Last updated on November 29th, 2018 at 11:19 am
If you’re a travel blogger who wants to know how to monetize your blog, you’re in the right place. I have researched 9 of the best hotel affiliate program networks that pay great money.
How to Make Money As An Affiliate
More and more people are starting blogs in hopes of changing their current finances. Whether they want to earn a part-time or full-time income, it’s totally possible.
Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to get started. In fact, I’ve put together some of the best affiliate marketing training programs that will help you. It’s not as hard as you think, the most important thing is to get started.
How to Make Money With Hotel Affiliate Networks
If you’re a travel blogger you have the opportunity to earn good money with these networks. The “travel niche” can be a very lucrative niche. In fact, here is a travel blogger that started from scratch and created a six figure blog.
Whenever I write one of these posts, I like to help you brainstorm some potential subniches that you can enter without too much competition. Unfortunately, you’ll always have some competition in a profitable niche market.
But it’s possible to enter the travel niche without targeting an extremely competitive keyword. I currently use KWFinder to help me uncover some low competition keywords, you can read my KWFinder review to see why I love it.
Here are some possible subtopics that get over 2000 searches per month:
- Singles vacations – 5400 searches
- Cheap weekends away – 2900
- Cheap family vacations – 6,627
The best keyword that I found is “singles cruise” which gets over 25,000 searches per month. If you can target getaways or senior travel groups, you should be able to make some great money.
I found all these low competitive keywords with KWFinder. You can get started with it for free, no credit card needed. Grab your 5 FREE searches per month.
9 Best Hotel Affiliate Programs That Will Earn You Money
Let’s take a look at some of the best hotel affiliate programs that will help you start earning from your blog or website. I recommend signing up with 1-2 networks to see which ones convert the best.
Booking.com
Booking.com was established in 1996 in Amsterdam. It has grown from a small Dutch startup company into one of the largest travel e-commerce companies in the world. They employ over 170,000 employees and have over 198 offices in 70 countries worldwide.
Their mission is to empower people to experience the world. They make it easy to connect travelers with the world’s largest selection of places to stay around the world including vacation homes, family-run B&Bs, igloos, apartments, luxury resorts and etc.
People can easily book cheap International flights, set up car rentals or find some great vacation package deals online.
They manage their own affiliate program where affiliates have huge earning potential. The booking.com website is optimized and designed to maximize online bookings.
You get the opportunity to work with the world leader in booking accommodations online. If you have any questions or need support, you can contact their dedicated support team.
The more you book, the more you earn online.
- URL: Get Started With FlexOffers to Start Promoting
- Cookie: Does not use cookies
- Commission: 25%
Why You Should Promote Booking.com
They have the largest selection of accommodations online, with over 2,079,576 properties. People can easily book flights, car rentals, and hotel reservations with ease.
As an affiliate, you have the opportunity to earn 25% from online bookings. More than 1,550,000 rooms are booked every day on the platform.
TripAdvisor
Trip Advisor is one of the largest travel sites with a travel community of 661 million reviews and opinions online.
Travelers use their website to help them where to stay, how to fly, where to eat and what to do. TripAdvistor makes it easy to compare prices from more than 200 hotel booking sites to help you find the lowest prices and the best places to stay.
You can easily do a side by side comparison to find the best travel deals.
The TripAdvisor website averages over 456 million average monthly users, looking to book their next getaway.
Their affiliate program is managed by FlexOffers and Commission Junction. As an affiliate, you’ll have access to real-time reports, creatives and coupons that will help you increase your commissions.
When you become a TripAdvisor affiliate you can make money by deep linking to over 500,000 city and hotel pages. You also get access to a dedicated affiliate manager who wants to help you succeed online.
- URL: Get Started With FlexOffers to Start Promoting
- Cookie: You’ll have to ask when you sign up
- Commission: 50% commissions
Why You Should Promote TripAdvisor
You have the opportunity to earn money with the most trusted travel community. Leverage their brand to help you earn commissions on 500,000 city and hotels.
