes that pain points, that one of the biggest painpoints are trying to a supplier and meet up the pick up.
Everything goes smoothly after that, but the meetup goes wrong.
Kind of start on a poor note.
So it's great to really streamline that experience a little bit, make it easier for ourcustomers and suppliers in the platform.
(39:01):
I can't tell you how many times I've broken sweat or six trying to get to a meeting pointall the time and being lost and being in another country.
It is the absolute worst.
And I just saw this posted in the community today is that there's so many customers whoare like, how do I call Get Your Guide so I know where I'm supposed to go?
(39:24):
And it's like, girl, you booked on Get Your Guide, but you didn't book with Yeah Guide.
But there is that you can call the operators and there is that information that like Isaid, mean, people don't.
Through the whole thing, but we do try to make that as clear as possible on the knowbefore you go emails that get sent out.
oh
(39:46):
on the app.
All right.
We're here at the end of the episode.
And Ali, thank you so much for being here.
I like to ask every one of my guests, even though you're here representing Get Your Guide,I would like to know this for an Ali.
ah I would love your Hubble brag.
OK, so in a Hubble brag, I want to know what you're most proud of in your work.
(40:07):
Tell me all about it.
I want to absorb it.
I need to hear it.
I need to visualize it.
Yeah.
mean, I've...
had some really fun and sometimes big acquisitions.
I led the charge with acquiring the Brooklyn Nets recently, last year, which was reallyexciting.
(40:27):
But my favorite suppliers to onboard are actually the smaller operators, because you canreally see the impact to those small businesses.
Like you mentioned with your family earlier, the small business owners, think there's somany of those out there that it really impacts
up his life and day to day.
know, Joe's boats, when he is able to get on there with Get Your Guide and consistentlysell out his boat, maybe he can retire to you years early.
(40:56):
And seeing the bookings for the smaller operators really makes my law heart happy.
It's the best.
I love when we do these meetups and we meet small operators for now.
And what's small, like just like family owned businesses and they come in with like theirpartner, like their life partner, you know, and who happens to be like their also and
(41:17):
co-CEO and it's just like the cutest thing ever to hear them thriving and hear them likebe excited on how to do better.
They're also passionate about their business, but sometimes being a passionate tour guide,passionate boat operator, things like that, you don't want to have to worry about some of
the marketing and things like that.
(41:39):
So I love being able to help people have a better experience doing that so that they canfocus on the things that they do love.
Yeah, I love that.
That's exactly the note I would like to end this episode, Ali.
Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you so much for having me.
It was an incredible episode.
You're an incredible guest.
think that your guide offers an incredible product and incredible platform.
(42:01):
Thank you for what you do for our operators and for coming all the way to Toronto for ourFair Harbor Meetup.
If you haven't been to a Fair Harbor Meetup yet, we still have quite a few left for theend of the year.
If you're watching this in 2025, we still have quite a few left.
So be sure to check out.
our events page to look at those.
I will also let you plug Get Your Guide where should people go to learn more about GetYour Guide and getting listed.
(42:25):
getyourguide.com and you can go to the supplier tag as well, which we'll link in the videofor above.
Yeah.
And also if you want to check out our LinkedIn as well, that's where we post links to manyof the data insights I mentioned.
So the travel trends tracker, that one is also really uh great information for suppliersto have.
(42:49):
Perfect.
Amazing.
I love, love, love, love, love those insights.
So make sure to check those out.
Like you said, one just released.
So make sure to check that trend tracker.
That was a tongue twister.
And also make sure to like, subscribe, leave a review while you're at it.
And make sure to join the Fair Harbor community as well, where you can find me and give meall your thoughts on the episode.
(43:12):
If you have follow-up questions, I'm happy to pass those over to Ali as well.
um And yeah, thank you so much for listening.
make sure to give a subscription to us especially on the YouTube we're trying to launchthat right now and thank you so much for listening thank you for so much for being here
and if you're currently on Fair Harbor thank you so much for being with us as well againI'm Rebecca and this is Allie thank you so much Allie and we will catch you all and it's
(43:39):
time to see you later
Hello, hello, welcome to another special episode of Growth Powered by Fair Harbor.
As you can see, I'm not in my living room again.
I'm actually at a fantastic event.
I don't know if you've heard of Fair Harbor Meetups.
I've mentioned them in the last like 75 episodes, I feel like at this point, but we areactually set pseudo live here at a Fair Harbor Meetup in Toronto, Canada, meeting our
(00:25):
clients.
And we have a special guest at this meetup.
We actually have a representative of Get Your Guide here with us today.
Allie, Allie, how are you doing today?
I'm great, thanks.
How are you?
