Give the AI your tour's verified facts and each platform's own title rules, ask for five candidates built to one formula (where, what it is, one standout inclusion), then check each against the rules and character limits before you save. Viator asks for under 60 characters and no subjective words; GetYourGuide wants a concise title that names the location.
A title is one lever among several. Viator's ranking and sort overview (an older page, so check it is still current) says position depends on how relevant a product is to a search (activity type, places visited, title and description), how it compares on reviews, rating, price and availability, and how travellers respond to it (click-through, page views, bookings). A better title helps with relevance and click-through. It will not rescue weak photos or a low rating, so change one thing at a time and measure it.
What each platform's own pages say about titles
Both platforms publish guidance, and it is shorter than most operators expect. Viator's supplier help page "What should my Product Title be?" is the most specific. GetYourGuide's supplier guide and its help pages on describing a product cover the title more loosely, then set clear rules for the fields around it. Treat the table as the brief you give the AI.
| Topic | Viator | GetYourGuide |
|---|---|---|
| Length | Fewer than 60 characters; about 8 words (50 to 60 characters) | "Concise yet informative"; I found no published maximum in the guides, so watch the limits the product wizard shows |
| What it must say | What the activity is and where; city or destination, the main attractions, key inclusions such as lunch or tickets | The kind of experience, plus a reference to the location |
| Style | Simple language; "only letters of the alphabet", which read literally rules out digits, hyphens, ampersands, brackets and emoji | No title style rules in the guides I read; the short description should not use trademarked terms without a licence |
| Not allowed | Starting with "The"; transport type unless it is a selling point (helicopter, limousine); company name; trademark terms; all capitals; subjective words such as "amazing" or "the best" | Copying your own website or other providers (the guide says it harms search ranking) |
| Fields around the title | "What makes this product unique" (original text, at least 100 characters); at least one inclusion | Short description of 2 to 3 sentences; 3 to 5 highlights starting with a verb; up to 15 keywords |
| How soon edits show | Up to 48 hours on Viator.com; 5 to 7 working days on Tripadvisor and partner sites | Not stated in the pages I read |
One caution about Viator's number. The 60-character guidance is the one to design for, yet one of the example titles on the same page is 69 characters, and Viator's operator resources give 62 characters including spaces as the most that displays properly on mobile. So treat 60 as the target, check how the field counts, and preview how your title appears in search on a phone. The operator resources add three nudges: put the attraction or destination first and the tour type after it; use a title that highlights what makes the experience unique; and lead the description with the strongest selling points, such as special inclusions. They also note that shorter, plainer titles translate better, because translated titles usually run longer than the English.
One title formula, two sets of limits
Use a single formula and adjust the details for each platform: place + experience type + one standout inclusion or format. Together the place and the type are what a traveller types ("[City] food tour", "sea cave kayak tour"), and leading with the attraction or destination is the order Viator's operator resources recommend. The standout detail goes last because that is the part a truncated title drops, and the loss then costs least. When a format or a time of day (Private, Evening, Sunrise) is the main reason to book, it can lead, as long as the place still sits well inside the limit. Four patterns cover most small operators. [City] stands for your destination.
- Place, type, inclusion: "[City] Old Town Food Tour with Six Tastings".
- Format, place, type: "Private Old Town Food Tour with Local Guide in [City]". Use it only on the listing that really is private.
- Time, type, place: "Evening Wine and Cheese Walk through [City] Old Town".
- Time, type, place, detail: "Sunrise Kayak Tour of the Sea Caves with Snorkel Stop".
Note "Six Tastings" instead of "6 Tastings". It is how you keep a Viator title to letters only. GetYourGuide's guides do not restrict digits, so the numeral is fine there, and it reads faster in a results list. Mention transport only when it is the product (kayak, helicopter, bicycle), which is also Viator's own exception.
