Skift Take
When GetYourGuide criticized Google for promoting an uneven competitive playing field, some GetYourGuide partners accused GetYourGuide of similar transgressions in the way it markets its Originals tours. GetYourGuide vowed to make amends, the results of which will only become clear in a few months.
Online Travel This Week
GetYourGuide has been a staunch critic of Google, arguing that the search engine- turned-travel business sucks all the air out of the competitive landscape, and relegates partners to being mere fulfillment providers for Google.
But in a development that might sound uncomfortably all-too familiar, GetYourGuide co-founder and CEO Johannes Reck told Skift Tuesday that the tours and activities company is phasing out boosting its own Originals-branded tours atop search results in GetYourGuide channels.
Reck said he "absolutely" sees a parallel to the way Google operates, and is in the process of revamping the GetYourGuide search experience to ensure that GetYourGuide's own Originals' tours don't get preferred treatment over the way partners' tours get listed on GetYourGuide. He said the change will happen later this year.
Operators had heard Reck complaining about Google preferenci