How to Become an Expedia Local Expert Supplier (And Whether You Still Need To)

You might already be on Expedia. If you list on Viator or GetYourGuide, your products can flow onto Expedia's marketplace through supply-feed agreements those platforms signed in 2019 and 2021. No separate application. No separate commission negotiation. No separate payout cycle.

Expedia Local Expert is the name behind that marketplace — Expedia Group's supplier program for tours and activities. Commission runs 15 to 30 percent, negotiated directly with Expedia's regional activities team. The name dates to 2006, when Expedia rebranded a concierge-desk business it acquired in 2004. At its peak, Local Expert operated kiosks in over 100 hotels worldwide, and the offline channel accounted for roughly half of Expedia's activities revenue. Then the offline business shut down in December 2020, and Expedia started sourcing the bulk of its online inventory from other platforms.

This article walks through how the signup works and what Expedia charges so you can complete it if you want to. Then it runs the question that actually matters for most multi-day operators: whether a direct Expedia relationship adds anything over the supply feed you are probably already on.

How does Expedia's Local Expert supplier signup work?

The supplier program runs through two portals. The legacy Local Expert Partner Central handles existing supplier accounts. Expedia Group's newer activities partner page is where new applications start. Multiple booking platforms that distribute to Expedia report that the legacy portal's self-service onboarding is no longer accepting new suppliers. The newer page has an active interest form, but responses route to a sales team rather than an automated review.

Five steps, assuming the interest form leads to onboarding.

Step 1 — Submit the interest form

Go to Expedia's activities partner page. Select your country, provide business details, describe your products. The form routes to Expedia's activities team — not to an automated approval system.

Step 2 — Wait for Expedia's regional team

Unlike Viator (self-serve application, 5-10 business day review) or GetYourGuide (automated approval in minutes), Expedia routes applications to its regional activities team. Response times vary. Operators report days to weeks. If your destination is not in Expedia's current coverage priority, the application may go unanswered. That silence is itself a data point about how much Expedia needs your inventory.

Step 3 — Negotiate your commission rate

Expedia's regional team sets your commission. This is a negotiation, not a published rate. Your leverage depends on your inventory volume, destination demand, and whether Expedia already has supply coverage in your area through its Viator or GetYourGuide feeds. Operators with rare inventory in high-demand destinations negotiate better rates. Operators duplicating supply Expedia already has from the feeds do not.

Step 4 — Provide your net rates and build listings

Expedia uses a net-rate model. You provide your base price per product. Expedia adds its markup and retains the difference — you do not see or control the retail price the traveler pays unless you check the listing yourself. Product listings require titles, descriptions, photos, pricing, availability, and a cancellation policy. The listing tools are built around single-day activities — the category picker has no "multi-day tour" option. A 14-day trek technically fits, but the tooling assumes a product shape that is not yours.

Step 5 — Go live and manage payouts

Payouts run monthly, processed on the first business day of the following month, with funds distributed within 30 days of processing. No listing fees. No subscription. You pay only when a booking is delivered.

A note on the current state of direct onboarding. Multiple independent sources — including booking platforms that distribute to Expedia — report that Expedia has not been actively onboarding new direct suppliers through the legacy Local Expert Partner Central. The newer Expedia Group partner page accepts interest forms, but not all applications result in onboarding. If you submit and do not hear back within two weeks, the next sections explain why — and what the practical alternative is.

What does Expedia charge tour and activity suppliers?

Expedia does not publish a commission rate. Booking platforms that integrate with Expedia report a negotiated range of 15 to 30 percent, with some operators citing rates up to 35 percent in competitive destinations. The specific number is set by the regional activities team assigned to your account.

The model is net-rate, not percentage-off-retail. You submit a base price. Expedia marks it up on the consumer side and retains the spread. You receive your agreed net rate. No listing fees, no subscription, no paid-placement product pulling the effective number higher.

The range is wider than Viator (20-30%, typically 25%) or GetYourGuide (20-30% by country). That width means two operators running identical trips in the same destination could be $675 apart per traveler on the commission line — swung entirely by negotiation leverage. On a 30-traveler departure, that gap is $20,250.

Expedia's negotiated 15-30% commission on a $4,500 multi-day trip ranges from $675 to $1,350 per traveler. The specific rate depends on what Expedia's regional team agrees to — and your leverage in that negotiation depends on whether Expedia already has your destination covered through its supply feeds.

For the worked math on how Viator and GetYourGuide commission structures compare, see our Viator supplier article and our GetYourGuide supplier article.

Why has Expedia outsourced its tour and activity supply?

This is the detail that changes the calculation for most operators considering a direct Expedia relationship.

• 2004: Expedia acquires Activity World, a Maui-based concierge-desk business operating kiosks in Hawaiian hotels.
• 2006: Activity World is rebranded to Expedia Local Expert. The program expands to over 100 hotel and retail locations, primarily in Hawaii and Orlando.
• 2017: Expedia's combined "Things to Do" and Local Expert businesses generate over $500 million in bookings — less than 1% of Expedia Group's total gross bookings that year.
• 2019: Expedia strikes a supply-feed deal with Viator. Tour and activity inventory from Viator-listed operators begins appearing on Expedia's marketplace.
• December 2020: Expedia shuts down the offline Local Expert concierge business — hotel desks and kiosks in Hawaii, Orlando, and other resort destinations. An Expedia official cited the state of the business post-COVID.
• September 2021: Expedia announces a parallel supply-feed partnership with GetYourGuide. GetYourGuide stated it would "handle all of the technical and operational distribution with Expedia, meaning suppliers will not incur any new complexities with their bookings."
• December 2025: Expedia announces the acquisition of Tiqets, a museums-and-attractions platform operating in over 60 countries and 1,000+ cities. The acquisition signals continued investment in short-duration attractions — not multi-day tours.

