In the 2018 Hostfully Hospitality Trends in Vacation Rental Management Report, the #1 service vacation rental managers cited that they wanted to add were tours and activities.
Thankfully, offering tours and activities to your guests is easier than most vacation rental managers realize.
Viator, acquired by TripAdvisor in 2014, is the largest tour & activity booking site with over 1,500 destination and 2 million verified reviews. Viator offers two different distribution programs to earn revenue from selling tours – the Viator Affiliate Program and the Viator Travel Agent Program.
Both programs enable vacation rental managers to recommend and monetize tour bookings. In this article we will explore how each one works, and who might benefit the most from each program.
If you aren’t familiar with affiliate marketing, simply put, affiliate marketing involves referring a product or service in return for a sales commission. Many brands use affiliate marketing in order to reward bloggers, influencers, and other publishers for promoting their goods and services online.
Brands typically use a third-party affiliate network provider to handle the tracking, commissions, and distribution of their affiliate programs. Some of the biggest affiliate networks include Awin, Rakuten, CJ, and ShareASale.
In order to incentive usage, brands can set a commission percentage and “cookie window” for their affiliate program. The commission percentage is how much of the sale you as the affiliate receive in return for referring this sale. The “cookie window” is a time window for attribution.
For instance, Viator’s program has a very generous 30-day “cookie window.” This means that if you send someone to Viator’s website today, even if they come back in 25 days directly to Viator’s website and make a purchase, you will still be credited for this sale.
Most affiliate programs require publishers (the blogs, influencers, websites etc.) to apply in order to become part of the program. Some, including Viator are generally more open while others are more restrictive.
Viator‘s affiliate program is available on Awin network. In order to apply for Viator’s program, you first need to create an account with Awin.
Once you have an Awin account, just search for “viator” to find and apply to the affiliate program. Make sure to select to apply to the programs in the countres that you operate in.
Once you sign up and are accepted to Viator’s program you can start creating links to specific Viator pages in order to monetize those sales.
Awin has a great chrome extension that helps create affiliate links for any page that you are browsing on Viator’s website. The Awin extension also lets you know easily if any other brands are part of the Awin network if you are interested in expanding to promoting other websites.
Once you’ve downloaded the extension, head to your destination pages in Viator and create a list of the activities and tours you would like to promote. Make sure to generate the right tracking links to those pages so you can easily integrate those links into your content.
Once you have determine what Viator experiences, tours, and activities, then it is easy to start integrating those links naturally into your content. Here are few easy places to start naturally promoting this links:
– In pre-stay automated messages
– Blog Posts
– Digital Guestbooks/Guides
– Email Marketing
– Social Media Posts
Naturally integrating these links into content that helps guests plan and enjoy their trip is the best way to drive revenue through this program. It is a win-win for both you and the guests who you can enjoy some of the most popular or favorite activities in the destinations where you operate.
Remember that with the 30-day cookie, you will get credit for any sale made within 30 days of first clicking on the link. You will get the most out of the program if you remind guests about the great tours and activities in their area multiple times before and during their stay.
The Viator Travel Agent Program is great for vacation rental managers that want to provide a higher level of concierge services for their guests. With this program, you can earn double the commission than the affiliate program; however, there are no cookies or attribution window.
There are two ways that guests can book through the travel agent program.
1. Guests can book through a link that you send them (you will only earn commission if the guest books in the same web session).
2. You can book on behalf of your guests.
Unlike the affiliate program, the travel agent program is managed from Viator’s website, not a 3rd party. You can sign up and immediately start using the program to earn 8% commissions here.
Once you have signed up, you can invite other “agents” to the program so multiple individuals at your business can recommend or book tours for guests.
Instead of linking to Viator’s regular website with affiliate links through Awin, for the travel agent program, you will have your own unique Viator booking site you can share with guests.
Once you select “Book now” in the dashboard you will be brought to your own Viator website, where you can book on behalf of guests to earn an 8% commission.
Selecting “Share with client” will give you a link to send to guests that they can use to book through. For instance our link is, https://www.viator.com/?pid=P00036613&uid=U00109266&mcid=58086. On this website, your guest will actually see the agent’s name in the upper left of the Viator website – this is how you know you will be credited for the booking.
You will earn 8% from any booking made on this site; however, if guests come back to the main Viator website later, you won’t get the credit unlike the affiliate program.
We have seen the most success with this program when managers book on behalf of guests. If you are already offering concierge services, the Viator Travel Agent program is a great way to supplement your offering and monetize that activity.
Recommending tours and activities to guests is a great way to help provide extra value to make their stay as special as possible. Viator makes it easy to share tours with peace of mind that they can cover customer service and questions.
Viator’s affiliate program is best for vacation rental managers that want to easily recommend tours and activities in blogs, emails, messages etc. without getting deeply involved in the booking questions and process.
The travel agent program is a good fit for vacation rental managers that take a more concierge approach to guest services and don’t mind booking on behalf of their clients.
You can read more about both programs on Viator’s Distribution Partners page.
Bonus Tip: For a full list of real estate marketing affiliate programs, this detailed guide lists some of the highest paying referral programs currently available.
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