Commercial advisory for European tour operators
Find where your margin leaks to the OTAs, and fix it.
We diagnose pricing, distribution, OTA dependency and AI for tour operators and agencies of 20 to 500 staff. You get a written plan, at a fixed price, from former OTA leaders.
Free, 30 minutes, by video. No preparation needed.
- The partners
- Former Regional GM Europe and Head of Growth France, Tier 1 OTA
- Independence
- We work only for operators. No OTA or vendor fees.
- Price
- Fixed, from €2,500, agreed before we start
- Time
- A written plan in 2 to 4 weeks
Prepared for
Client name withheld
Day tours and excursions, southern France · 85 staff · 4 markets
- Data
- 24 months
- Interviews
- 4
- Delivered
- Week 3
- Revenue analysed
- €11.4M
- Season 2025, 186,000 travellers
- OTA share
- 58%
- of bookings, but 42% of margin
- OTA commission paid
- €1.73M
- Effective rate 26.2%
- Recoverable margin
- €640k to €820k
- per year, from 5 leaks
Revenue leaks, ranked by value
€ per year
- 1
Pricing
One price on all dates. The 22 peak dates sell out 9 weeks ahead.
€260k - 2
Distribution
34% of brand-name searches end on an OTA listing, not your site.
€170k - 3
OTA terms
OTA A tier unchanged since 2021: 27% paid, 23% achievable at your volume.
€155k - 4
Pricing
Discounts of 18% in the last 72 hours, on 9% of volume.
€90k - 5
Distribution
Mobile checkout in 7 steps. 71% of mobile baskets are abandoned.
€80k
Our read. OTA dependency is high but not locked in. Direct share can move from 31% to 40% in 18 months without cutting OTA volume.
Problems we fix
The questions tour operators bring us.
Each one has a cause we can find in your data, and a fix we can put in a plan.
Why do we sell more every year and keep less?
Commission is paid out of margin, not price. At 25%, an OTA booking can be worth a third of a direct one.
Why do so few customers book on our own site?
Brand searches land on OTA listings first, and direct checkout is slower than theirs.
Why did our OTA ranking drop this season?
Ranking follows conversion, recent reviews, availability and price position. One of them moved.
Are we pricing peak days like quiet days?
A fixed seasonal grid sells out early on the best dates, then forces late discounts on the rest.
What can we actually negotiate with our OTAs?
Usually more than the standard terms suggest, if you know what the account manager is measured on.
What should we do about AI this year?
Two uses with an owner and a 90-day review. Not a strategy deck, and not ten tools on trial.
Four areas
What we look at, and what we check.
Every Diagnostic covers the same four areas, so nothing is left to the loudest problem of the week.
Pricing
- Margin per booking by channel, after commission and funded discounts
- Price levels by season, day and lead time
- Group, private and partner prices
- Price coherence across channels
Products & distribution
- Channel mix on bookings and on margin
- OTA dependency and contract terms
- Ranking signals on your top listings
- Direct booking path, from brand search to checkout
Market intelligence
- Competitor prices and positions in your main cities
- Demand by market, season and source country
- Where OTAs are pushing your category
- What to track each month, and who reads it
AI
- Current tools, costs and who owns them
- The two uses most likely to pay back this year
- Data and review rules for your team
- Readiness for AI trip-planning assistants
The Diagnostic
A clear read of your business, and a plan.
The Diagnostic is our fixed-price entry engagement. It names your revenue leaks, your OTA dependency and your AI priorities, then sets out what to do first.
What you receive
- A written report on the four areas, with figures from your own data
- Your revenue leaks, ranked by value
- Your OTA dependency, measured on margin
- Your AI priorities for the next 90 days
- A plan with owners, order and timing
- A 90-minute review session with your leadership team
Fixed price
From €2,500
2 to 4 weeks. Invoiced directly, no online payment.
- What we need from you
- 12 to 24 months of booking data, your price grids, OTA contracts and 3 to 4 short interviews.
- Who does the work
- The partners, personally.
- Confidentiality
- We never name clients or share their data.
How we work
01
Intro call
Free · 30 minutes
You describe the problem. We tell you plainly whether a Diagnostic is the right next step.
02
Diagnostic
2 to 4 weeks
We read your booking, pricing and channel data, interview your team and write the plan.
03
Mission or Retainer
Only if useful
A scoped Mission to implement one part of the plan, quoted after the Diagnostic, or monthly advisory.
What clients say
Operators judge us on the plan, and on what it changed.
We thought our problem was the OTA commission. The Diagnostic showed it was our own pricing: one price on every date. We changed it in two weeks and the peak season paid for the work several times over.
Chief executive
Day-tour operator, southern France, 85 staff
+11% margin on peak dates
“They knew exactly what our account manager is measured on. We went into the renegotiation with a one-page brief and came out 3 points of commission lower.”
Commercial director
Multi-day tour operator, Spain, 140 staff
-3 points of OTA commission
“No deck, no junior team. Two people who had run the machine read our data and told us what to stop doing. The AI part fits on one page and we actually use it.”
Managing director
Incoming agency, Portugal, 45 staff
Direct share from 24% to 33%
These quotes are samples that show the format. Client quotes appear here once approved, by role and region only: we never name clients.
The partners
Senior people on every engagement.
riv‑partners is two partners and no junior layer. We know how OTAs rank, price and negotiate because we ran that work in Europe. Today we work only for operators.
Former Regional General Manager Europe, Tier 1 OTA
OTA commercial terms, supplier negotiations and European market structure.
Former Head of Growth France, Tier 1 OTA
Direct and paid acquisition, conversion, ranking and pricing performance.
Insights
How the OTA market works, and what to do about it.
Questions
What operators ask before the intro call.
Plain answers on price, time, data and confidentiality.
What exactly is the Diagnostic?
A fixed-price review of your business across four areas: pricing, products and distribution, market intelligence and AI. You get a written report with your revenue leaks ranked by value, your OTA dependency measured on margin, and a 90-day plan with owners.
How much does it cost, and how is it paid?
From €2,500, depending on the number of products and markets. The price is fixed before we start. We invoice your company directly; there is no online payment.
How long does it take, and how much of our time?
2 to 4 weeks. On your side: a data export, your price grids and OTA contracts, and 3 to 4 interviews of about 45 minutes. We do the analysis.
What data do you need?
12 to 24 months of bookings by channel, date and product, your price grids, your OTA contracts and your channel costs. A spreadsheet export from your booking system is enough.
Do you still work for an OTA?
No. We are former OTA leaders and we now work only for tour operators and agencies. We take no commission or fee from any OTA or software vendor.
How do you handle confidentiality?
We sign your NDA or ours before receiving data. We never name clients, never share their figures, and delete working files at the end of the engagement on request.
Is my business the right size?
We work with tour operators and agencies of 20 to 500 staff, mostly in Europe. Below that, an Insight or an intro call is usually enough. We will tell you plainly on the call.
What happens after the Diagnostic?
You can run the plan yourselves. If useful, we quote a Mission to implement one part, such as an OTA renegotiation, or a monthly Retainer. There is no obligation.
Tell us the problem. We will tell you if we can fix it.
A free 30-minute intro call with a partner. Write to us with your company and topic, and we reply within 1 working day with times.
Or write to riv-partners@nanocorp.app