A food-walk operator's three titles, before and after
The example operator (invented) runs three small-group walking tours from one meeting point: a daytime food walk, an evening wine and cheese walk, and a private version of the food walk. All three carry titles written years ago. The table sets the old Viator-side titles against the rewrites. The character counts use a nine-letter stand-in for [City].
| Listing | Old title | What breaks the rules | Rewrite | Characters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food walk | THE BEST Old Town Food Tour!!! - Taste & Walk with Local Foodies Co. (Small Group 2026) | Starts with "The"; capitals; "best"; punctuation and ampersand; company name; digits and brackets; 87 characters | [City] Old Town Food Tour with Six Tastings | 46 |
| Evening walk | Sunset Wine + Cheese Walk (Evening) | Best Value | Book Now | Plus sign, brackets and a pipe; "best"; a call to action instead of a description; no place | Evening Wine and Cheese Walk through [City] Old Town | 55 |
| Private tour | Private Foodie Experience by Foodies Co. | Company name; vague ("experience"); no place; no hint of the food | Private Old Town Food Tour with Local Guide in [City] | 56 |
The GetYourGuide version of the first listing can keep a numeral and lead with the place: "[City] Old Town Food Walk with 6 Tastings and Local Guide". That is 60 characters with the same stand-in, which is acceptable where the guides publish no character limit, though shorter is easier to scan.
Now the results. The operator changed only the food-walk title on GetYourGuide, and compared four weeks before with four weeks after, from the Performance page for that product (the figures are invented):
| Four weeks | Impressions | Page visits | Click-through | Bookings | Visit-to-booking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before | 18,000 | 450 | 2.5% | 18 | 4.0% |
| After | 18,600 | 558 | 3.0% | 24 | 4.3% |
Read it honestly. Impressions barely moved, so the title was shown about as often, but 24% more people clicked through (450 to 558 visits), and a jump of that size is worth taking seriously. Bookings rose from 18 to 24, which is welcome but small enough that a few lucky days could produce it. The sensible conclusion is "the title attracts more clicks; the booking gain needs another four weeks to confirm". It is not "doubled our sales".
The prompt: facts in, rules in, five titles out
The input matters more than the instruction. Write a fact sheet once per listing, with only things you can prove, and paste the same sheet into every prompt. This is the one for the food walk:
LISTING FACTS (use only these)
Experience: guided walking food tour, 3 hours, daily at 10:00 and 16:00
Place: [City] Old Town, starting at the market square
Group size: maximum 10
Included: local guide, 6 tastings (3 savoury, 2 sweet, 1 drink), bottled water
Not included: hotel pickup, extra drinks, tips
Languages: English, Spanish
Distinctive: family-run stops; vegetarian route on request with 24 hours' notice
Not suitable for: guests with nut allergies (the tasting set contains nuts)
Words we must not use: best, amazing, number one, authentic, award-winning, [company name], any brand namesYou write titles for tour listings on two platforms. Use ONLY the facts above.
VIATOR RULES: under 60 characters; about 8 words; say what it is and where; simple words; letters of the alphabet only (no digits, hyphens, ampersands, brackets or emoji); do not start with "The"; no company name; no trademark; no capitals for emphasis; no subjective words.
GETYOURGUIDE RULES: concise but informative; make clear what kind of experience it is; include the location.
TASK: write 5 candidate titles per platform using this formula: place + experience type + one standout inclusion or format. After each title give its character count including spaces. Mark any title that relies on a claim not in the facts. Finish with the title you would choose for each platform and one reason.A shortened, illustrative first response for Viator reads:
1. [City] Old Town Food Tour with Six Tastings (46)
2. Food Walk with Tastings Through [City] Old Town (50)
3. [City] Old Town Food Walk with Tastings and Local Guide (58)
4. Family Run Food Stops Walking Tour of [City] Old Town (56)
5. Small Group Old Town Food Walk and Market Tastings in [City] (57)
Choice: 1, because the inclusion is concrete and it is short enough not to be cut off.Three things need fixing before this is usable. The model's count for number 5 is wrong: a spreadsheet's LEN() function says 63 with the nine-letter stand-in, over Viator's limit. "Small Group" is a claim, so check it against your own definition of small (the fact sheet says a maximum of ten). And "Family Run" is allowed only because the fact sheet says so. Always recount in a spreadsheet, because language models are unreliable at counting characters, and read every candidate as a promise you must keep.