I'm doing great.
I'm happy you're here.
I'm excited.
I'm happy.
Every, like, I wish I had a thesaurus and I would read out just every synonym for howexcited I am to have Get Your Guide here and Allie here.
(00:49):
Allie, tell us about you.
uh What is your role at Get Your Guide?
What do you do at Get Your Guide?
Yeah.
I'm a senior account executive at Get Your Guide, which means I'm in charge of onboardingnew suppliers and finding the best attractions and experiences out there to send our
customers to.
Oh, that's a good jump.
(01:10):
Yeah.
Do you get to experiment and go on a lot of tours?
I do.
Sometimes I get to go out there and do walkthroughs and go to fun attractions and museumsand
that's so exciting.
And you're based out of New York City, right?
my gosh, I bet you've seen it all.
I do love, yeah, it's an awesome city, but then it's also so easy to get to everywhereelse because it's such an international and great airport.
(01:36):
Oh, that's so exciting.
Okay, what is your, let's do a two first.
Typically I do a fun fact, but in light of your role, of your super fun job, and I have asuper fun job, so you know you have a super fun job if I'm jealous.
What has been your favorite place to travel to and what's been your favorite activity thatyou've done with an operator?
(01:58):
uh I would say recently, except being to a lot of places, but recently I went to Namibia,which was really awesome.
And I did some kind of dune excursions and saw the desert at sunrise and things like that.
A dune excursion?
(02:19):
the science fiction fantasy novel?
science fiction involved, but there was a vast desert with like, rolling deers involved,which was very cool.
That is We went up and down like quad bikes and stuff.
If I was not recorded in this wouldn't be on my digital footprint would be at the time Ican sing the Dune.
(02:41):
Yeah.
But I won't I'm terrified of my digital footprint.
I won't do that today.
Allie as I said I'm really grateful that you're here.
Thank you so much for coming on the podcast and for coming to Toronto.
I'm really excited.
It's my first time to are you noticing how nice people are.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Everyone's being really friendly.
(03:02):
Everyone is incredibly friendly.
I'm almost scared.
I'm almost like, you robbing me at the same time?
a New Yorker, Denver is getting close to that line.
But yeah, we have a meetup later this year in New York City.
Maybe you'll be there as well.
Very excited for that.
If someone didn't know what Get Your Guide is, how would you describe what Get Your Guideis for our probably one listener who may not know what Get Your Guide is?
(03:28):
What is it?
Yeah, so we are an online booking platform that helps connect suppliers with travelers allover the world.
So we help customers find and discover and book all of the best experiences around theglobe.
I've definitely booked with you, just got a...
trip under my belt in Japan and I a lot of my uh excursions with you and they were superfun.
(03:54):
We'd love to hear it.
And I'll talk about it later in the episode but I had I wanted to use Get Your Guidebecause in Japan I'm not from there.
I don't know the language and I was just about as American as you can be in the good waysyou know just lost ah on what to do and I love to Get Your Guide UX so can only
(04:17):
I can only imagine how fun it is to work there.
With that being said, that's what would draw me in at Get Your Guide.
As a consumer, what drew you to Get Your Guide as a team member?
What made you want to work at Get Your Guide?
Kind of the same.
I was a customer first.
also used, also on an Asia trip, actually, Get Your Guide for a bunch of differentactivities out there a couple of years ago.
(04:41):
And it's just such a great customer experience to be able to find and book everything inone place.
And I think it's pretty unique and not a lot of people are doing that yet in this space.
And so was really excited to join kind of an innovative, confident,
company that is moving the industry forward.
(05:02):
Absolutely, and I 100 % agree.
I will also talk about this in the episode later, is what I love about Get Your Guide isthe insights that you guys come out with.
I think, it quarterly you do those insights or monthly?
um So we do, well, we're always posting insights in general for individual suppliers tohelp them, but the travel trend tracker, which I think you were referencing, that's
(05:25):
semi-annually.
We actually just came out with a brand new one.
Maybe they're seeing an overlay of it right now.
We love it.
Yes.
I love those insights.
I think they draw a lot of, not only attention, but they just give a lot of spotlight towhat operators should be focusing on and what they know they're doing right and what may
(05:49):
be just the way the world is going.
Yeah.
That's I mean.
So you're well traveled.
as is what I can hear it.
She, if you can't hear it, she has an English accent.
And as an American, when I hear someone with an English accent, I just assume they're welltraveled.
Like I'm immediately like, that's probably, they know Sherlock.
(06:09):
They've read it.
They've read Sherlock Holmes.
can solve any mystery.
just assume it.
What, assuming that you're well traveled, especially with that Dune story.
