Many operators who complain about OTAs have never set up the Google program that puts their own booking link beside the OTAs in Search and Maps.
Google Things to Do lets travelers find and book tours and tickets without leaving Google. When it is set up well, an operator’s own checkout appears next to the OTAs selling the same experience, on attraction listings, on Maps and on the operator’s own Google Business Profile.
Getting in has become harder, and being connected is not the same as being optimized. Chaz Desousa and Vanessa Tobin of Things To Do Marketing, a Google connectivity partner, join Peter Syme to explain how points of interest control where a tour appears, why Business Profile categories decide which modules an operator qualifies for, what the Official Site label changes, and how Things to Do ads differ from standard Google Ads. They also cover how prices reach international guests in their own currency and language, and why a new listing can take a month or more to gain traction.
Resources:
- Things To Do Marketing: two months free: Tourpreneur members get two months of Google Things to Do feed access free with promo code FREE2TOUR, including Things to Do ads account linking.
- Email Things To Do Marketing: Chaz and Vanessa’s contact address for questions about eligibility, setup, or association partnerships.
- Google Trends: Free Google tool Peter recommends for spotting attractions and points of interest gaining search interest before competitors list on them.
Key Takeaways
- Direct access to Google Things to Do now runs through a connectivity partner for almost every small operator. [00:02:27 – 00:03:09] Chaz and Vanessa say Google has stopped admitting partners with fewer than about 100 activities, and even that number does not guarantee entry. A partner also has to build and maintain the technical data feed. A single operator’s realistic route is a connectivity partner or a booking system that sends the feed on their behalf.
- A listing qualifies only if the booking page shows one price from start to finish and links to a Google Business Profile. [00:05:54 – 00:06:30] Google wants a dedicated landing page for each activity and a clean booking flow with no price that grows at checkout. The program covers far more than guided tours: recurring equipment and ride rentals, classes, retreats, and adventure sports are eligible, and wineries and craft beverage producers qualify for one module.
- Points of interest decide where a tour appears, so a listing should attach every attraction the route passes. [00:07:12 – 00:09:28] Google matches activities to searches through Place IDs, the unique code behind every address on Maps. Vanessa’s method is to draw the tour on a map and pull every landmark, museum, zoo, and attraction along it. A tour that only walks past the Eiffel Tower can still appear under that attraction’s listing as “admission not included.”
- Things to Do surfaces a tour in four places: Search, Maps, the operator’s Business Profile, and the attraction’s own page. [00:09:28 – 00:10:25] The organic listings appear in Search and Maps. When the operator is linked as the official site, the activities also show up on their own Google Business Profile and can be booked directly from there. Things to Do ads add a sponsored placement on top of these.
- Any operator selling admission to a major attraction should be on the feed. [00:10:25 – 00:11:37] The admissions module is where Things To Do Marketing saw its fastest results, both for its own tours and for clients. Vanessa says travelers scroll the full list of ticket options, so even a listing near the bottom sells. Every one of those sales is a direct booking with no commission paid to an intermediary.
- Linking the website as the official site moves OTAs off an operator’s own Business Profile. [00:12:10 – 00:13:26] Before Orlando Bike Tours was on the feed, the booking options on its Business Profile belonged to a third-party gift reseller. Once the business was linked to its own website, the booking buttons on that profile became Orlando Bike Tours’ own. The profile stopped sending its traffic to someone else’s checkout.
- Things to Do ads need no copywriting and almost no optimization, and cost per click is often low. [00:13:26 – 00:14:44] The guests say clicks ranged from about 10 cents to 2 dollars depending on the activity and how competitive the area is. There is no ad copy to write; Google builds the ad from the feed data. Chaz and Vanessa had never run ads before and ran successful campaigns on the first try.
- The Google Business Profile has to be updated weekly before Things to Do can pay off. [00:15:19 – 00:16:36] Peter calls the profile “the Google baby”: it rewards an operator only when it is fed. Google and AI search tools pull hours, location, and activities from it, so stale data spreads wrong answers. He recommends a weekly calendar slot to add promotions, notices, and photos.
- Business Profile categories control which Things to Do modules an operator qualifies for. [00:17:09 – 00:17:44] An operator listed only as “tour agency” can be shut out of modules that “tour operator” unlocks, even though the two sound redundant. Vanessa’s advice is to add every category the business could plausibly fall under. When an operator is still not eligible, a connectivity partner can raise it with Google as a technical support case and get an answer.
- Ranking against OTAs depends on price and reviews, which favors the operator selling direct. [00:18:25 – 00:19:46] Peter says OTAs are the top complaint logged in five years of Tourpreneur community data, and most of those complaining have not optimized Google Things to Do. Vanessa says Google weighs price, reviews, and whether the seller is the direct operator. An operator usually has the lowest price for its own tour, so it can rank above the OTAs selling it.
