Booking.com customers will soon be able to book activities, tours and attractions while booking a place to stay, thanks to a new partnership between Booking and TripAdvisor’s Viator operation.
Although Booking and TripAdvisor are rivals in a number of travel industry segments, the deal will place Viator’s catalog of over 400,000 items within reach of Booking customers, starting with North America and Europe.
The mutual benefits of the deal are clear: Booking.com has nothing like Viator in its brands, and Viator will have access to customers of the largest lodging booker in the business. In addition to the usual hotel listings, Booking has recently included larger numbers of short-stay apartments, pushing into territory where Airbnb has its roots.
Viator, which functions as a front-end for thousands of local tour operators world-wide, dominates its field, but being visible on a site where thousands are also booking lodging could be a big boost for it.