What makes you so passionate about the tourism industry and the travel industry?
It's really, it's the making memories of it all.
(06:31):
It's, you we spend so much time in our lives working and we can have awesome jobs like theones that we have, but everyone kind of lives for a vacation at some point and another.
it, those are the points of time that people look back on, you know, when they're 80 andthey remember, you know, I went through the dunes in Namibia and being able to make
(06:52):
memories for people is like really exciting.
I 100 % agree.
We always say at Fair Harbor, I say in every single episode I record that I drink the FairHarbor Kool-Aid.
I can feel a listener right now rolling their eyes at me, ah but I do.
And at Fair Harbor, you know, the Kool-Aid flavor is we're in the business of makingmemories.
(07:14):
So I think we share that core value with Get Your Guide for sure.
ah And I think that's partly why Get Your Guide is such an industry leader in the OTAspace.
Expand on that for me.
What do you think?
sets Get Your Guide apart from other OTAs and why is it such an industry leader?
I think our tech really sets us apart and there is definitely a tech mindset in that ourengineers are always working towards innovation both on the customer side and the supplier
(07:43):
side.
So we're constantly coming out with new product updates and exciting ways for customers todiscover new experiences, different ways that they can experience the app as well.
I would say also our
curation as well.
That's something that we're moving forward with that we haven't necessarily done in thepast, but now that we've gotten to the scale that we're at, we're really focusing on only
(08:12):
having those key best of the best experiences and cutting through the noise because thereare so many amazing experiences out there, but you you can't go through 200 of the same
similar tours in an area.
So we only want to have the best of the best and we're
on a mission right now to strategically select those and make sure that we're highlightingthose, which is better for both consumers and then also suppliers because they're only
(08:39):
getting competition with true competitors.
That is something I've noticed, you know, I am going to England really right after thismeetup tonight, which I'm really excited about.
love Europe.
I love London in particular is so fun, which is where I'm going.
And I was booking, I was trying to find a fun pub crawl.
(09:01):
And so I was shopping around for pub crawls and I was trying to book direct and I was justso lost.
I remember I found this operator.
and their website was just so confusing and I wanted a certain neighborhood to bouncearound in, but their website had so many clicks, I immediately had decision fatigue and I
had to hop apps and go over to get your guide.
(09:23):
And it was so easy for me to get the neighborhood that I wanted and see how many reviewsthere were for that particular tour.
um It made everything so much easier.
How does someone get on Get Your Guide?
And I'm sure you've noticed, I see it all the time in the community, that clients at FairHarbor particularly get frustrated and they get frustrated over like a wait time.
(09:49):
And I can hear that you're saying that y'all work so hard with a fine-tooth comb to ensurethat the tours on there are going to be legitimate, that they're going to be fun, that
they're going to be valuable and provide these unforgettable experiences for customers.
How do operators prove to you that they are all of those things?
(10:10):
Yeah, so we have a new verification process, which has really helped with this.
It's slow going as we're kind of back doing all of our current suppliers, but it's beenreally helpful in weeding out.
There's a lot of bots out there even that are trying to spam and take attention away fromactual suppliers as well.
(10:34):
So we've used a new verification process.
We work with a third party that
kind of verifies the identity of everyone who's signing up and then also their businessregistration information as well so that our customers can feel comfortable that there's a
real human who has safety checks and checks on their business in the background as well.
(10:57):
But the suppliers can just go to our site and then kind of sign up themselves and gothrough that process.
It usually takes about 15 minutes for the initial sign up.
Nice!
And for those who are frustrated right now with how long it takes to get listed on GetYour Guide, what would you tell them?
patient with us for that.
think it's definitely something that is a work in progress, but we've seen tremendousprogress in the past couple of months from our team.
(11:25):
And it's also a temporary moment in time.
It's not going to happen forever.
It's just a backlog that we need to clear in order to make sure that we are following thestandards of data protection and all the international laws as well as protecting our
customers.
But yeah, I can't give a specific timeline to it, but it's definitely a temporarysituation in that way.
(11:52):
Absolutely.
And that makes sense.
Again, there's been times where I, when I was an account manager, I'm looking at websitesall the time.
And there's so many times I would see a client's website and I've been on their tour.
I know it's fun.
I know it's real.
And I go on their website and I'm like, I would not want to put my credit card number intothis website.
(12:13):
Yeah.
Yeah, no, that is the good thing about us is customers can feel comfortable booking withus.
We also have certain guarantees and certain cancellation policies that make customers feelcomfortable booking with us.
And also the languages as well, like you mentioned, the language barriers can sometimes bean issue even with Google Translate, right?
