You found me directly. No app, no marketplace, no “12 people are viewing this tour.” Just a website and a phone number. There's a reason for that, and it's worth two minutes of your time before you book anything on the Riviera — with me or anyone else.
The number nobody puts on the listing
When you book a tour through a platform, the operator doesn't keep what you pay. The platform collects the full retail price from you, takes its cut, and pays the operator the rest.
That cut is not small. Across the major players — Viator, GetYourGuide, and the rest — the commission charged to the operator runs 20 to 30 percent, and most often lands around 25. Opt into the “premium” visibility programs that push your listing up the search results, and the effective rate climbs to 30–35 percent. Viator also added a per-product listing fee in 2025, just to be on the shelf.
You may have read that Viator “only charges 8 percent.” That figure is real, but it's the affiliate rate — what a travel blogger earns for sending you to the platform. It is not what the driver standing next to the car pays. The two numbers get confused constantly, and the confusion always flatters the platform.
So on a private day out, somewhere between a fifth and a third of what you hand over never reaches the person actually showing you the coast.
Where that money goes — and it isn't your day
It goes into the machine. Marketing budgets, the algorithm, the hundreds of millions of monthly visitors a marketplace has to keep buying to stay a marketplace. When you book through a platform, you are quietly subsidising its advertising to strangers.
Book direct and that money has somewhere better to be: in the car, in the day, or simply not in the price at all. Which brings me to the part everyone actually cares about.
You pay less for the same day — and that's not a sales pitch
There's no honest way to put a 25 percent skim on top of a service and have nobody notice. An operator on a platform has exactly two options: raise the price to cover the commission, so you pay it — or absorb it and find the saving somewhere you'd rather they didn't. A cheaper car. A bigger group. A tighter, more rushed day.
Booking direct removes the choice entirely, because there is no 25 percent to recover. The same electric car, the same private day, the same single driver — without a platform taking its third off the top. That's not a discount I'm inventing for a banner. It's just arithmetic with one fewer party in it.
The problems that never get solved
This is the part the commission rate doesn't capture, and it's the part that matters most when something goes sideways.
I won't name names, and I don't need to. Open the reviews of almost any tour operator on this coast and scroll to the one-star ones. The same story repeats: a driver who never showed, a day paid for in advance that simply never happened, a refund still “being processed” weeks later — and every time, someone who couldn't reach a single human being while their plans fell apart. I'm not telling you this to sell against anyone. I'm telling you to go and read them yourself, because those reviews are the clearest description there is of what a platform booking really protects, and what it quietly doesn't.
- You become a booking the platform owns — not a client I keep. When a pickup time needs to move, when there's a special request, when something genuinely goes wrong, it doesn't reach the person driving you. It goes into a support queue, becomes a ticket, and gets a scripted reply. The two people who could fix it in thirty seconds — you and me — are kept apart by design.
- I never get your details. On a platform booking I often don't have your number, your hotel, or your name until late, and sometimes not at all. I can't confirm the small things with you, can't adapt to how your day is actually going, can't follow up. The industry's own phrase for it is blunt: a customer you'll never see again. That's not how I want to run a day, and it's not how you want yours run.
- Disputes go into limbo. A refund or a complaint sits in mediation between you, the platform, and the operator — three parties, one slow process, nobody fully in charge. Direct, there's one name on it. Mine.
- Everything gets flattened into a race to the bottom. Platforms reward the lowest price and the most reviews, so every operator is nudged toward discounts, flash sales, and shaving the experience to stay visible in a feed. The product erodes one small concession at a time. I'd rather hold the standard and let you judge it yourself.
What “direct” actually means for you
You have my number. One person — licensed, insured, accountable — who answers before, during, and after. No ticket, no queue, no “your case has been escalated.” If the plan changes at 7am, you text the man who's driving. The deposit is a simple, secure link; the rest is settled between us. That's the whole system, and it's deliberately that short.
The honest catch
Direct asks something of you that a marketplace doesn't: a little trust, up front, in a person rather than a logo. There's no app escrow, no one-tap checkout at midnight, no brand to hide behind if it goes wrong.
That's exactly why I don't hide behind one. My VTC licence number, my registered company, my insurance — they're not buried in a footer because they're the proof that replaces the platform's safety blanket. You're not trusting Viator's reputation. You're trusting mine, and I've made it easy to check.
A booking platform is a convenient way to find a driver for one afternoon. It is a terrible way to keep yours. I'd rather be the second thing.
Why aren't you on Viator or GetYourGuide?
Because the platform takes 20 to 35 percent of what you would pay, never passes me your contact details, and turns every booking into a one-time transaction it owns. I'd rather keep the relationship — and the saving — direct.
Is it cheaper to book a private driver directly?
At the same level of service, yes — there's no 25% platform commission built into the price. The saving is arithmetic, not a discount: one fewer party takes a cut.
How do I book if you're not on a booking platform?
By WhatsApp or email. You tell me the date, how many of you, and what you'd like to see; I confirm in writing with fixed, all-inclusive pricing and a simple secure deposit link.
What protects me if I book directly instead of through a platform?
A licensed, insured, registered operator whose VTC licence number and company details are published, not hidden — plus a written quote and a secure deposit. You're trusting a named person you can verify, not a logo.
Do you take a deposit?
Yes — a 20% deposit (arrhes) by secure card link confirms the booking, with the balance settled directly. Cancellation terms are set out in the booking policy.
If that's the way you'd rather do it — tell me where you're staying, how many of you, and what you'd like to see. You'll get me, not a queue. See also: private vs shared tours · booking policy.
Sources for the commission figures: industry analyses of OTA supplier rates (sambahq.com, basecampadvertising.com, supplierhq.app, regiondo.com), 2025–2026. The 20–30% supplier commission, the 30–35% premium-placement effective rate, and the affiliate-vs-supplier distinction are documented across all four.