Run the same task for existing winners, too. Paste your current title and ask the AI to explain which rule each word breaks, and to say which parts you should keep because they match how customers search. A title that already earns bookings deserves a gentler rewrite than one that has never been touched. For testing prompts like this properly, how to test an AI product title generator before you trust it offers a method that carries over.
Highlights and inclusions that match the new title
A better title raises expectations, so the fields underneath must deliver on them. GetYourGuide's help pages ask for three to five highlights, each starting with a verb, short and not repetitive, plus a short description of two to three sentences that is not copied from the full description. Its inclusions guidance prefers bare nouns: "Guide", not "A friendly and knowledgeable guide". Anything optional must be set up as an option, and an amount you know in advance, such as an entry ticket, must be an option rather than an exclusion.
| Field | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Highlights | Amazing food from all over! / Best guide ever / Great for everyone | Taste six dishes at family-run stops / Walk the lanes of the old market quarter with a local guide / Choose a vegetarian route with 24 hours' notice |
| Inclusions | A friendly and knowledgeable guide / Delicious tastings / Water | Guide / Six tastings (three savoury, two sweet, one drink) / Bottled water |
| Not included | (blank) | Hotel pickup / Extra drinks / Tips (voluntary) |
Viator's equivalent is the field "What makes this product unique", which its guidance says must be an original description of at least 100 characters and say whether the product is private. A good one is two plain sentences, for example: "A three-hour shared walking food tour for up to ten guests, with six tastings at family-run stops in the old town. You walk with a local guide, and a vegetarian route is available with 24 hours' notice." That runs to about 200 characters and says what happens, for whom, whether it is private ("shared" says it is not) and what is distinctive. Ask the AI for two versions and keep the one that sounds like you. Viator's operator resources also suggest scannable sections such as "What's included" and "What to expect", and being open about meeting points and age restrictions.
The platforms' own AI helpers, and where yours still matters
Both platforms now offer AI of their own, which is worth knowing before you pay for another tool. Viator's help page describes Smart Creator, labelled a beta when I checked, which drafts fields for a new product from content or a web address you paste in (at least 1,000 characters), including the title and "what makes this product unique"; the same page says it is not available for existing products yet. GetYourGuide's Recommended Actions in the Supplier Portal mix curated suggestions with AI-generated ones based on patterns in customer contacts and reviews, and automated checks for contradictions or unclear information. Its help pages also describe a Competitor Report that compares an activity with similar ones, with limits on how often it can be run and which activities qualify, so check what your portal offers. GetYourGuide's own help text says to treat that report as guidance, that it can misread information, and that you should check surprising statements against the competitor's live listing.
These tools help you find problems. They do not know your fact sheet. For an existing listing, your own prompt with your own verified facts is still the safest route, and the platform suggestions are a useful second opinion afterwards. If you also publish descriptions in several languages, the workflow in tour descriptions in several languages with AI keeps one set of facts behind every version.
Policy checks before you press save
Run this list on every candidate. Ask the AI to do a first pass as pass or fail lines, but make the final call yourself.
- Every claim is true on every departure. "With lunch" must mean lunch every time. "Small group" must match your cap. "Hotel pickup" must be in the inclusions.
- No hype words. Viator names "amazing" and "the best". Add "number one", "must-see" and "unforgettable" to your own banned list.
- No company or brand names in the title (Viator); no trademarked terms in the short description without a licence (GetYourGuide).
- Nothing that conflicts with the fields below it. If the title says private, the description must say private. GetYourGuide's Recommended Actions advice is to fix unclear or contradictory information first.