(12:35):
Some widgets and plugins and things don't translate and you're like, well, I hope I'mpaying for the right thing.
We translate into over 37 languages and accept as many currencies as well in differentpayment methods so customers can feel more uh comfortable booking with us.
But then also suppliers, we cover all the foreign transaction fees as well and what, youknow, small tour operator is able to translate their site.
(13:00):
I didn't know that.
That's incredible.
Yeah, that's a great incentive.
What other incentives could you say for our clients who might be interested in having apartnership with Get Your Guide?
Yeah, I would say just the sheer scale and breadth of audience that we have is really theimportant thing here is being able to amplify their own current marketing efforts and
(13:25):
drive bookings at the end of the day.
I mean, there's a lot of different ways to work with us, but at the end of the day, Ithink what most tour operators care about is driving bookings and especially on their off
season, shoulder seasons, things like that.
We've been really able to help.
our suppliers with those seasons because we market to people all over the world.
(13:47):
So, you know, what is a school vacation in the U.S.
is not the same as a school vacation in France.
And so maybe the French customer is coming during that time.
And what small tour operator is really able to effectively target a French market bythemselves.
We're able to amplify that voice and drive bookings.
(14:09):
And, you know, we're
revenue sharing so they're not paying any up thing upfront for that extra marketing andbridge
What marketing em are you involved with at Get Your Guide?
So marketing is my buzzword.
I like awaken.
I feel like I'm coming back from the dead when I hear the word marketing.
(14:29):
I'm like, what?
I am curious what that marketing on behalf of the operator looks like with Get Your Guide.
I know it's kind of difficult on an audio medium, but maybe you can describe that a littlebit for me.
How does that work?
We work with so many different channels.
mean, 20 different channels of marketing, you know, from the influencers to we haveNetflix ads and Hulu ads and ads in the football playoffs, not a sports golf, but whatever
(15:00):
the playoff games are for them.
And also down to, you know, plug-in advertising as well on various websites.
But also really important is our strategic partnerships as well.
We work with over 2,500 strategic partners in the travel industry.
like credit card companies, if you book with Amex, you can book with your credit cardpoints.
(15:23):
Different airlines.
So if someone is booking with Air France, for example, flying into Toronto, then on theirconfirmation email, they get a plugin that says things to do in Toronto.
and then that will direct them to the Get Your Guide Toronto page and all of our operatorsthere.
That is so cool.
It's really interesting.
When I went on a trip to Amsterdam, I was pretty outside.
(15:47):
I was like in a neighborhood outside Amsterdam.
So was taking the train in, cleanest train I've ever been on.
I'm from America, so the bar's low.
So low.
Yeah.
But I looked around at one point as I was getting closer and closer into the Amsterdam.
And every person that I could probably see was a tourist, like I could kind of tell.
(16:10):
We have this look about us, know, was on their app on Get Your Guide.
We love to hear it.
It was really interesting.
Do you, if you're not able to share this, totally fine.
But I'm really curious to know like what markets regionally are kind of like the biggestones or where you see operators more easily thrive in the world.
(16:33):
Yeah, I mean, it definitely varies market to market hugely.
But in the US, more than half of our customers buying experiences in the US come from aninternational market.
Yeah, very heavily European because we are a European company.
We're a German company.
So that's probably our highest segment beyond Americans, but from all over as well.
(16:58):
You know, I hear people from Australia coming in as well.
Yes.
all of the globe.
Yeah, Christ to me.
That's interesting.
Well, we've really hit the nail on the head, I think, on how valuable Get Your Guide is totourists and to our operators, marketing to them.
um Let's talk a little bit about challenges.
(17:19):
um So what do you think are the biggest challenges operators face when it comes toreaching a thriving partnership with Get Your Guide?
And what advice can you give on overcoming those challenges?
Yeah, I think it's similar challenges to any place on the internet where we have so muchchoice out there.
(17:41):
We have more choices now than we've ever had in human history.
And, you know, Get Your Guide is there to try and help narrow that down for the customer,but you still have competition, right?
So how do you stand out and differentiate yourself from the competition is a commonchallenge that I hear from
our suppliers and I think that's really down to creating the best product that they can,the best product page that they can.
(18:08):
There's a few different ways that they can do that.
One of the things that we've really dug into research wise is having people in yourpictures, showing people, doing the activity.
It sounds really simple but it makes a big difference if a consumer can see themselves.
(18:30):
in the activity and see them, oh, like that I can kayak along the DC river in thisactivity.
There's me.
It just, think mentally we're visual creatures.
And then the title and description is also really important as well.
The description is what the short description is what pulls in to the search engineoptimization.