- Tours with no admission ticket still draw traffic when they claim uncontested points of interest. [00:20:59 – 00:22:13] Clients whose tours include no admission have stayed on the feed for months because they listed every attraction they pass. Some points of interest have no other sellers attached. On one castle listing, the only two booking options were the castle’s own entrance and a single tour operator.
- Prices display in the traveler’s currency only if the feed sends them correctly. [00:22:13 – 00:23:29] Each activity is sent in a configured currency and language, and Google is supposed to convert the price for a traveler searching from another country. An operator whose booking platform must charge in local currency for tax reasons can add a separate English product page so English-speaking travelers get a listing in their language. Peter adds that conversion rates drop sharply when a guest cannot read the price or the page.
- Things to Do ads require a connectivity partner, and Things To Do Marketing includes them in its 25 dollar monthly fee. [00:25:05 – 00:26:33] Only a connectivity partner can link a Google account to run these ads. The guests say they charge nothing extra for ads, and the link is included in the free trial. They add that Google now feeds this activity data into AI Max and Gemini answers.
- Whether a point of interest is eligible can only be tested, not looked up. [00:26:33 – 00:28:06] There is no public list. Only a connectivity partner can submit Place IDs to Google and get back which ones qualify and for which module. Parks and churches are often excluded unless they charge admission, and new points of interest keep appearing as attractions go viral.
- For a food tour, the landmarks nearby are better points of interest than the restaurants. [00:28:06 – 00:29:27] Restaurants are not eligible, and a meeting point usually is not either. The guests recommend adding any landmark in the vicinity of the route as “no admission,” since the worst outcome is that Google rejects it. Free museums do not count as admission, so a free entry cannot be used to claim an admission listing.
- The most valuable points of interest are popular attractions no one else has claimed. [00:29:27 – 00:30:40] A busy attraction with no Things to Do sellers attached is free, high-intent traffic for whoever lists first. The guests say finding these has made a large difference to clients’ sales. Peter suggests Google Trends as a way to spot attractions gaining search interest before competitors list on them.
- Things to Do ads target only by country, budget, and target return on ad spend. [00:30:40 – 00:32:50] The program is for activities only, so hotels cannot use it. The operator sets a daily budget, a location, and a target ROAS percentage; a lower percentage tells Google to show the ad to a wider audience. That short list of settings is why the guests ran it successfully without any ads experience, while standard Google Ads has become too complex for most small operators to manage alone.
- A connectivity partner should send Google’s report card on the listing and fix what it flags. [00:34:04 – 00:36:39] Point-of-interest work happens in the connectivity partner’s dashboard, not in the activities section of the Business Profile. Once the feed is sent, Google returns a report on what is missing, often wrong categories, missing reviews, a missing description, or a business name mismatch. Traffic tends to grow the longer a listing stays on the feed, and the first results can take a month to appear.
- A guide association should help its members list individually rather than list their tours on the association’s profile. [00:36:39 – 00:38:37] Listings have to link to the Business Profile of the business that runs the tour. An association listing members’ tours looks to Google like an OTA and is categorized that way. For guides without websites, a simple landing page from a reservation platform or a free Google site can meet the technical requirement.
- The Official Site label pushes OTA listings down and lifts conversions. [00:39:09 – 00:41:55] The label tells travelers Google has recognized the operator’s own site, and OTAs and resellers cannot carry it. The guests say some clients join the feed only for the label and the ads, with no points of interest at all. A correctly set up Business Profile improves the odds of getting it.
- Things to Do ads appear as a sponsored carousel, while the organic placements come with the feed subscription. [00:41:55 – 00:43:10] Paid results show at the top of Search and in a carousel on Maps marked “Sponsored.” Everything else on Search and Maps is organic and costs nothing beyond the connectivity partner’s fee. Some operators run ads only in peak season, because a search like “Eiffel Tower tickets” comes from someone ready to buy.
- Cost per click varies widely by destination, even between similar markets. [00:43:10 – 00:45:00] In free campaigns the guests ran in July, a Greek islands client paid about 10 to 30 cents a click while a client in Tenerife paid 3 to 5 dollars. Peter says Things to Do clicks were far cheaper than standard Google Ads the last time he compared them, and the guests confirm that still holds. They recall holding 600 dollars in ad credits that proved hard to spend.
- Higher intent makes Things to Do ads convert better than standard Google Ads, which lowers acquisition cost. [00:45:00 – 00:46:37] A traveler who clicks a Things to Do ad has already been shown the exact activity they searched for, much like an answer from AI search. Peter says that higher conversion rate means a lower cost to acquire each customer. Standard Google Ads still work for the right operator, but he says they are now complex enough that most small operators need an agency to run them.
About the partner
- Things To Do Marketing: Tourpreneur members get two months of Google Things to Do feed access free with promo code FREE2TOUR, including Things to Do ads account linking.
- Questions about eligibility, setup or association partnerships: media@cheapfunthingstodo.com