Top 14 Travel Affiliate Programs For Super Affiliates

 

 

If you plan to start an affiliate marketing business you need to do an in-depth research before you choose a niche for your future business.

Some niches can be very hard to monetize while others are not. In general, it depends on the approach to your business and your skills.

When it comes to travel business which includes, hotel booking, air tickets, car rentals, cruise tickets, events, business travel, tours, vacations and more.

It’s one of the most selling type of products/services online. Because people always travel and want to make the process easier and enjoy their time.

I had travel website many years ago and made some money promoting travel deals through my website AboutTrip.com. It was many year ago, in 2000.

 

 

So, I know this business is profitable. If you plan to start an affiliate website in a travel niche, it’s a good idea.

There are many solid and established websites in this niche and there is a good money to be made here.

Actually, you don’t need any specific skills or knowledge. Just sign up for affiliate travel program/s, take the material provided by the website and use it on your affiliate website.

But you need to create a lot of interesting content on different topics about hotels, travel deals, travel guides, city guides, places to visit etc.

This includes a lot of hard work because you need to create a really informative and beautiful online resource that people will want to visit again and again.

Especially today, this business can be a lucrative way to earn an income if aside from blog you can also create a video channel on Youtube.

This will increase your conversions significantly. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth 10,000 words.

If you can travel and show people great place to visit, such as hotels, places, tours, tips, shops, restaurants etc that would be a great value for your vlog.

If you can’t travel it’s not a big problem. You can do a lot of research online, watch videos and describe beautiful places on your blog and add beautiful images.

 

 

 

How to Sign up for Travel Affiliate Programs?

Signing up as an affiliate to travel programs doesn’t cost anything. It’s free. You will get all affiliate links, travel search engine scripts in your affiliate admin panel.

You can use any of them on your website aside from content. Content must be original and created by you.

You can’t copy content from another website, either affiliate or travel website, such as Expedia or Hotels.com.

Your account will be terminated then and you will lose all your affiliate commissions. Each merchant has its own policies and regulations to meet.

Some programs have direct affiliate program, such as Expedia.com or Hotels.com. You sign up directly on their website.

Other travel sites send you to other affiliate networks to sign up for their affiliate program, such as CJ.com or ShareaSale.com, Rakuten.com.

 

 

How Can You Earn Money From Travel Sites?

As explained above, after signing up for travel affiliate programs you will need to get approved by your merchant.

Sometimes they can disapprove your application for a number of reasons, such as:

• Not enough traffic on your website
• Not enough content on your website

That’s why it’s highly recommended to sign up for programs only when you have some content on your website, at least 100 blog posts that generate at least 300-500 visits a day.

I believe big websites, such as Expedia or Orbitz will not accept small low traffic websites.

Small merchant websites can accept and usually they pay higher commissions to affiliates.

BTW, all travel sites have different commission rates, from 3% up to 70%.

 

 

Earning Money through Affiliate and CPA Marketing

If you choose a gravel blog you can promote not only affiliate offers by signing up to travel websites you can also sign up for CPA offers through CPA networks.

In affiliate marketing you get paid only for making real sales through your affiliate website.

Your visitor must complete his purchase/booking action, such as booking a hotel or air ticket for which you will earn your affiliate commission from the merchant website, such as Expedia.

When it comes to CPA marketing, you sign up for CPA network program, such as MaxBounty and promote travel offers, CPA (cost per action).

Some offers are totally sale free which means you don’t even need to make a sale.

 

 

Just send someone to the merchant website and if your visitor completes their account set up you will get paid from $1.5 up to $16 per lead.

You can even promote journal or ebooks on your website and sell those products through affiliate links.

This makes travel niche even more attractive and lucrative affiliate business.

Most travel websites pay affiliates either via a bank account or check. The downside of being paid by check is that not all banks accept checks.

Another downside of check system is that even after accepting your check most banks need at least one month to pay off your check.

 

 

How to Find Travel Affiliate Programs?

There are several ways you can find and sign up for travel affiliate programs online.

On the Merchant website you can almost always find affiliate or partner program and complete the sign up process.

You can google any program by adding “affiliate program” to your desired program. For example, by typing “Expedia Affiliate Program” you can easily find the program and sign up using Google or Yahoo search.

You can search for affiliate programs through other affiliate networks, such as Rakuten.com, Shareasale.com, CJ.com.

Remember, when you sign up with programs like Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Booking.com, Orbitz.com, you will be provided with lots of tools that will allow to integrate their sites into your affiliate website.

You will have plugins, search boxes, banner ads, images etc. This will definitely increase your affiliate earnings. I know it firsthand.

 

 

Most Popular Travel Agencies

• Expedia.com
• Halalbooking.com
• Orbitz.com
• Hotels.com
• Hotelscombined.com
• Booking.com
• TripAdvisor.com
• Priceline.com
• Agoda.com
• CruisesDirect.com
• Trivago.com
• Travelpayouts.com
• Trip.com
• Travelocity.com

 

 

 

Expedia

Expedia.com is one of the oldest and most popular travel websites that has been in a travel business for many years.