(18:55):
So making sure that suppliers know that and are
utilizing the description effectively to be able to really hone in on what are thekeywords that a customer would search for your activity for.
How do you have any experience in finding out what is the right SEO?
(19:17):
What is the right description?
How do you have a catchy listing on Get Your Guide, I guess?
You said there are, in the listing itself, we should have people, which I find reallyinteresting.
My ears kind of peaked when you said that because, or perked.
It's been a long day.
(19:39):
They perked when you said that because I just got done doing a tour today, a walking tour,and it was a friends and family tour.
everyone that was there was like a friend or family member of the operator because theywere launching a new tour and they're gonna be listing it and they need pictures for it.
And I thought that was a really interesting concept to have like a friends and family.
(20:00):
I've heard of that for restaurants, like Sange openings, and they did like a soft launch.
I know the kids think a soft launch is.
something completely different than what we're talking about.
But they did like a soft launch of their tour.
So I think that's a great tip to kind of throw out there as a friends and family tourwhere you can get some photos and stuff.
What do you think should stand out in the description when they're listing on Get YourGuide?
(20:22):
Definitely the location and any key highlights.
if it's a New York City tour, the description, the title will say New York City, but thedescription, if there's a certain neighborhood that you're in, if it's a Chinatown food
tour, make sure it says that in the description.
It sounds simple, but people don't always think to go that nitty gritty into things, butanything that is different about your tour.
(20:51):
that you would want to highlight, put it in the short description as much as you can sothat if someone is searching for a walking tour in Chinatown, you will...
Yeah, so it kind of sounds like we're talking, well first I want to say the customer isalways right, but the customer is not always very smart.
(21:12):
Yes.
So you got to lay things out for a big old dummy.
And I swear, I always say when I walk into an airport, I immediately lose 10 IQ points.
And just as the day goes on, it's more and more IQ points that I'm losing.
And I feel like it's the same for someone who's traveling.
Like you're just so frantic that you're like, wait, what was that again?
(21:33):
What am I doing today?
Where was that meeting point?
So I completely agree that you really got to lay it down.
You got to say Chinatown six, seven, eight different times in your listing if it's goingto be in Chinatown.
So it sounds like there's some key pillars of a profitable partnership with Get YourGuide.
So we talked about an optimizing and a learning.
listing and in that we want to know how to stand out which you've mentioned.
(21:56):
um I think another pillar of a strong partnership with Fair Harbor and Get Your Guide isthe power of reviews.
Can you talk to me a little bit about why reviews are so important to Get Your Guide andwhat that importance looks like to you as like you're personified Get Your Guide today.
What do your reviews really mean to Get Your Guide?
(22:20):
Why should they be so important?
to the operator.
And then the icing on top of this question ah is how should an operator respond to anegative review they may get from a Get Your Act customer.
Yeah, so that's actually what I'm here to talk about today, and then we'll meet up later.
But we just launched a new travel trend tracker about reviews.
(22:45):
So our semiannual research this year was about that.
And that's open to the public, so we can shoot the link on there for those listening athome.
But there's some really awesome insights about reviews.
And obviously we know they're important, kind of preaching to the choir with a touroperator.
Important have a review strategy and know when is the best time to reach out to customers,how often you're asking for people for reviews, how you're making your experience
(23:16):
memorable to even want to make a review.
I think a good thing that is probably great news for most Fair Harbor operators is
that guided tours, vehicle, day trip, boat tours tend to actually have the highest reviewrate, as in the more people, right, than attractions.
(23:40):
And that's really down to the human connection, we found out, because that person affordsan opportunity to connect, to storytell, to personalize, and that...
Connection really incentivizes people and inspires people to write a review.
So as much as you can play that up in your experience, even if you don't have a guide, howcan you amplify the human connection that you do have with a bus driver or a ticket sales
(24:10):
agent, things like that.
Yeah, that's kind of just scratching the surface, but we have a lot of other insights inthe trend checkers.
Amazing.
I'll make sure to do a little screen read.
The link is on the screen as we speak.
Shout out to Lloyd, my podcast editor.
Thanks Lloyd.
You're the best.
um Interesting.
(24:32):
So the last bit of my question here.
Do you have any insight on how to or if you should respond to a bad review?
That is also part of our new product launch is there are now the opportunities forsuppliers to respond to our views, which is something that people have obviously wanted
(24:52):
for quite a while.
I'm not an engineer.
don't know how complicated that is to add.
so like that though.
Just add it in.
It'll take like 30 minutes.
then it just so much more complicated.
My space like maybe I should try this but no it's actually kind of hard.
(25:12):
Yeah
Exactly.
And our team is so good about really thoughtfully testing products so that the product isout.
Once it's out there, it works well.
