Amenity Affiliate Links Earn Vacation Rental Managers Up To $10,000 Per Month [Here’s How]
Accommodation providers, vacation rental property managers, hoteliers: Are you looking to take your business beyond a place to sleep? What about making yourself even more valuable to your guests?
Selling tours, activities, and attractions through TripShock’s affiliate program can help increase the revenue you earn from each booking. With the affiliate program you can help guests remember their vacation, and inspire them to reserve with your brand again!
With our commissionable affiliate links, you’ll have an opportunity to earn commission any time a traveler books and completes an activity with TripShock. And the best part? The flexibility! With affiliate links you can link directly to…
- The TripShock homepage
- All tours and activities in a single location (i.e. Key West, Myrtle Beach)
- A category in a location (i.e. pontoon boat rentals, food tours)
- Even a specific tour or activity (i.e. Oak Alley Plantation Tour, Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park tickets).
This allows you the freedom to incorporate them into your marketing channels as you see fit, without the need for an expensive or complicated integration!
With all that versatility, we know you might be wondering where to get started. Keep reading to learn how to make the most out of TripShock’s affiliate program as a marketer.
Table of Contents
Here are some of our favorite placements and creative ideas that may help you increase your affiliate clicks and commissions (and guest satisfaction!):
On Your Website
The process of selling your potential guests on the dream vacation starts here! As much as your website visitors are enticed by photos of a hotel room’s luxuriously-appointed trimmings, knowing they’ll be booking with a brand who shapes their stay beyond that space can be even more attractive. Consider how you can benefit from links in the following areas of your website (which likely already exist!):
Primary Activity Page
A primary page where you list and recommend things like area attractions, watersport rentals, tours and other experiences. It’s helpful to always have this page easily accessible in your menu navigation, especially when referenced verbally by a concierge or should you opt to promote activities in any print material.
Blog Posts
Any blog posts educating and inspiring readers with exciting things to do in the area. With the potential for organic reach and the many channels to share a post (i.e. email campaigns, your Facebook page), it’s a no-brainer to give them an opportunity to be both informative and profitable.
Booking Info
A page detailing the perks and benefits of booking with your brand, including providing a seamless experience for tour and activity reservations with TripShock. For those who’ve already reserved their stay, this may potentially reduce the number of call-ins with questions to your concierge if you indicate your relationship with TripShock. They’ll receive live, local phone and chat support as your guest and it’s included in their booking!
Guest Portal
A guest message portal or login area where you may send reminders or provide key details for their stay. If they’re logging in and seeking information regarding their vacation, it’s likely they’re actively planning and making purchase decisions in other aspects of it, too.
If they’re not responsible for reserving the experiences (think: large groups and families), why not make it easy for the person in that role to get access to a branded page that includes affiliate links?
We like the idea of the option to add an additional email to their account or a click-to-email link with tours and activities.
In Your Rooms or Rental Units
Once they’ve arrived, in which ways are you instilling in your guests that you care about their total vacation experience beyond the room or property? After all, this is the most critical place to drive that fact home!
What’s also critical is that your guests are, indeed, likely to be booking tours and activities during this time. TripShock’s Affiliate Program allows you to keep your brand active in the process, which makes you look good and keeps your guests happy! Check out our tips for upping guest satisfaction and giving yourself an extra shot at earning passive revenue during their stay:
Digital Welcome or Guide Book
This includes in-unit tablets and welcome emails. If you’re also using this medium to upsell amenities, like cleaning services or late checkout, it’s logical to take advantage of another opportunity to create incremental income.
YourWelcome, a provider of tablets to rental properties, offers tours, amenities, and local guide info. As a TripShock affiliate, they’ve generated passive income by simply switching existing activity URLs to a TripShock affiliate URL.
“YourWelcome partnered with Tripshock 2-years ago due to the wide variety of activities they offer in prime vacation rental destinations. We are seeing our mutual clients generate upwards of $40 per booking due to the ease of purchasing tickets from Advance arrival emails and directly from the tablet. With Tripshock handling the customer service and payment collection, managers generate commission on each sale while allowing their team to focus on day-to-day operations; it’s really a win-win for all parties involved.”
