Best affiliate programs for travel bloggers | Best travel and vacation affiliate programs (2023)
- Nicola Montenegro
- 28 mar 2023
- Tempo di lettura: 8 min
You like to travel and share your experiences on your blog, but why not earn money by exploiting this passion of yours through affiliate programs?
Affiliate programs are partnerships that are made with other companies in order to have a profit every time someone, in this case, those who visit our site, use their services through our channels.
It is a system widely used and established, which finds a strong response and excellent earnings when you have a strong presence on the web.
There are many companies that provide affiliate services, but I decided to bring you those that in my opinion are only the most valid and safe for those who want to undertake the life of a travel blogger.
Table of content
1 - Introduction
Affiliate programs on travel, vacations, and tourism
Let's now get into the heart of our sector. In the travel industry, there are several figures who are YouTubers and influencers at the same time. They are travel bloggers.
Often travel bloggers are people who have a passion for travel in their blood, and are driven by an irresistible impulse to discover new places. They tell of their travels, recommend places, and show you step by step how to get there, what to buy of local crafts, where to go to eat, and what dishes to order.
They recommend places and tourist attractions, but with a wealth of details and competence that guarantees seriousness and reliability.
Travel bloggers' sites are popular with all classes of travelers, from the occasional tourist to the young person who travels for education, to the elderly person who wants to get away from the canons of everyday life.
Affiliating with a program is, therefore, a given for a travel blogger, to the point that he or she can systematically define the companies with which to link in order to preserve the characteristics of the traveler (solo, in small groups, young, old, and so on).
2 - Booking.com
Booking.com
It is certainly one of the most popular sites that allows you to find accommodations all over the world.
There is no other platform in the world more visited and known than this one. Born in Holland, it has developed exponentially thanks to its ability to adapt to the needs of various types of travelers. Booking.com also offers a very interesting affiliate program.
The platform is aimed at lovers of the sector, those people who write and publish their travels, and people who are able to advise and show expertise in travel. The idea behind Booking.com's affiliate program is that of a natural insertion within the various articles of links of local structures that refer to the parent site. For each reservation that comes from these links, Booking.com recognizes a percentage.
How the affiliation happens
Registration is free, it is enough to go to the page of affiliation. Once you've done that, you have to insert your data and find a password to enter. The next step is the description of your activity, site, or blog. Remember to be clear in the description and identify what our aspirations are and how we are going to pursue the aspirations we have set as our goal.
At this point, we are in the dashboard with the tools that Booking.com puts at our disposal to create links, banners, widgets, and so on.
How much do you earn by affiliating with the program developed by Booking.com?
It must be said that the parent company has a profit, on each booking, which goes from 15 to 18%. On the basis of the number of reservations that will come from your site you will be able to earn money that we can calculate as follows:
from 0 to 50 reservations, you will have a 25% gain on the profit of Booking.com
from 51 to 150, you will earn 30%
from 151 to 500 35%
over 500 you will earn 40%.
To make an example, if a user books for a value of 100 euros, Booking.com's profit is 15% or 15 euros. Well, you get 25% of this part, which is 3.75 euros. Simple, isn't it? Clearly, the more bookings that circulate from your site, the more the profit will grow.
To achieve this result it is essential that your space is visited, that the articles are read and commented on, that your presence is alive at all times, and able to be at the side of the traveler.
As always, word of mouth on the web will do its part, making you find yourself, in short, at the center of a vortex of potential travelers who just want to have fun or discover new places.
Always remember to choose affiliate programs that are compatible with your nature in order to avoid having banners or links on companies that have nothing to do with your way of understanding travel. So, for example, Booking.com is not similar to a site that specializes in travel for singles or individual travelers in freedom.
3 - Hotelscombined.com
Hotelscombined.com
There are specific and exclusive affiliate programs for travel bloggers. One of them is HotelsCombined.com (to sign up go to this link). It is a site that offers 1.4 million hotels worldwide. Basically, it's a network that gathers different affiliate programs. This concept, which has become a classic in the world of affiliations, wants to offer you the maximum potential in a single membership.
In a few words, by signing up to HotelsCombined.com you are automatically included in the affiliate program of Finn, Travel Supermarket, and Best Offers. The site provides the computer tools to equip your space with specific search engines and in full transparency shares the bookings that are acquired from your blog.
You are asked to be just yourself, to let your love for travels shine through in the pages, to share with the reader every single corner of the place you have visited so that in your writing he too will be transported and will be enchanted by what you have seen.
4 - HotelsClick.com
It's another very interesting network that offers the possibility to affiliate and at the same time subscribe to different travel booking platforms. In this case, you are asked to have a blog that records at least 50 thousand monthly visits in order to affiliate directly with the main platform.
