Johannes Reck studied at ETH Zurich. In 2009 a trip to Beijing with classmate Tao Tao led them to build a platform for local guides, and GetYourGuide was founded in Zurich that year with friends and family money.
The first two years brought only a handful of bookings, and three came from Reck's mother. Investors turned the company down more than 100 times. The founders then dropped the amateur guide model and built reservation software for professional tour operators.
The headquarters moved to Berlin in 2012. A $14 million Series A came in 2013, then $25 million in 2014, $50 million in 2015 and $75 million in 2017. In 2019 SoftBank's Vision Fund led a $484 million round, and the company passed 25 million tickets sold.
GetYourGuide launched in the United States in 2021 and raised $194 million at a $2 billion valuation in May 2023. In October 2025 it said it had become profitable for the first time, with about €1 billion in sales over the previous year.