- Distinct copy. GetYourGuide says duplicating content from your website or other providers hurts search ranking. Write each description fresh.
- One listing per experience. Viator's product guidelines say it may reject or restrict identical or similar experiences listed separately by the same supplier. Never clone a listing to test a title. Edit the one you have.
Active tours need one more check, because a title word can contradict a safety answer. Take the kayak title from the formula list, "Sunrise Kayak Tour of the Sea Caves with Snorkel Stop". An AI that wants to be helpful will happily suggest "Beginner Friendly" or "No Experience Needed". Viator's product guidelines say all risks and hazards must be disclosed to participants up front, that they must be told about inherent risks and relevant safety procedures when they take part, and that the operator must have appropriate acknowledgements and releases signed. Its completeness checklist also requires answers on accessibility, health restrictions and physical difficulty. GetYourGuide's extra-information fields ask who the activity is not suitable for and what is not allowed. So give the AI those answers in the fact sheet and tell it to flag any title word that sounds easier or safer than they say. If the sheet says "moderate fitness, buoyancy aids worn throughout, safety briefing on the beach", the title should not promise anything gentler. Viator also says it may review listings with automated software and human review, and can reject or remove listings that breach its guidelines.
Also check what travellers actually see. Viator's help page on unique content says its copywriters may write description text that overrides yours on the product page, and that titles can look different on partner sites. If what you see on the live page is not what you typed, ask support before drawing conclusions from the numbers.
Compare views and bookings before and after, fairly
A rewrite is an experiment, so run it like one. On GetYourGuide, the Supplier Portal's Performance page (previously called Analytics) has a Business performance view and a Product performance view. It shows funnel metrics such as impressions, click-through rate and page visits, a Conversion and bookings tab, custom date ranges and year-over-year comparison. Its help text says the data refreshes once a day and that hovering over the "i" next to a metric shows how it is defined. On Viator, the Management Center's Performance page offers booking reports by booking or travel date, booking counts and value by year, and cancellation rates. Viator's help pages also mention page views and ad impressions inside the Accelerate reports, which belong to its paid promotion product. So if your account does not show page views per product, use bookings by booking date as your outcome.
Keep a simple log, one row per change:
| Date | Platform and product | Old title | New title | Window checked | Metrics |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Nov | GetYourGuide, food walk | (old) | (new) | Four weeks before, four weeks after, from 10 Nov | Impressions, click-through, page visits, bookings |
Four rules keep the comparison fair. First, change only the title in that window, not the photos, price or availability. Second, start the "after" window only once the edit has propagated; on Viator that can mean up to 48 hours, and for partner sites up to 5 to 7 working days. Third, compare matching weeks, so a school-holiday fortnight is not set against an ordinary one. Fourth, wait for enough volume: with only a dozen bookings in each window, you are reading noise. Price also shows up in Viator's ranking factors, so a title test is a poor time to change rates; per-person and group pricing with AI is a separate experiment.
Reviews feed the same ranking factors, so a title that draws a better-matched traveller can help your rating as well. The routine in replying to Tripadvisor and Google reviews with AI keeps that side moving while you test titles.
Four ways a title rewrite goes wrong
These are illustrative, but each is a pattern worth recognising before it costs a refund.
- The invented inclusion. The AI adds "skip-the-line" to a title because the phrase sells. The operator cannot deliver it, guests complain, and the first week's reviews say so. The fact sheet is the control: if it is not listed, it cannot appear.
- The title that is cut off. A 60-character title with the best detail at the end looks fine in the editor and can end mid-phrase in results on a phone. Put the keyword first and the extra detail last, and check on a phone.
- Three changes, one result. Title, main photo and price all change in the same week, bookings rise, and nobody knows why. Stagger the changes, one per window.
