Viator suppliers

Assigning guides to Viator bookings

Updated 31 October 2026 by Ravid Efroni, founder of GuidePing, which sends guide offers on WhatsApp. Read the tool comparisons with that in mind.

Short answer

Viator has no feature to assign a guide to a booking. We read all 175 articles in Viator's supplier help centre on 31 October 2026; the only one about guides is about listing the languages they speak. GetYourGuide added a Guides feature in November 2025; Viator has no equivalent. Bookings reach you in the Management Center (desktop and mobile web, no supplier app), by email if you turn on booking notifications per product, or in your reservation system if it is connected, in which case Viator sends no booking emails. Finding and confirming the guide is your job, and it matters: a supplier cancellation rate above 5% that is not fixed within 90 days of Viator's notice gets the product suspended.

What Viator gives you for each booking

Where	What you get	Guide-related
Management Center, Bookings tab	Lead traveller, travel date, status; phone number under Show details	Nothing
Booking notification email	Optional, per product, for products not connected to a reservation system	Nothing
Reservation system (API)	"Over 100" systems, Bókun named; bookings sent automatically	Whatever that system offers
Message Traveler	Viator's closed-loop messaging with the traveller	You can tell the traveller who leads the tour
Product setup	Languages your guides speak	Per product, not per booking

Sources: booking confirmation, booking notifications, API connection, contact travellers, guides and languages. Viator's Management Center works on desktop and mobile web only.

Turn on booking emails first

If your Viator products are not connected to a reservation system, a booking email is the easiest way to see each booking without opening the Management Center. Viator does not send it by default for every product.

01In the Management Center, open Products, then Manage, then Booking details for each product.
02Turn on "Send us a notification email for each booking".
03Give the login that should get them the "Manage Product Bookings" permission. Without it, the emails go to the Primary Contact.
04If the product is connected to Bókun or another reservation system, skip this: Viator sends no emails then, and the booking appears in that system. An email arriving anyway can mean the connection is broken.

Sources: Receive Booking Notifications, user logins.

Viator rules that a missing guide runs into

Instant confirmation bookings cannot be rejected: "Supplier will accept all Instant Confirmation Booking requests and may not reject an Instant Confirmation Booking" (supplier agreement). The guide has to be found after the sale.
Manual confirmation gives you time to check a guide first, but Viator says those products "get less exposure" (booking confirmation), and the time limit differs between pages: 48 hours, 72 hours (best practices), and since August 2026 a 24-hour rule after which the booking is cancelled and refunded (24-hour policy).
Your cancellations count toward a cancellation rate over a rolling 90 days; weather and force majeure do not (cancellation rate). 0 to 2% is Excellent, 2.1 to 5% Good, above 5% Needs Improvement, and staying above 5% for 90 days after notice means suspension from Viator, Tripadvisor and partner sites (suspension policy).
Subcontracting delivery needs Viator's written consent, which may be given by email, and you stay responsible (supplier agreement, section 9.5).

An order that works

01Get every Viator booking out of Viator as it arrives: booking email turned on, or your reservation system's own notification.
02Offer the tour to one guide who speaks the language and is free, with date, start and end time, meeting point and number of travellers, and ask for yes or no by a set time.
03No answer by then: ask the next guide in your order. For tomorrow's tours, ask two or three at once and take the first yes.
04Confirm in writing to the guide, and use Message Traveler if you want the traveller to know who will meet them.
05The evening before, check that every tour tomorrow has a confirmed guide, while there is still time to fix it without cancelling.

Doing it with GuidePing

Forward the Viator booking emails, or your reservation system's emails, to your GuidePing address with one rule in Gmail or Outlook. Each booking appears on your board with the travellers added to the right departure. GuidePing offers the tour to your guides on WhatsApp in your order, reads their replies in any language, asks the next guide when one says no or stays silent, and at 18:00 tells you whether every tour tomorrow is covered. Bookings from GetYourGuide, Bókun and your own site land on the same board; see GetYourGuide guide assignment and the comparison of 18 scheduling tools.

Questions

Can I assign a guide to a booking on Viator?

No such feature is described in Viator's supplier help centre (175 articles read on 31 October 2026). You can list the languages your guides speak on the product, and Viator says large groups may be split across guides, but there is no field to choose or show a guide per booking.

Is there a Viator app for suppliers?

Viator's help centre says the Management Center dashboard can be used on desktop and mobile web only. The Viator app it mentions is for travellers.

How do I get an email for every Viator booking?

For products not connected to a reservation system, turn on "Send us a notification email for each booking" under Products, Manage, Booking details. The email goes to users with the Manage Product Bookings permission, or to the Primary Contact if nobody has it. Connected products get no Viator booking emails; the booking goes to your reservation system instead.

How long do I have to accept a Viator booking request?

Viator's own pages differ. The supplier agreement and an older help article say 48 hours, a July 2026 article says 72 hours before it is declined automatically, and an August 2026 policy says requests unanswered after 24 hours are cancelled and refunded. Plan for 24 hours.

What happens if I cancel Viator bookings because no guide is free?

Supplier cancellations count toward a cancellation rate on a rolling 90 days; weather, force majeure and traveller cancellations do not. Above 5% is Needs Improvement, and if it stays there for 90 days after Viator's notice the product is suspended and removed from Viator, Tripadvisor and partner sites.

Can freelance guides lead my Viator tours?

Viator's supplier agreement says you may subcontract delivery only with Viator's written consent, which may be given by email, and you remain responsible. It does not say whether a freelance guide counts as a subcontractor. If your tours are led by freelancers, ask Viator and keep the answer.

See it with your own tours

Forward one booking email, a guide gets the offer on WhatsApp and answers in their own words. 30 days free, then €99 a month. No card.

Start free pilot

Sources

Features and prices are what each vendor published on the date read. Check the vendor before you decide.

Tour guide availability calendar (free template)
For freelance guides: one sheet of free days for every company you guide for, a free template, and how to share it read-only.
GetYourGuide commission for suppliers
The 20% to 30% rate, the 2% for twice-monthly payouts, the 25% fee when you cancel, payout dates, VAT and a worked example.
Tour guide scheduling software compared
18 tools side by side: how each asks a guide, whether it asks the next guide on its own, and what it costs.
Scheduling guides for free walking tours
How tip-based tours earn money, what GuruWalk and FreeTour.com let you do with several guides, and a fair way to give out slots.