Setting up your experience for success

One of the key factors for success in the visitor economy is how you price your bookable experience. A bookable experience can be booked and paid for in advance of a visitor’s travel.

In the visitor economy, price is often referred to as a rate. To ensure visitors book your experience and distribution partners promote it, your rates need to be consistent, accurate and competitive.

Key pricing factors

When determining the rate for your bookable experience, you need to consider:

Operating costs
Profit margin
Distribution costs (including commissions)

Operating costs

Operating costs include both fixed costs, such as rent and insurance, and variable costs, such as wages, electricity, marketing, maintenance, and repairs. Make sure you consider all the costs of running your business.

Profit margin

Your profit margin is the amount that your revenue exceeds your costs. It will vary from business to business. Be realistic when calculating your costs to ensure your pricing is set to achieve a profit.

Distribution costs (including commissions)

Distribution costs are the costs involved in selling your experiences through other sales channels such as visitor information centres, online travel agents, wholesalers and inbound tour operators.

This allows you to extend the promotion and sale of your visitor experience and increase your visibility. Working with distribution partners incurs other costs, such as commissions. For more information on working with distribution partners and commissions, go to Sell.

Before setting your rates, you should also consider:

Your competitors — what are they charging?
Your ideal customers — what are they willing to pay?
Seasonal variations — will your rates fluctuate seasonally?
Market expectations — is your rate in line with this?

Pricing vocabulary

In the visitor economy, we refer to two different types of rates, the nett rate and the retail rate. Retail rates are also referred to as the gross, sell, rack rate, or door rate.

Nett Rate = operating costs + your profit margin

The nett rate is the minimum amount you could sell your experience for and still make a profit. If you are working with a distribution partner, they will need to know your nett rate.

Retail rate = nett rate + distribution costs (commissions)

You provide your retail rate when dealing directly with visitors. This includes featuring it on your website and on any promotional material targeting the visitor directly.

When pricing your experience, it needs to be valid for the tourism year from 1 April in the current year to 31 March the following year, not the financial or calendar year.

Pricing approach

There are two common pricing approaches: Static Pricing and Dynamic Pricing (or rates).

Static Pricing includes:

A retail rate for a set period (12 months aligned to the tourism year)
Commission calculated based on the retail rate
Price stability and simplicity with long-term planning for itineraries, online and brochure packages.

Dynamic Pricing includes:

A rate that changes in real time based on demand, season, or market trends – this real time rate is commonly known as a BAR – Best Available Rate of the Day and is not a fixed rate.
Ability to maximise revenue — higher prices during busy periods and lower prices when it's quiet.
Commission calculated based on the BAR and is negotiated with your global distribution partner in advance.
More flexibility with access to last-minute availability, especially over busy periods.

Note: Dynamic pricing doesn't mean changing prices every day—it means you have the option to adjust when needed.

Most businesses will have static pricing, using fixed pricing throughout the tourism year regardless of demand. Dynamic pricing is more common with large hotels, airlines, and online platforms, and remains limited to a minority of visitor experiences.

Some businesses use both pricing approaches e.g. using static rates mid-week to provide stable pricing and dynamic rates on weekends or during special events to better capture market fluctuations and optimise profitability.

Setting up to sell

Once you have set your price, give your business the opportunity to grow by using the right systems to manage and sell your experiences, both directly on your website and via distribution partners.

A tourism-specialised online booking software can help you sell your experience by providing live availability and prices on your website. It also allows visitors to make a booking in real time e.g. with a book now button.

Booking software can also distribute your experience to online marketplaces, such as online travel agents and visitor information centres. Additionally, online booking software helps you manage your inventory and streamline payments and operations.

There are plenty of different online booking software such as Rezdy, Fareharbor, Cobber, Bokun, BookingBoss, Little Hotelier and SiteMinder. Some of these systems specialise in tours and activities, and others specialise in accommodation.

If you decide to use an online booking software, ensure that you do plenty of research to find the right one to suit your business. For more information, go to our guide to Selling directly via your own website.

Distribution

Distribution enhances the visibility of your bookable experiences by using other sales channels to provide more ways for visitors to make a purchase.

Working with distribution partners makes it easier for visitors to find and book your experience.

The global distribution network consists of retail travel agents, wholesalers, inbound tourism operators (ITOs), and online travel agents (OTAs). Distribution partners can also include your local visitor information centre and booking agents.

To work with these partners, you will need to pay a commission. Commission is a fee paid to a distribution partner for selling your experience, usually a percentage of the retail price.

It is a marketing cost that helps you reach visitors beyond your direct channels and is only paid once a sale is made by your distribution partner.

To learn more about working with distribution partners, commissions and becoming export ready, go to Selling directly online via distribution partners.

Standard and premium bookable experiences

As part of your pricing strategy, consider developing different levels of experiences such as ‘standard’ and ‘premium’ bookable experiences.

A ‘standard’ experience is your lead in experience that operates regularly and can accommodate scheduled departures or groups (if relevant). It can be booked regularly at a set price.

A ‘premium’ experience is a high value and priced experience that is unique and available only at a certain time of year or once a week. It can be offered as a private experience and booked on request.

Creating a fact sheet

Once you have created and priced your experiences, the next step is to create a fact sheet for each experience.

A fact sheet is part of your sales kit and is a one-page outline of each experience to help communicate your offering. It can be shared with your local tourism manager, Destination Network, Destination NSW and your distribution partners.

It is different to a brochure as it is available in both soft and hard copy to detail:

Your business and unique selling proposition (USP)
A brief description of your tour, accommodation or attraction
Features
Inclusions or facilities
Location
Retail price
Booking and availability details
Contact details

Find out more about identifying your Unique Selling Proposition under Marketing tools 101.

Fact sheets need to be concise and easy to read with engaging images and designed with your business logo and brand. Destination NSW has sample fact sheet templates for tours, attractions and accommodation that you can use as a guide.

Know your visitor

Once you are selling and operating your experiences, getting feedback from your visitors is a great way to help you continually improve. Feedback gives you practical insights into creating better visitor experience.

You can use your own sources, such as visitor feedback and surveys, booking data and website analytics, like Google.

Google reviews, TripAdvisor and other online review sites are also great sources of feedback. By having the facility to review your experience online, you are encouraging your visitors to tell you what they think. This will also help you discover aspects of your experience that are of value.

Some key tips include:

Prioritise Google reviews. Reviews on your Google Business Profile feed local search rankings directly
Encourage visitors to name the experience in their review and train your staff to ask visitors for reviews
Respond to every review - a thoughtful response to a critical review shows you value all feedback.

Consider sending a post-visit survey or having feedback forms available for visitors when they are with your business. Try to use open-ended questions that allow visitors to describe their feedback in detail.

One of the best ways of getting feedback is simply by talking to your visitors, face-to-face, about their experience with your business.

All feedback—positive or negative—is a learning experience; it helps you progress and grow your business. Share constructive feedback— good and bad—with your staff. It is a great way to open communication channels and provides opportunities to discuss ways in which you can improve.