5 - Opodo
Opodo
One of the leading affiliate sites for tourists and travelers is Opodo. This is an online travel agency that is part of the group Odigeo better known most simply as eDreams. Created from the merger of two big giants like eDreams, Opodo, and GO Voyages, based in Barcelona, Spain, Odigeo is listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange and is a true giant in the travel industry. Odigeo with Opodo and eDreams, offers hotel reservations, airline flights, vacation packages, car rentals, train tickets, and travel insurance practically all over the world.
Today Odigeo has, in the travel sector, five brands that guarantee reliability and safety in the round in addition to the three brands already mentioned we must also include Travellink and Liligo.
Let's see in detail what the affiliation with Opodo offers.
Let's start right away by saying that Opodo has in its portfolio 660 airlines, 1.7 million hotels in 200 countries, 7 thousand car rental agencies around the world, and travel websites in all European countries. A gigantic colossus worth 18 million clients are present in 46 markets. These are numbers that alone make you understand the solidity, strength, and structure of the Iberian group.
Opodo offers commissions of considerable interest, for example, 1.3% on flights booked, 3.5% if the booking includes both flight and hotel and 5.5% if you rent a car. Be careful though, Opodo does not pay commissions on cottage, hotel, and cruise bookings.
Clearly, the percentages are subject to change depending on the bookings that are recorded on its site. In principle, vouchers or cashback are not allowed. Important limitations that indicate at the same time the reliability and the guarantee of quality offered by the Spanish group.
6 - Tripadvisor
Tripadvisor
Who doesn't know Tripadvisor? A site that has made a fortune in the economic world thanks to reviews on hotels and restaurants. Especially on the latter. By now it is customary to look for a place to spend the evening and dine through the advice of Tripadvisor users.
One of the advantages of becoming an affiliate of Tripadvisor is the percentage of the commission that is guaranteed to the affiliate. As much as 50% goes to the blogger who manages to convert the lead into a customer. Moreover, it is not necessary that the booking is confirmed to be entitled to your percentage.
It's enough that the user clicks on links in his blog goes to complete his tour by going to the partner site of the US company.
Another strong point is called multiple attribution models. What does it consist of?
This is a novelty in the field of tourism affiliation. The concept is really innovative and has explosive commercial power. A user visited your blog and then went to one of Tripadvisor's partner sites, didn't book, and didn't confirm a trip.
If the same user comes back again within fourteen days it allows you to have a profit even if they don't complete the booking. And this is even if he arrives on the site through other banners of other users. In short, Tripadvisor is aggressive in the market, trying to find wider and wider spaces in a segment that is really very crowded and in which the competition is vigorously competing.
From Tripaviasor we pass another colossus in the sector of hotel bookings.
7 - Hotels.com
This is part of the large Expedia group, one of the first to be present on the web in the hotel booking sector.
With 85 websites located all over the world, it offers an incredibly wide selection of hotels for all tastes and all budgets. The variety of the offer ranges from Hotels to Bed & Breakfasts. Hotels.com has over 10 million members in its loyalty program.
These have the possibility to have one free night for every ten booked. The user who uses Hotel.com can count on 20 thousand Last Minute offers.
With numbers of this caliber, it is clear that the affiliation becomes not only interesting but also appetizing.
The objective of the blogger who wants to become a commercial partner of Hotels.com is to increase the profitability of the traffic of its visitors. The reference model is one that is based, of course, on commissions, the period of validity of the cookie is to be able to earn on every booking of customers who are part of your portfolio. Registration is free and to complete it you just need to follow the instructions that are detailed and easy to follow.
The goal is to turn visitor traffic into sales and to do this the parent company provides you with its entire panel of high-tech computer tools.
8 - Skyscanner Partener Portal
Skyscanner Partener Portal
Skyscanner is the site I use the most to compare flights and car rentals. I currently believe it is the best lead for this type of service.
Earnings
It is not found a true model that explains the expected earnings, but after various searches, I can say that along great lines it is applied the same concept of TripAdvisor.
Highlights
Offers white label solutions to offer flight searches on your own website
One of the most popular travel affiliate programs APIs
Flight booking widget for your site sidebar
Supports flight, hotel, and car rental reservations directly from your site
9 - Airbnb Credit Accumulation Program
Airbnb Credit Accumulation Program
Airbnb offers a program called Referral, where instead of earning money, you earn points (or other non-monetary values) that you can use to purchase products on the same network. As you earn money, you can redeem it for AirBnB services.
Earnings
Invite your friends to Airbnb via email or share your invitation code on Facebook or Twitter.
If you send a friend $25 in Airbnb credit, you'll receive $15 when they travel and $65 when they host a guest. For more details, I refer you to the official Airbnb Terms and Conditions link.
Highlights
Easy to share the referral link to get credits
Well-known brand in the travel industry
Good earning potential
Comments