Jason Smolarek, Head of Sales, YourWelcome
Tablets provided by YourWelcome allow guests to enhance their stay while generating incremental income for rental owners and managers
Printed Literature
Any printed literature, like promotional table tents, guides or refrigerator magnets are still fair game to promote and monetize experiences with TripShock, even without providing a specific affiliate link to visit. Your call-to-action can be as simple as suggesting they visit the ‘Book Experiences’ page of your website to get the best deals on traveler-favorite tours and activities in the area. Eye-catching visuals certainly help, too!
Branded WiFi Login Page
A branded WiFi login page, somewhat similar to the guest login portal mentioned above, is another place to capture additional email addresses, especially in vacation rental properties with a high capacity.
If a home sleeps 20 and was reserved by just one person, there’s a strong probability that the group may have a range of ages and a diverse interest in activities. Even without capturing their email address, you can still promote tours and activities here to a much wider and potentially impressionable audience.
In Your Email Communications
Whether transactional or more promotional in nature, chances are you’re making an effort to show up in your guest’s inbox ahead of their stay. But how well are you monetizing this key marketing channel beyond a basic confirmation message?
Promoting tours and activities can help you add variety to your email arsenal, provide added value to your guests, and position you as a full-service brand. Here are a few triggered and drip campaign ideas we like:
Vacation Activities Itinerary
A general “vacation activities itinerary” for the destination and segment based on the guest’s length of stay. You could link to each activity or category directly within the email or via a link back to a landing page that includes links. This is generic enough to send pre- or post-booking.
Personalize Their Stay
A message that shows your interest in personalizing their stay, while also allowing you to capture valuable data and segment even further with drip campaigns based on their behavior. Think: “What type of vacationer are you?” You could use this opportunity to recommend things to do that fit their needs and interests.
Recommend a chair service if they click a link suggesting they prefer mostly beach lounging, or suggest your favorite activities if they click a link indicating they like their itinerary filled. This is also flexible within the booking window.
An Informative Reminder
An informative reminder to book tours and activities that are likely to have limited inventory or a higher price point.
This messaging may be something along the lines of…
“Thinking about renting a pontoon boat? These often sell out days in advance!”
Or the following…
“Did you know many guests opt to rent a golf cart for the duration of their stay? It’s quick and easy to access the beach in minutes for up to eight passengers, all without loading up the car each time! Delivery and pick-up is even included, making it hassle-free.”
A Friendly Check-in
A check-in just days before and/or during their trip to see if they need any assistance or have questions, including about booking tours and activities. With many travelers reserving their experiences as few as three days in advance, you may find any related campaign sent very close to their stay to be quite profitable.
Other Key Uses
We hope this detailed list of TripShock affiliate link uses will get you started, although there are certainly more ways to make them work for you and your brand:
Concierge
If your concierge handles tour and activity booking on behalf of your guests, you’ll receive credit when reserved with the TripShock link. You may have some established relationship with tour operators who provide you a commission or special deal, but you can use your connection with TripShock to earn revenue on those who don’t!
Social Media
Social media is a fantastic way to inform and inspire travelers, as well as to attract new and retain existing guests. For those struggling to create fresh and interesting content outside of vacation rental listings or hotel room deals, tours and activities can help diversify your posts and excite your audience.
Beyond your own accounts, try posting in destination-specific Facebook groups for those low-funnel vacationers seeking advice and recommendations for their current or upcoming stay!
Automated Text Message
An automated text message reminder can also give guests quicker access to see and do the memorable things they may have interest in throughout their trip. Consider how much they might appreciate the time saved searching for the activity versus remembering your message, clicking the link in their text inbox and booking with TripShock. You’ve made it simple and given them precious seconds of their vacation back!
Learn More About Amenity Affiliate Links
Does the TripShock Affiliate Program sound like it might be a great fit for your hotel or vacation rental property’s marketing mix? It’s completely free to join, easy to use, and it has numerous benefits for both you and your guests, which we’d love to tell you even more about!
Get in touch with us at [email protected] or fill out the form below and we’ll contact you as soon as possible.