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.
Regional day-tour operator, 85 staff
Week 3 of 3 · illustrative figures
Pricing
One price all season. Peak Saturdays sell out 9 weeks ahead at the same rate as quiet Tuesdays.
Two price levels and a lead-time rule
Products & distribution
61% of bookings and 44% of margin come through two OTAs. Brand searches land on OTA listings first.
Win back brand searches, simplify checkout
Market intelligence
No view of competitor prices or rank in the top 3 cities. Decisions rely on one platform’s reports.
Monthly benchmark of 12 competitors
AI
Four tools trialled, none owned. Product content is translated by hand into 5 languages.
One owner, two uses, review at 90 days
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.
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.
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