There are no glitches with it.
So they've heard the requests.
We're always listening to our partners when we get these requests and now they can replyto reviews.
(25:35):
So if you do get a negative review, I think it's just really important to give context,right?
And say,
if there was a situation, respond gracefully and say, so sorry this happened.
And then maybe they can reach out personally to try and correct it as well.
But I think what we also learned in going through the review data is not.
(25:59):
Every person is going to love every tour.
The whole point is you've got to manage expectations and as clear as you can be from theoutset of this is what my tour offers and this is what it doesn't, then the happier
customers you're going to have and the less negative reviews you're going to have.
People, I think shy away from including any potentially positive, negative information ina page, but it actually can be more detrimental to kind of gloss over that.
(26:29):
Absolutely, 100 % with Birdie.
I just did a tour with Zoom Tours, shout out Zoom Tours, and they took me to Niagara Fallsyesterday, which is why my hair looks like this.
Sorry.
It was wet there.
was very wet there, yes.
And it was a weird situation because today is April 30th, and it's a weird time of yearfor a lot of operators, especially operators who operate
(26:59):
outside because it's no matter where you are it's either gonna be a great day for weatheror a really bad day for the weather.
In Niabara typically this is a tour that takes you out on to Niabara and then you hop on aboat and we couldn't hop on a boat because there's ice there.
so we've seen Titanic.
Yeah I don't if anyone's seen it.
(27:22):
There was room on the door if for anyone wondering that's just my hot take of the day.
But now we
we couldn't go on the boat because there was ice fair and they pivoted to having a partnerthat took us like a journey behind the falls and we got to like get out of the van and
like walk behind and that's something that um I saw very clearly in the description is ifyou're booking between this day and this date you're not getting on the boat we're going
(27:51):
to take you to the falls themselves and you're going to walk through behind them but therewere a couple of tourists from out of the country spoke another language
and they were like, what we're not going on the boat?
And I was like, oh my gosh.
And it was really interesting to see the tour guide.
really turn on like he was already on he's already doing such a great job but I really sawhim activate as soon as he saw a disappointment in them um and then by by activate I mean
(28:20):
like he was perky and he was like no we're not getting on the bow but like you're gonnaget right into the falls you're gonna be right behind it you're gonna feel the water on
your face and you're gonna be dry the rest of the day you're not gonna be soaked um and mepersonally I was like y'all I was prepared to get soaked I'm not wearing jeans uh
were in jeans.
was like, yeah, you guys would have been miserable.
(28:41):
You were that so but it was interesting.
I think that's completely goes into like managing expectations.
And then by the end of the tour, he was handing out cards and they were so eager to givehim a great review.
So it is all about like managing those expectations and looking at your tour and thinkingone with that story.
It's like, oh, how am I adapting seasonally?
Maybe I'm a boat operator, but I wonder if I can have some type of affiliate partnershipwith someone who operates year round who provides a great tour.
(29:07):
But two is my
managing those expectations as effectively as possible because the customers always write,but again they're not always smart.
Or they don't know what to read.
Or they like don't fully understand or things don't translate well.
But one also interesting thing that we saw in the review research, which kind of goes backto that point, is that 25 % of all positive review comments that we found mentioned
(29:33):
something that went wrong, that the supplier was able to pivot and make right.
So it's not about having a seamless experience, it's about how you handle it.
And I think that guy is a great example of that.
Oh, that's awesome.
Okay.
Well, that kind of goes into my next question.
I love when that happens.
It's like I get paid to do this.
(29:55):
Yeah, it's so easy.
But it sounds like there's a lot of successful operators on getting red.
So my first kind of pre-question is how does Get Your Guide kind of define like asuccessful operator or a successful partnership with an operator or supplier as you say?
What's that definition for y'all?
I mean, we don't have a definition on our side.
(30:18):
It's all about what is successful to the supplier because we can sell as many or as littletickets as we are kind of allowed to do with some suppliers.
And it's really every supplier's needs are.
So it really, would pivot it back to what is success for the suppliers is success for usbecause we are only.
(30:42):
doing great business and our suppliers are doing great business.
But I think something that can be really beneficial with suppliers in taking a look attheir success is our insights page and our product performance page.
And some of the best, most successful suppliers, if you measure it by a metric of justkind of ticket sales, are looking at those product performance insights and reviewing kind
(31:08):
of
Where, what does my conversion rate look like?
When is it better than, you know, seasonally?
it better in the winter or the summer?
Am I getting more bookings from a certain region?
There was, you know, insights about where the customers are coming from, kind ofinternationally, different countries, regionally, and also insights about how you can
(31:33):
improve the performance on your page as well.
