TikTok is maturing into a useful business tool that could prove an invaluable vacation rental marketing strategy for your short-term rental booking website.
New research shows that one in 10 business owners under the age of 44 now use TikTok, doubling since pre-pandemic, when just 5% used the platform. However, only 1% of small business owners over the age of 44 currently use TikTok for their business.
Just like Instagram, the app has aged up and is now being used daily by your future potential guests.
Plus, the oldest of Generation Z, who are often assumed to be kids, now includes travellers in their mid to late 20s who have disposable income and want to explore new places. This is a guest profile ideal for your Short Term Rental Booking Website.
There is compelling evidence why businesses need to use this platform to grow their direct contact with customers and reduce their reliance on Online Travel Agents (OTAs) like Airbnb and Booking.com.
1. Connect and Follow TikTok Users You Can Learn From
Going by the handle @milliondollarrenter, Sean Rakidzich has more than 145k followers and 1.6m likes thanks to his mission to “lightly troll the Internet while teaching Airbnb”.
His popular Airbnb Automated series provides insights into his adventure to make money on the Airbnb platform without owning a property.
He provides insights into property administration and strategy, maximising occupancy, pricing strategy and design suggestions.
Sean is very good at putting what he knows well into his TikTok business account.
This guy is very funny. He does Airbnb and real estate, but his video content is in a comedy way; it’s infotainment.
https://www.tiktok.com/@milliondollarrenter
Very much proving that TikTok users are not just “the kids”. It's veteran travel journalist and broadcaster Simon Calder.
A well-known commenter on all things travel-related, his expertise and knowledge, plus how he champions the issues which affect ordinary travellers, has translated into a strong following on TikTok with more than 55k followers.
His videos are really entertaining,\
Simon is very short and to the point.
We've followed Simon for years, and to be able to see him come onto TikTok and flourish in the way that he has been funny and great.
https://www.tiktok.com/@caldertravel
Sarah Peake is a self-proclaimed @UKglamping_queen and has 30.4k followers to back it up.
Sarah owns a number of short-term rental booking websites, including Peake’s Retreats, a luxury yurt glampsite in Staffordshire and is passionate about sharing the glamping lifestyle with others.
She posts videos on running her business while being a mum.
Sarah always has a load of fun insights into the little extra details and touches she puts into her glampsite.
Those insights include honest pieces about the hard work it takes to get the lodges and yurts ready, and advice on dealing with guest reviews and cleaning tips are all part of Sarah's schtick and well worth following.
2. Create Engaging Content
Creating engaging content is key to any vacation rental marketing strategy and the success of your own short-term rental booking website. As a social media platform strategy, using TikTok is no different to other social media marketing strategies used as part of your overall short-stay marketing process.
When creating content for TikTok, keep your target audience in mind. What type of TikTok marketing strategy will they find interesting or valuable? What will draw them in as likely guests of a vacation rental property?
Here is a short list of ideas so that you can generate regular content. Find a content strategy that interests you and go for it:
- Highlight the unique features of your rental property
- Showcase local attractions and activities near your rental
- Create virtual tours of your rental property
- Share user-generated content from previous guests
- Create fun and engaging “day in the life” videos of your rental property
- Offer exclusive discounts or promotions for TikTok followers
- Share behind-the-scenes footage of preparing the rental property for guests
- Create before-and-after transformation videos of your rental property
- Share travel tips and hacks for guests staying in your rental property
- Showcase the views from your rental property.
TikTok is a great platform for creating short videos to showcase your short-term rental booking website. You can target your demographic and encourage your audience to create videos featuring your product or service and then share those videos on your TikTok account.
Creating engaging content plays a major role in TikTok marketing and advertising for your short-stay accommodation and direct booking website.
3. Use Brand Takeover Ads
Brand takeovers are video ads appearing when a user opens the TikTok app. These ads are a great way to grab attention and get your brand in front of potential vacation rental and short-term booking guests. TikTok marketing somewhat relies on brand takeover ads.
As a marketing strategy for your short-term booking website, Brand Takeover Ads can either be an image or a 3-5 second video and are typically linked to a specific landing page, such as a product page or a website.
According to TikTok's advertising guidelines, great brand takeover adverts have this in common:
- Use bold colours and high-quality visuals
- Keep the message short and to the point
- Include a clear call to action
- Create a sense of urgency
- Use humour or relatable content
- Highlight the unique value proposition of the brand
- Feature user-generated content or influencer collaborations
- Use music or sound effects to enhance the ad
- Offer an exclusive promotion or discount
- A/B test different versions of the ad to optimize performance
These ads are designed to capture potential guests' attention immediately, generate awareness of your short-term booking website and service, and encourage them to visit your vacation rental website and make a direct booking.
4. Use in-feed Video Ads
An In-feed Video Ad on TikTok is an advertising format that appears in a user's “For You” feed or search results. These ads can be up to 60 seconds long, but the recommended length is 9-15 seconds.
In-feed Video Ads can be skippable or non-skippable, and they are designed to be native to the TikTok platform. This means that the ads must adhere to TikTok's creative guidelines and are expected to feel like a natural part of the user's browsing experience.
In-feed Video Ads can be customised with various creative features, including:
- Music and sound effects
- Stickers and emojis
- Text overlays and captions
- Filters and special effects
- Hashtags and challenges
- Call-to-action buttons
- Branded effects
- User-generated content
- Influencer collaborations
- Interactive elements.