The operational consequence: if you already list on Viator or GetYourGuide, your products may already appear in Expedia's "Things to Do" marketplace without a direct Expedia supplier agreement. The supply flows through the feed. You do not negotiate a separate commission, build separate listings, or manage a separate payout cycle. Your Viator or GetYourGuide commission is the only rate you pay — Expedia's margin comes from the feed agreement between the platforms, not from you.

Why should multi-day operators think twice about listing directly on Expedia?

Three reasons — one familiar from every OTA in this cluster, and two that are specific to how Expedia sources and sells activities.

Why does the commission math work against large-ticket trips?

Same argument as every other marketplace in this category, different negotiating dynamic. A day-tour operator selling a $100 walking tour pays Expedia $15 to $30 per booking. A multi-day operator selling a $4,500 trip pays $675 to $1,350.

The Expedia-specific twist: the rate is individually negotiated, not published or country-determined. That sounds like leverage until you realize the regional team's incentive is to maximize Expedia's margin. If Expedia already has supply coverage in your destination through the Viator or GetYourGuide feeds, your negotiating position is weak. Expedia knows you need its distribution more than it needs your listing.

Why is Expedia's traveler audience shopping for add-ons, not primary bookings?

Expedia sells tours and activities as part of a flight-plus-hotel travel package. The traveler arrives on Expedia to book a flight to Lisbon and a hotel for the weekend. The "Things to Do" tab appears after the flight and hotel are selected — it is an upsell surface, not a discovery surface.

A day-tour operator benefits from that positioning. The traveler already has dates locked and needs something to fill a Tuesday afternoon. A $100 cooking class fits that purchase moment perfectly.

A multi-day trip does not fit that moment. A traveler booking a 14-day trekking expedition starts months earlier, comparing operators, reading itineraries, asking friends. The trip itself is the purchase decision — flights and hotels follow. Expedia's "Things to Do" is built for the inverse sequence: accommodation first, activity second. Expedia sells activities as add-ons to flight-and-hotel packages. The traveler browsing "Things to Do" is filling a slot in an already-booked vacation. Multi-day trips are the vacation, not the add-on. The purchase sequence does not match.

Why does the supply-feed model make a direct Expedia relationship redundant?

If you list on Viator, your inventory can flow to Expedia through the Viator-Expedia supply feed. If you list on GetYourGuide, the same applies through the GetYourGuide-Expedia feed. In either case, you manage one supplier relationship, one set of listings, one payout cycle — and your products appear on Expedia's marketplace without a separate agreement.

Signing up directly adds a second or third supplier relationship: a separate negotiation, separate listing format, separate payout timeline. The incremental distribution benefit — reaching travelers who see "Things to Do" but are not already on Viator or GetYourGuide — is marginal for a multi-day operator whose target traveler is not browsing the "Things to Do" tab in the first place.

Signing up directly also risks your products appearing twice on Expedia — once through the direct listing and once through the supply feed — with different pricing and different cancellation policies. That is a customer-experience problem you do not want to debug three bookings in.

When is Expedia the right call for tour operators?

Three profiles where a direct Expedia relationship makes sense.

1. You run high-volume day tours in resort destinations. If your core product is excursions in Hawaii, Cancún, Orlando, or similar package-holiday destinations where Expedia's flight-plus-hotel audience concentrates, a direct relationship gives you better rate control than the feed. Negotiate aggressively — your inventory is exactly what those travelers are shopping for.
2. You do not list on Viator or GetYourGuide. If your products are not flowing to Expedia through the supply feeds, a direct relationship is the only path onto the marketplace. Check Expedia's "Things to Do" for your destination first — your products may already be there.
3. You need rate parity across platforms. The supply-feed model means Expedia sets the retail price based on its agreement with Viator or GetYourGuide, not based on your preferences. If pricing parity between your own website and all distribution channels matters to your strategy, a direct relationship gives you negotiated control over the Expedia retail price. Whether that control is worth the operational overhead depends on how many bookings actually come through Expedia.

Recognize your operation in one or more of these? A direct Expedia relationship may be worth the negotiation. None of the three? Direct booking is the stronger investment.

What should multi-day operators do instead of listing on Expedia?

Direct booking. Three things to build, in order of leverage.

Your own website as the primary booking channel. Multi-day travelers research for weeks before they commit. Real photos from real departures, honest itinerary pages, destination guides written by someone who has led the trip. The money you would hand to any OTA — whether as a direct commission or buried inside a feed agreement — goes further here because the channel compounds with every booking instead of resetting.

Past-traveler referral programs. Costs nothing, converts at rates paid marketing cannot match. A multi-day trip builds a relationship over days or weeks. That relationship is the highest-quality referral source your business has. The question is whether you are asking for those referrals systematically.

A booking platform built for multi-day. Deposits, installments, multi-currency supplier payouts, WhatsApp traveler communication — native, not bolted on with a Zapier workflow and a shared Google Sheet.

Further reading: zoom out to the full OTA supplier guide, benchmark negotiated rates against the 2026 OTA commission rates reference, skim 10 OTAs beyond Viator and GetYourGuide, follow the cross-platform 8-step listing checklist, and work through the OTA vs direct booking math.

Samba is that platform. All of the above in one place. Free to start. No setup fees. No contracts. Book a demo.