- The cloned test listing. A second near-identical product is created to compare titles side by side. Viator's guidelines allow it to reject or restrict similar listings from the same supplier, and the two listings also split reviews and availability. Test in sequence instead.
There is one more trap on GetYourGuide. Its tips page says locations can only be added when a new activity is created and cannot be edited afterwards, so a title rewrite will not change the location tags. If the places in your new title differ from those tags, the mismatch is a reason to review the listing as a whole, not just the title.
Questions tour operators ask about rewriting listings
Can the same title go on both platforms?
Often a near-identical formula works, but not the exact text. Viator's help page asks for fewer than 60 characters and letters only, which rules out digits, hyphens and brackets, while GetYourGuide's guidance is looser. Keep one fact sheet, generate a title for each platform from it, and vary the descriptions, because GetYourGuide warns against duplicated content.
How long should I wait before judging a new title?
Viator's help pages say title edits can take up to 48 hours to appear on Viator.com and 5 to 7 working days on Tripadvisor and partner sites, so start the clock once the change has propagated. Compare four weeks with four weeks, matching weekdays. With fewer than about 30 bookings in each window, treat the movement as a hint, not a verdict.
Does Viator rewrite my listing?
Viator's help page on unique content says its copywriters can write product descriptions that override yours on the product page, and that titles may look different on partner sites. It describes this as offered to selected suppliers. Check what travellers actually see, and ask support if the live text does not match what you entered.
Can I use Viator's own AI to write the title?
Viator's help page describes Smart Creator, a beta tool in new product creation: you paste at least 1,000 characters or a web address, choose a tone, and it drafts fields including the title and what makes the product unique. It is for new products only, so existing listings need your own prompt, and any draft still needs the rule checks below.
Further reads
- How Small Tour Operators Use AI for Bookings and Itineraries — Wider view of AI across bookings and itineraries for small operators.
- 8 Examples of AI in Tourism From Guided Tours to Group Bookings — Eight examples of AI in tourism, from guided tours to group bookings.
- Can You Make an AI Audio Tour Guide? Scripts, Voices and Licensing — Turn your guiding script into an audio tour, with the licensing checks.
- How to Use AI for Etsy Titles, Tags and Descriptions — Another marketplace where titles do the selling, with its own limits.
- Airbnb Listing Description Written With AI: Title, Summary, Rules — The same fact-sheet method applied to an accommodation listing.
- Tour Booking Software Compared: What Small Operators Should Check — How to compare tour booking software on booking rules, payouts, OTA sync, waivers and fees, with a cost sum for a small operator.
- AI Marketing Booklet Creator: Print a Tour Brochure From Itineraries — Turn three tour itineraries into a print-ready booklet: AI-drafted copy, a pricing page, Canva layout, print specs and a proof checklist.
- AI for Tour Guides: Multilingual Enquiry Replies and Review Responses — A fact card, a back-translation check and ready prompts for answering guests and reviewers in their own language without sending a wrong time or price.
- How to Start a Bike Tour Business: Routes, Pricing and Bookings With AI — A staged plan for a first guided bike tour: ride-test the route, price per rider from real costs, check insurance and waivers, choose a booking tool.
- How to Use AI in the Travel Industry: Weather Cancellations for Tours — A day-tour operator weather kit: written cancel-or-go limits, a decision log, refund wording and rebooking messages, with AI reading and drafting.
- Tour Cancellation Policy: Draft the Wording and Customer Messages With AI — Build a tour cancellation policy from your costs, have AI draft clauses and customer messages, then test it on real situations before a solicitor reviews it.
- Walking Tour Software: Ticketing, Guide Rotas and AI Enquiries — How a small walking-tour company sets group caps, guide rotas, weather rules and private-group quotes, and which writing jobs AI can take on.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: Viator supplier help pages (product titles, product guidelines, ranking and sort, Smart Creator, unique content, reports), Viator's operator resources on listings, and GetYourGuide's supplier guides and supply partner help pages on describing products and the Performance section, all read in October 2026.