It’s absolutely legit program that pays affiliate commissions timely. The commission rate is up to 11%. But it’s not fixed rate. It varies from 3% up to 11%.

Create your free affiliate account here. Expedia will review and inform you if your application approved or rejected.

Even if it is rejected you can apply for the program later again.

 

• Commission rate (Vacation packages) – from 3% to 5%
• Commission rate (Hotel deals) – from 3% to 11%
• Car rental – 6%
• Payment – Bank account
• Cookie – Unknown

 

 

 

 

Halalbooking

Halalbooking.com is a new travel agency but partnered with Expedia.com. Halalbooking is headquartered in London.

It was created mainly to meet the demands of religious people (muslims) and give them an opportunity to travel, have a rest within islamic norms and regulations.

This can include alcohol-free areas, halal food or privacy areas for muslim women.

The website is functioning in different languages, such as Arabic, English, German, French and Turkish languages.

It’s a great idea to promote such a service because there are millions of muslims that want to travel following Islamic norms and regulations.

It’s huge market and demand. You can sign up here.

 

• Commission rate – unknown
• Payment – Bank account or Paypal
• Cookie – unknown

 

 

 

 

Orbitz.com

Orbitz.com is also one of oldest and largest travel websites owned by Orbitz Worldwide headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

The company was founded in 2001. Orbitz.com gets 60 million unique visitors online per month and has 260.000 bookable properties worldwide.

Other travel sites can hardly compete with Orbitz. The website engine provides a huge selection of hotel, travel deals worldwide, as well as air tickets, vacation packages, cars, vacation rentals, cruise deals.

You can join Orbitz affiliate program here. You can sign up for Orbitz affiliate program through CJ.com network. Commission rate is up to 5%.

 

• Sign up – CJ.com network
• Commission rate – 5%
• Payment – Bank account

 

 

 

 

Hotels.com

Hotels.com is like Orbitz, one of the oldest and largest networks functioning in 34 languages and through 85 websites.

One of the websites I was affiliated with in 2000, Travelnow.com was shut down. But this didn’t impact the company at all.

It’s the largest provider of hotel and travel deals. It was established in 1991 in Dallas, Texas.

You can sign up for Hotels.com affiliate program through CJ.com network. Hotels.com pays affiliate as follows:

 

• Commission rate – 4%
• Payment – Bank account or check
• Cookie time – 7 days

 

 

 

Hotelscombined

Hotelscombined.com is the world’s leading hotel comparison website established since 2005 and headquartered in Sydney, Australia.

The website operates in 42 languages, in 130 currencies and powered by Booking.com, Expedia.com, Agoda.com, Hilton.com, Hotels.com.

They guarantee you the best hotel price and even will refund the difference if Hotelscombined price appears to be higher than on other travel sites.

The affiliate program used to be with Commission Junction but was deactivated in April 2020.

Now Hotelscombined affiliate programs can be done through Kayak affiliate network.

 

• Commission rate – up to $2 per lead
• Payment – Bank account or Paypal
• Cookie time – 365 days

 

 

 

 

 

Booking.com

Booking.com is a big online travel agency headquartered in Amsterdam and founded in 1996.

In 2005 it was purchased by Priceline agency and later was partnered with Active Hotels.

The agency is now owned and operated by Booking Holdings. It is operated in 43 languages. You can sign up for Booking.com affiliate program here.

Booking.com has an excellent customizable engine that will be beautifully integrated into your affiliate website and your visitors will NOT even notice any difference between your website and Booking.com.

Even after clicking on your affiliate link and leaving your website they will not feel that they left your website.

Because Booking.com website will be fully integrated into your affiliate website.

This is a huge advantage that very few travel sites provide to their affiliates.

 

• Commission rate – from 4% up to 40%
• Payment – Bank account or Paypal
• Cookie time – unknown

 

 

 

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor.com is done of the oldest American travel agencies operating since 2000 and headquartered in Massachusetts, USA.

The website provides services, such as hotel and light booking, vacation rental and restaurant reservation, guide books.

The website operates in 28 languages and gets thousands and thousands of visits daily. It’s a very well established travel website.

You can sign up as an affiliate here. Like other major travel sites Tripadvisor provides an excellent service and tools for affiliates to help them get higher conversions.

 

• Commission rate – 50%
• Payment – Bank account
• Cookie time – 14 days

 

 

 

 

PriceLine

Priceline.com is another big travel agency headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, United States.

The website is owned by Booking Holdings that owns Kayak.com, Booking.com.

So, the website is in fact an oldest travel agency for hotels and flight reservations.

When it comes to the affiliate opportunity, it is not so great because Priceline offers only 3% commission.

But it’s still a good opportunity because the agency is big and very well known in online space.

You can sign up through Commission Junction.