So.
Yeah, the best suppliers are the ones that are actually actively engaging with theplatform and looking at how they can improve their business and taking the suggestions.
That's really interesting and all of that is available in like the get your guide.
Do you guys call it a dashboard?
(31:54):
Yeah, it's on the performance.
Awesome.
What are the biggest misunderstandings you see with uh Get Your Guide?
I'm part of the Fair Harbor community, obviously, join the Fair Harbor community, bigclub, but I'm also part of other groups like Torpreneur and Get Your Guide gets brought up
(32:15):
a lot.
And I think when you work out a software, it's really interesting and
really nuanced thing of like, like we talked about earlier where it's like, I'm not anengineer, but so many times I'm like, well, why can't we do that?
And I think it's the same for our operators because as I always say, like these businessesare their babies and you work with small businesses, I work with small businesses, I'm the
(32:41):
daughter to small business owners.
And then really these businesses are like just their babies, their pride, their legacy,their joy.
their misery and a lot of the neostenses.
And with that comes a lot of passion and what passion can sometimes come likemisunderstanding.
And so I know my perspective on this question when I'm asked about Unfair Harbor.
I would love to flip it over to you on like those, what are the biggest misunderstandingsyou see and how could we kind of clear the air on those misunderstandings?
(33:10):
Yeah, I think a few things there.
I often hear people kind of confuse us and think that we are a discounter and turnundercut their current business and discount their tickets, things like that.
That off the bat is just not true.
We're not a discounter.
We always want to be selling at the same price as our partners and just expanding theirreach.
(33:33):
So that can be a challenge to get, you know, operators to understand that we're not agroup of the world.
We're very different.
entity.
And then I would say also in misconceptions that the suppliers are going to pay us forservices.
We're completely revenue-share.
We are always paying them directly.
(33:55):
We are never taking money from them.
We're just sharing in any profits of bookings that they can make.
So the Commission
or group rate discount that we're getting, we are really investing right back into themarketing.
So that is going to those Netflix ads.
It is going to the Chicago campaign where we are advertising all our Chicago operators tosomeone who's sitting on their couch in Germany, who is the boat tour operator in Chicago
(34:29):
currently marketing to someone who's sitting on their couch in Germany.
And I think that's also a misconception as well is that we would be kind of targeting thesame audiences.
So are we just undercutting them and taking a revenue share of a customer that they wouldhave gotten on their phone?
And I would say that 99 % of our customers are not crossover with customers that theywould have gotten themselves because we have a much larger reach.
(35:00):
We're global.
We're fully national.
We are not targeting the local markets and what supplier kind of has the budget to haveNetflix ads and NFL ads and things like that by themselves.
So we're just trying to amplify that reach, not kind of cut into the audience that theyalready have.
(35:22):
I love that amplify the reach, not cut into what you're already getting.
And I think that's so true.
Cause there's many a time where I signed to operator.
I think I went to not be bragging about my travels.
I did a walking tour in Ireland once and I knew nothing about it.
And, I did extensive Googling and I couldn't quite like grasp exactly what I was lookingfor at the tour.
(35:49):
wanted, and I'd love to get your vibe in there.
It was.
uh And I went back and found the company on Google.
I never would have found them if I didn't have their company name.
And you know, that says a lot about the company themselves.
They had a great product, not great marketing.
um And that's where I see Get Your Guide really shining is for those operators that maybehave that great product down.
(36:13):
And once they can get their reviews when they're out there, they can get the more exposureand SEO at one point.
But right now they need to get feet in the door.
And I think that Get Your Guide is a great vehicle for that.
Yeah, it's so hard to do.
mean, the walking tour in Ireland, the person is, when they first Google, right, they'relooking for things to do in Ireland or things to do in Dublin.
(36:38):
And there are so many things to do there.
And especially for tour operators, I think it's really important because the attractionsare always going to come up first.
That small walking tour in Ireland is probably going to be on page like five.
On page five, it's just not.
happening, whereas condensing it into one platform, giving the customers the opportunityto make a wish list with all of the attractions and sit alongside the attractions and the
(37:09):
tour operators is really impactful.
that you ex y'all goes crazy.
It goes crazy.
All right.
So speaking of the user experience, we've talked about a lot of it for really both sidesof this episode, which I've loved.
But as we kind of close out the episode before I warned Ali before of the humble brag,they like to do every episode this season.
(37:29):
Before we get into your humble brag, what is the hot gossip?
What's the 411?
As the kids say, are there any, you've given us little nuggets this episode of things thatwere honestly just announced today.
really cool.
I have the hot scoop.
I love that for me.
uh What new features can you tell us, our listeners, about from Get Your Guide?
