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External booking links Growth+
External booking links are for trips you sell somewhere else: Viator, GetYourGuide, a partner or your old booking system. The tour still appears on your website with its full content, but the booking button sends travellers to the other site's booking page. Your tracking and affiliate parameters are added to every link automatically, and every click is counted.
At a glance
- Plan: Growth and Scale
- Category: Sales
- Where: Console › Plugins › External booking links, and Tours › External booking links
How it works
What the traveller sees
On a tour option set to book elsewhere, the booking panel shows one button (by default "Check dates & book") instead of the checkout. It opens the other site's booking page, in a new tab if you choose.
What gets added to the link
- UTM parameters, so the other site's analytics shows the traffic came from your website. Parameters already in a link are kept.
- Your affiliate parameters, e.g.
partner_id=12345. rel="sponsored nofollow"on the link, if you choose, as Google asks for on affiliate and paid links.
What your team sees
Tours › External booking links shows clicks per tour and per day for the last 7, 30 or 90 days. Bots and repeat clicks within a minute aren't counted.
Turn it on
- Go to Console › Plugins.
- Find External booking links and flip its switch on.
- Select Configure to set tracking and the button, then Save.
- Link a tour (below).
Link a tour to another site
- Open the tour in the editor and go to Pricing & options.
- In the option's settings, set How travellers book to Book on another website (link).
- Paste the Booking page link (https).
- Save the option.
The tour now appears on Tours › External booking links with its clicks.
Give a departure its own link
A partner may sell one date on a different page.
- Go to Tours › External booking links.
- Open Departure links for the tour.
- Paste a link next to any upcoming date. Leave a date blank to use the tour's link.
- Select Save.
Settings
Tracking parameters
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Add UTM parameters | So the other site's analytics shows the traffic came from your website. Parameters already in a link are kept. | On |
| utm_source | Leave blank to use your website's domain. | Empty (your domain) |
| utm_medium | referral | |
| utm_campaign | {tour} becomes the tour's web address name (e.g. everest-base-camp), {option} the option's name. | {tour} |
| Affiliate parameters | Added to every link, e.g. partner_id=12345&pid=abc (Viator, GetYourGuide and other partner programmes). | Empty |
Button
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Button text | Up to 40 characters. | Check dates & book |
| Mark links as sponsored | Adds rel="sponsored nofollow", which Google asks for on affiliate and paid links. | On |
| Open in a new tab | On |
Good to know
- Bookings made on the other site don't appear in Tourtify. Use the click counts and the other site's reports to measure results.
- The Book on another website choice only appears in the tour editor while this plugin is on.
- Turning the plugin off means tours linked to another booking site show your own booking form again.