 

• Commission rate – 3%
• Payment – Bank account
• Cookie time – 30 days

 

 

 

 

Agoda

Agoda.com is a comparatively new travel agency founded in 2005. It is headquartered in Singapore and subsidiary of Booking Holdings.

Agoda is for hotel reservations, vacation rentals, flight and airport transfers. In 2007 Agoda travel agency was acquired by Booking Holdings.

The site operates in 39 languages. You can also rent apartments and houses with Agoda.

Agoda affiliate program provides free tools for you to boost your sales and earn fat affiliate checks. You can sign up here.

 

• Commission rate – from 4% up to 7%
• Payment – Bank account, check
• Cookie time – 30 days

 

 

 

 

CruisesDirect

CruisesDirect.com is travel agency for booking cruises worldwide at great discount rates. Cruise packages are different, from 3 to 7 days long.

It’s a specific type of service that can make you a lot of money through an affiliate program. You can create your affiliate account here.

BTW, CruisesDirect has now become CruisesInternational.com. You can book river cruises, cruise voyages, hotels, land vacations.

 

• Commission rate – 3%
• Payment – Bank account, check
• Cookie time – 45 days

 

 

 

 

Trivago

Trivago.com is a travel agency that has been in a travel business for many years now.

They cancelled the affiliate program in 2018. If you want to earn with Trivago.com you can do it through Hotels.com.

Create your affiliate account here.

 

• Commission rate – 5%
• Payment – Bank account, check
• Cookie time – 7 days

 

 

 

 

Travelpayouts

Travelpayouts.com is one of the most popular travel CPA affiliate networks since 2011.

You can earn by promoting hotels, car rental, flight and many other CPA affiliate offers.

Travelpayouts provides its affiliates with advanced promo tools to help them make more sales.

You can even gain knowledge and experience from Travelpayouts webinars, free case studies.

Affiliate account can be created here.

 

• Commission rate – from 5% to 70%
• Payment – Bank account, check, Paypal
• Cookie time – 30 days

 

You can also promote CPA offers from the following brands:

• CheapOair.com (cookie 30 days)
• Tripadvisor.com (cookie 14 days)
• Oyohotels.com (cookie 30 days)
• Rentalcars.com (cookie 30 days)
• Vrbo.com (cookie 7 days)
• TourRadar.com (cookie 90 days)
• HolidayTaxis.com (cookie 30 days)
• Trip.com (cookie 30 days)
• AirHelp.com (cookie 45 days)
• Trainline.com (cookie 30 days)
• Kiwi.com (cookie 30 days)
• AGoda.com (cookie 1 day)
• Hotellook.com (cookie 30 days)
• Hostelworld.com (cookie 30 days)
• Booking.com (cookie one session)

 

 

 

 

 

Trip.com

Trip.com is an international travel agency providing booking services, such as hotel reservation, booking flights, car rentals, airport transfers, tours, train trips.

The site operates in 19 languages and offers hotels in 200 countries. The company is headquartered in Shanghai, China. You can join as an affiliate here.

Trip.com provides its affiliates with analytics tools and reports, customizable tools, such as deeplinks, static and dynamic banners, search boxes, co-branding and more.

 

• Commission rate – Up to 7%
• Payment – Bank account
• Cookie time – 30 days

 

 

 

 

Travelocity

Travelocity.com is a travel agency owned by Expedia.com. Travelocity was established in 1995 and many years later was purchased by Expedia for $280 million.

Travelocity today is one of the largest travel sites providing services for booking vacation, hotels, cars, flights, cruises.

It operates in Spanish and English languages. The affiliate sign up can be done through Commission Junction.

 

• Commission rate – Up to 4%
• Payment – Bank account
• Cookie time – 45 days

 

 

Which Travel Affiliate Program to Choose?

My final recommendation regarding choosing a travel affiliate program is that main points to pay attention to when choosing a program are Cookie time and commission rate.

Because the higher the commission rate the easier will be for you to become profitable with your affiliate campaigns.

It’s always better to promote a hotel booking with commission rate 20% vs 5%.

The your commission rate is low you need to bring a lot of traffic to your website to become profitable.

With a high commission rate you can earn way more and faster as an affiliate.

When it comes to cookie time it is also important. Cookie time that last 24 hours is the worst one like Amazon because you are going to lose lots of commission.

Fortunately, in a travel business there are many big travel agencies like Hotels.com, Hotelscombined.com, Agoda, Halalbooking.com, Priceline.com that pay high commissions and provide a great cookie time.

 

 

Where to Start Your Travel Affiliate Website?

If you don’t know where to start your first travel affiliate blog allow me to recommend you two my favorite programs I have been a member of for a number of years.

Both programs are absolutely legit, have many positive reviews online and provide both high quality training on affiliate marketing aka blogging and a ton of tools to help you achieve your success online asap.

Both programs are absolutely affordable and teach actionable material.

 

My Top Recommended Programs

    Program # 1 – Wealthy Affiliate

  Program # 2 – Income School