Expedia
Expedia Group is one of the largest travel platforms that work with some of the most trusted online brands. Some of the brands they work with are Egencia, Travelocity, Hotels.com, Hotwire, HomeAway and more.
Travel agents have direct access to the broadest selection of travel products and services to bring you the best deals.
Website users can easily book their flights, hotels, car rentals, bundle vacation deals and more through this platform.
You can join their referral program and make money with your website traffic. They are the number one online travel agency with over 60 million unique visitors per month.
They averaged over $39 billion in gross online booking in 2103. That number is just expected to grow as more people move to online travel bookings for vacation deals.
- URL: Get Started With Expedia
- Cookie: Not sure, you’ll have to ask when you sign up
- Commission: up to 24% depending on the package
Why You Should Promote Expedia
FlexOffers has everything you need to succeed as an affiliate marketer. You have the opportunity to earn 4.8% on hotel stays, 4% on car rentals, and 24% on package vacation deals. The Expedia affiliate commission rates are some of the most competitive online.
Millions of people are booking their vacation deals online in hopes of saving money. You won’t have a hard time making money. You can also access the Expedia API to help you earn commissions online.
Agoda
Agoda is your best friend in travel. They make it easy for travelers to find get the best value for their money, by providing the most trusted information and real guest reviews on over 2 million hotels, vacation rentals, resorts, and more.
They guarantee that you’ll find the lowest prices on their website, or they will match or refund the difference. Over 100 million travelers worldwide use Agoda to book their hotels, flights and airport transport.
The website offers some of the top deals on the most popular destinations worldwide.
They manage their own affiliate program and manually review every application. You’ll have better luck getting accepted if your website or blog has to do with the travel industry.
Partners have an opportunity to earn 5% commissions for every booking made through your link. Each $200 booking will earn you $10 in commissions.
- URL: https://partners.agoda.com/index.htm
- Cookie: You’ll have to ask when you apply
- Commission: 5%
Why You Should Promote Agoda
The more bookings that you make, the more you earn. Start at 5% with the potential to earn 7%.
Trivago
Trivago makes it easy to compare prices from different websites. With a few clicks, you can compare more than 400 booking sites on over 1 million hotels in over 150 countries.
Their website averages over 1.4 billion visitors annually. Travelers use this website to utilize the hotel comparison to find the best deals.
With over 700, 000 accommodation listings, it has quickly become one of the fastest online booking websites, that makes it easy for travelers to save on their hotel destinations.
The Trivago affiliate program allows publishers to monetize their website or blog and earn commissions based on a per click-out basis.
This means that when your visitors visit the Trivago website they will be redirected to a partner site to make their bookings. You earn $0.43 per click out made from your unique affiliate link.
They only approve applicants that have websites with large traffic volumes. Their per click payout may not seem like a lot, but many affiliates have been able to transform this business model into a gold mine.
- URL: https://aff.expert/nz/trivago-affiliate-program
- Cookie: You’ll have to ask when you enroll
- Commission: $0.43 per click out
Why You Should Promote Trivago
They rank as one of the top players in hotel cost aggregator websites, if you can drive traffic to their website, you won’t have a hard time creating conversions.
Their website is optimized for conversions and all you have to do is get your visitors to their site. You don’t have to worry about selling anything to earn a commission.
Orbitz
Orbitz is the perfect hotel booking affiliate program if you are a travel blogger. They offer some of the best deals on hotels, cruizes, package deals, car rentals, and more.
If you love to travel, Orbitz makes it easy to book your travels online. When you book online with Orbitz, you automatically qualify for the Orbitz Rewards loyalty program.
It is the only program where customers can earn rewards immediately after signing up. You can redeem your rewards to tens of thousands of hotels worldwide.
You can book online on your computer or download their mobile apps and complete your bookings with your smartphone or tablet.
To start promoting this program, you will need to become a CJ affiliate. The Commission Junction affiliate program offers real-time analytics, marketing tools, and an affiliate manager to help you start earning.