(37:51):
Yeah, so
have the hot new product launch that's coming out.
are so many of them, too many to list all of them.
But like I mentioned, the AI Insights for the product pages are going to be reallyhelpful, I think, for suppliers to better, easier, make create their product pages and
(38:11):
really have a better understanding of how that impacts performance.
Also, we have the reviews, replying to reviews like I mentioned.
And then also we have
a brand new pickup feature, UX experience that I think is going to be a lot easier forsuppliers and customers to manage and have a much smoother experience, which is really
(38:36):
important because we do hear oftentimes that pain points, that one of the biggest painpoints are trying to a supplier and meet up the pick up.
Everything goes smoothly after that, but the meetup goes wrong.
Kind of start on a poor note.
So it's great to really streamline that experience a little bit, make it easier for ourcustomers and suppliers in the platform.
(39:01):
I can't tell you how many times I've broken sweat or six trying to get to a meeting pointall the time and being lost and being in another country.
It is the absolute worst.
And I just saw this posted in the community today is that there's so many customers whoare like, how do I call Get Your Guide so I know where I'm supposed to go?
(39:24):
And it's like, girl, you booked on Get Your Guide, but you didn't book with Yeah Guide.
But there is that you can call the operators and there is that information that like Isaid, mean, people don't.
Through the whole thing, but we do try to make that as clear as possible on the knowbefore you go emails that get sent out.
oh
(39:46):
on the app.
All right.
We're here at the end of the episode.
And Ali, thank you so much for being here.
I like to ask every one of my guests, even though you're here representing Get Your Guide,I would like to know this for an Ali.
ah I would love your Hubble brag.
OK, so in a Hubble brag, I want to know what you're most proud of in your work.
(40:07):
Tell me all about it.
I want to absorb it.
I need to hear it.
I need to visualize it.
Yeah.
mean, I've...
had some really fun and sometimes big acquisitions.
I led the charge with acquiring the Brooklyn Nets recently, last year, which was reallyexciting.
(40:27):
But my favorite suppliers to onboard are actually the smaller operators, because you canreally see the impact to those small businesses.
Like you mentioned with your family earlier, the small business owners, think there's somany of those out there that it really impacts
up his life and day to day.
know, Joe's boats, when he is able to get on there with Get Your Guide and consistentlysell out his boat, maybe he can retire to you years early.
(40:56):
And seeing the bookings for the smaller operators really makes my law heart happy.
It's the best.
I love when we do these meetups and we meet small operators for now.
And what's small, like just like family owned businesses and they come in with like theirpartner, like their life partner, you know, and who happens to be like their also and
(41:17):
co-CEO and it's just like the cutest thing ever to hear them thriving and hear them likebe excited on how to do better.
They're also passionate about their business, but sometimes being a passionate tour guide,passionate boat operator, things like that, you don't want to have to worry about some of
the marketing and things like that.
(41:39):
So I love being able to help people have a better experience doing that so that they canfocus on the things that they do love.
Yeah, I love that.
That's exactly the note I would like to end this episode, Ali.
Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you so much for having me.
It was an incredible episode.
You're an incredible guest.
think that your guide offers an incredible product and incredible platform.
(42:01):
Thank you for what you do for our operators and for coming all the way to Toronto for ourFair Harbor Meetup.
If you haven't been to a Fair Harbor Meetup yet, we still have quite a few left for theend of the year.
If you're watching this in 2025, we still have quite a few left.
So be sure to check out.
our events page to look at those.
I will also let you plug Get Your Guide where should people go to learn more about GetYour Guide and getting listed.
(42:25):
getyourguide.com and you can go to the supplier tag as well, which we'll link in the videofor above.
Yeah.
And also if you want to check out our LinkedIn as well, that's where we post links to manyof the data insights I mentioned.
So the travel trends tracker, that one is also really uh great information for suppliersto have.
(42:49):
Perfect.
Amazing.
I love, love, love, love, love those insights.
So make sure to check those out.
Like you said, one just released.
So make sure to check that trend tracker.
That was a tongue twister.
And also make sure to like, subscribe, leave a review while you're at it.
And make sure to join the Fair Harbor community as well, where you can find me and give meall your thoughts on the episode.
(43:12):
If you have follow-up questions, I'm happy to pass those over to Ali as well.
um And yeah, thank you so much for listening.
make sure to give a subscription to us especially on the YouTube we're trying to launchthat right now and thank you so much for listening thank you for so much for being here
and if you're currently on Fair Harbor thank you so much for being with us as well againI'm Rebecca and this is Allie thank you so much Allie and we will catch you all and it's
(43:39):
time to see you later
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