Are deal-platform promotions ever worth it?

As a controlled top-up for slow weekdays, maybe. As your default booking channel, no — you're paying commission plus a discount for customers, many of whom would have found you directly. Run the math on what a season of intercepted bookings costs before calling it free marketing.

Can a small DZ site really outrank the big booking platforms?

For your own name and your own area — yes. Platforms win broad national terms; the local pack and '[activity] near [your city]' favor a real business with a claimed profile, real reviews, and a real address. That's the ground worth fighting on, and it's winnable.

We have two locations. Does that change anything?

It doubles the work and the opportunity. Google ranks locations, not companies — each real location needs its own Business Profile and its own page with its own address, hours, and directions. One listing covering two sites means one of them is invisible.

How long until local SEO moves?

Claiming and completing a Business Profile can affect the local pack within weeks. Reviews and location pages compound over months. It's slower than an ad and permanent in a way an ad never is — you're building an asset, not renting a slot.

Field guide

Who's Taking Commission on Your Tandems

2026-07-22 · 2 min read · Rick Taylor

The straight answer

Search "skydiving near [your city]" in a private browser window. If booking marketplaces, deal platforms, or a directory rank above your own site, they're intercepting customers who were already coming to you — and charging you commission for the introduction. The fix isn't beating them everywhere; it's owning the searches that are rightfully yours: a claimed Google Business Profile for every real location, a page per location on your site, steady reviews with owner replies, and answers to the questions first-timers actually type.

Try this right now: open a private browser window and search "skydiving near [your city]."

Count how many results sit above your website. Now look at what they are. Booking marketplaces. Deal platforms. A directory with a "check availability" button. Maybe a competitor fifty miles away with a page named after your town.

Every one of those results above you is intercepting demand — and the marketplaces charge you commission for customers who typed your city into Google. They didn't create that demand. Your planes, your reviews, and your town's tourists created it. They just built a better toll booth.

How the intercept works

The platforms do one thing extremely well: they publish a page for every city and activity combination, structured exactly how Google likes it. Your six-page site, built between loads years ago, is competing against a machine that ships thousands of location pages.

You will not out-publish them nationally. You don't have to. The searches that matter — your name, your city, "tandem skydiving near me" from a phone in your region — are winnable by a real business with a real address. That's the ground to take back.

The math that makes it urgent

Take your average tandem price, multiply by a platform's cut, multiply by the bookings a season that arrive through them from local searches. That number is what the interception costs — not for reach you couldn't get, but for customers who were one organic result away from booking direct at full price.

Taking the local ground back

Claim a Google Business Profile for every real location. Google ranks locations, not companies. If you operate from two sites and hold one listing, one of your locations doesn't exist as far as the map is concerned — while someone else ranks for it.

Give each location its own page. Address, directions, hours, what flies there, its own map. This is what a Business Profile links to, and what turns a listing into a booking.

Reviews, steadily, with replies. A trickle of fresh reviews beats an old pile, and owner responses — especially to the rough ones — are read by every future customer. Ask at the moment of the high-five, not never.

Answer what first-timers actually type. Weight limits, what to wear, how long it takes, what happens if it rains. Every question you answer on your own site is a search the platforms can't take from you, because they don't know your DZ — they only know your category.

Keep booking direct worth it. Your own site should always show the real price and the real calendar. Give the platforms nothing to beat you with except their ad budget.

The honest caveat

Marketplaces aren't villains, and extra reach on a slow Tuesday has its place. The problem is defaulting — letting a toll booth stand on a road your customers were already driving. Reach is worth paying for. Interception isn't.

Want to see your own intercept table? The free roast includes it: the exact ranking for your city's searches, who's above you, and which of them charge you for the privilege — with the fixes ranked by what they're worth in bookings.

Fix it properly

Where this gets handled.

Questions

Asked frequently.

Are deal-platform promotions ever worth it?: As a controlled top-up for slow weekdays, maybe. As your default booking channel, no — you're paying commission plus a discount for customers, many of whom would have found you directly. Run the math on what a season of intercepted bookings costs before calling it free marketing.
Can a small DZ site really outrank the big booking platforms?: For your own name and your own area — yes. Platforms win broad national terms; the local pack and '[activity] near [your city]' favor a real business with a claimed profile, real reviews, and a real address. That's the ground worth fighting on, and it's winnable.
We have two locations. Does that change anything?: It doubles the work and the opportunity. Google ranks locations, not companies — each real location needs its own Business Profile and its own page with its own address, hours, and directions. One listing covering two sites means one of them is invisible.
How long until local SEO moves?: Claiming and completing a Business Profile can affect the local pack within weeks. Reviews and location pages compound over months. It's slower than an ad and permanent in a way an ad never is — you're building an asset, not renting a slot.