These features all help vacation rental owners to engage with their potential guests. These ads can also include a call-to-action button, like “Shop Now” or “Learn More,” which can direct your guests to a specific landing page on your short-term booking website.
To get the best possible performance, vacation rental properties can use TikTok's targeting options to reach specific audiences based on factors like location, interests, and behaviours. On top of that, TikTok offers a range of performance metrics, including views, engagement, and click-through rates, to help direct booking website hosts to measure the success of their campaigns.
5. Use Other TikTok influencers
TikTok influencers are users with a large following on the platform who create videos about various topics. You can work with TikTok influencers to promote your brand or product in their videos. Influencer marketing campaigns are a great way to grab more user interaction.
How can Influencers help your short-term booking website marketing?
- Reach a wider audience of potential guests
- Increase awareness and credibility of your short term booking website
- Create authentic and engaging content
- Showcase the unique features of your rental property
- Share positive reviews and testimonials from previous guests
- Promote exclusive discounts or promotions to their followers
- Drive traffic to your short-term booking website
- Provide social proof through their personal experiences and recommendations
- Boost your social media following and engagement
- Generate user-generated content that can be repurposed for marketing purposes.
TikTok influencers can have a significant impact on consumer decisions. According to a survey by Influencer Marketing Hub, 49% of consumers rely on influencer recommendations for their purchase decisions. A report by Hopper HQ found that TikTok influencers have an engagement rate of 17.96%, which is significantly higher than Instagram influencers' engagement rate of 1.22%.
6. Participate in hashtag challenges
A hashtag challenge is a fun way to get your brand involved in the TikTok community. These challenges involve users creating videos around a specific hashtag. Sponsored Hashtag challenge further helps in TikTok landing page optimisation.
A Sponsored Hashtag Challenge on TikTok can help a short-term accommodation business in several ways:
- Increase brand awareness: A sponsored hashtag challenge can increase brand awareness and visibility by encouraging users to engage with the brand and share their content with their followers.
- Generate user-generated content: The challenge can encourage users to create content that features the brand, such as videos of their experience at the accommodation property. This user-generated content can be repurposed for future marketing efforts.
- Showcase the unique features of the accommodation: The challenge can focus on highlighting the unique features of the short-term accommodation, such as the amenities or location, to attract potential customers.
- Create a sense of community: A sponsored hashtag challenge can foster a sense of community and engagement around the brand, building brand loyalty and increasing customer retention.
- Reach a wider audience: The challenge can help reach a wider audience by leveraging the social sharing features of TikTok and encouraging users to share their content with their followers.
To have a successful Sponsored Hashtag Challenge on TikTok, it is important to follow these best practices:
1. Align the challenge with your brand and target audience: The challenge should align with your brand's values, messaging, and target audience to ensure relevance and engagement.
2. Keep the challenge simple and easy to participate in: The challenge should be easy to understand and participate in, with clear instructions and guidelines.
3. Provide incentives and rewards: Offer incentives and rewards to encourage participation, such as exclusive discounts, prizes, or shoutouts on your social media channels.
4. Collaborate with influencers: Collaborate with relevant influencers who have a strong presence on TikTok and can help promote the challenge to their followers.
5. Leverage TikTok's creative features: Use TikTok's creative features, such as music, filters, and special effects, to make the challenge fun, engaging, and shareable.
6. Promote the challenge across multiple channels: Promote the challenge across multiple channels, such as your website, social media, and email marketing, to reach a wider audience and encourage participation.
And finally, remember to monitor and engage with user-generated content: Monitor and engage with user-generated content by liking, commenting, and sharing to show appreciation and build a community around the challenge.
7. Take over the Discover page
The Discover page is where users go to find new and interesting user-generated content on TikTok. You can work with TikTok to take over the Discover page and feature your brand or product.
There are several ways to leverage the Discover page on TikTok to promote a vacation rental property:
You should include relevant hashtags in your TikTok video descriptions to help them appear in search results and on the Discover page. It is also a good idea to participate in popular challenges on TikTok that are relevant to your vacation rental property and create content that showcases your property within the context of the challenge.
As mentioned above, collaborate with relevant influencers who have a strong presence on TikTok and can help promote your vacation rental property to their followers and use eye-catching visuals, such as high-quality photos and videos, to showcase your vacation rental property in the best possible light and grab the attention of users on the Discover page.
It's also important to engage with users interested in your short-term rental properties by liking, commenting, and sharing their content and responding to any inquiries or questions about your property.
And, wherever possible, leverage TikTok ads: Consider using TikTok ads to promote your vacation rental property to a wider audience on the platform, including on the Discover page.
Finally, Manage your TikTok account
Managing your TikTok account is important to ensure that your content is visible to your target audience. Be sure to post regularly and use relevant hashtags and keywords so that users can find your content.
Like other social platforms, the keys to marketing your short term booking website on TikTok are:
- Post consistently
- Use trending hashtags
- Leverage user-generated content
- Engage with your followers
- Use TikTok ads
- Collaborate with influencers
- Monitor analytics and adjust strategy accordingly
- Create high-quality and engaging content
- Incorporate relevant music and sounds
- Cross-promote on other social media channels
TikTok is a great platform for businesses of all sizes to increase brand awareness. By following these tips, you can start using TikTok entertaining videos for business and reach a whole new audience.
Looking for more great vacation rental and short term accommodation marketing strategies? Go here.
