OTA Winery: Why You Should Be There and How to Do It Right
Listing on an OTA like GetYourGuide, Winedering, or TripAdvisor increases a winery's visibility to international audiences, but it requires discipline.
Broadening my focus beyond wine tourism companies' primary channels, such as websites and social media, I often guide managers through the complex world of Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) like GetYourGuide, Winedering, or TripAdvisor. Using these aggregators is strategic for reaching audiences that are otherwise unreachable for individual businesses, but it requires considerable discipline and attention.
The most serious strategic mistake I see is price disparity. Offering an experience at a lower price on your own website than that published on OTAs destroys your company's credibility and confuses the end consumer. Customers today constantly compare platforms: noticing price inconsistencies breeds deep mistrust. Passing a percentage of the commission to an intermediary must be done wisely, keeping the price list identical to the public everywhere.
OTAs also require specific attention to copywriting. What you write on your website, where you're the sole focus, will be weak on a portal where users can browse ten nearby wineries on the same page. On intermediation platforms, photographs and descriptions must be precise and distinctive, immediately highlighting the uniqueness of your offering. If competitors offer "three glasses and a platter," you must find a way to showcase your platter and your glasses so that they become the only logical choice for readers.
Aligning external channels is one of the key checks we conduct with the wineries we work with. This step allows us to realign contact processes, building a strong and authoritative identity well before the in-person tasting.
Want to increase your visibility on travel platforms and meet tour operators?
Wine Meridian together with Winedering offer visibility services for wine tourism companies.
Key points
- Aligning prices on your website and OTA protects your business's credibility and avoids customer distrust.
- Creating distinctive texts and photos allows you to stand out among competitors on the same portal.
- OTAs expand visibility to international audiences that would otherwise be unreachable for a single winery.
- Consistency in pricing across channels strengthens consumer confidence in the company brand.
- An authoritative online identity sets the stage for in-person tasting.