Orbitz payout structure is $3.00 (air and car), 3.00% retail hotel, $40.00 on cruises, and 4% packages.
- URL: orbitz.com/p/network-affiliate
- Cookie: You’ll have to ask when you sign up
- Commission: will vary depending on consumed packages
Why You Should Promote Orbitz
When you join the Orbitz affiliate program, you can team up with the number one online travel agencies to earn money from your website or blog.
Leverage their brand to turn your traffic into dollars. They offer some of the highest conversion rates and you earn
Hotels Combined
HotelsCombined makes it easy to book your hotel accommodations online. You can easily find the best deals on their website without being redirected to thousands of other websites.
Their website technology makes it easy to find the lowest prices online, by accessing the top by accessing the price and availability information from top travel sites like Expedia, Booking.com, AccorHotels, Hilton, Agoda and more.
You’ll find some of the lowest prices guaranteed and you can rest assured that you’re covered by their price match guarantee.
If you’re ready to partner with them and join the HotelsCombined affiliate program, you can start earning from your blog traffic.
As an affiliate, you’ll get access to some of the cutting-edge technology just by referring traffic to their website.
They have access to over 1.4 million hotels. Their affiliate structure is based on a pay per lead structure. You earn commissions as soon as a user clicks on one of the compared provider links.
- URL: Sign Up With HotelsCombined Today
- Cookie: You’ll have to ask when you sign up
- Commission: commission based on click
Why You Should Promote Hotels Combined
They have a dedicated affiliate manager who knows what works and what doesn’t. They will help you earn commissions by revealing all their affiliate secrets with you so you can start earning more.
HotelTravelClub.com
HotelTravelClub.com was started to help people save on their travel accommodations. When you become a member you have the opportunity to save up to 50% on 4 or 5-star hotels.
With an HTC membership, customers can browse over 800,000 hotels, in 15 Destinations worldwide. They have been in helping people save on hotels for over 13 years.
As an affiliate, you’ll have the opportunity to earn 20% of every membership that is sold through your unique link.
Plans start at $14.99 per month or $99.99 on annual plans. This is a recurring affiliate program that pays you on every plan renewal.
- URL: Join Hotel Travel Club Affiliate Program
- Cookie: 30 days
- Commission: 20%
Why You Should Promote HotelTravelClub.com
This is one of the few travel affiliate programs that offer recurring commissions. You do the work once and will continue to get paid as long as the person remains a paying customer.
Hilton
Hilton Hotels and Resorts is one of the most recognized names in the industry. They make travel easier by providing their website users with the best deals on your hotel accommodations.
When you join the Hilton Honors program get instant benefits when you book directly through Hilton.
You can earn Hilton Honors Points when you stay at hotels in the Hilton portfolio.
The Hilton affiliate program is managed through the Rakuten affiliate network. In order to get approval as an affiliate, you must have a fully functional website or blog.
As a Rakuten affiliate member, you’ll have access to real-time analytics, creative banners and marketing tools to help you get started.
- URL: https://www.hiltonaffiliates.com/sign-up
- Cookie: 7 days
- Commission: 6%
Why You Should Promote Hilton
The Hilton is a reputable company that travelers know. You can use their brand to monetize your blog or website. If you can drive traffic to the Hilton website, you won’t have any issues converting that traffic into commissions.
How to Get Started
Now that you have a huge list of travel affiliate programs at your fingertips, it’s time to start your blog. I’ve created a step-by-step tutorial on how to install WordPress, in case you still need to do this.
Once have your affiliate travel website set up, it’s time to put your head down and get to work. Here’s what it takes to build a profitable blog.
What It Takes to Succeed Online
Most people make it more difficult than what it really is. Yes, it takes time to build a successful blog that actually earns money. However, if you follow these steps, you will eventually start to see results.
#1 Create Amazing Content
Every blog needs fresh content, especially, if you’re trying to get traffic from Google. Create a blogging schedule that you can live with and publish content on a regular basis.
Your goal is to provide helpful actionable content that people can use and benefit from. Don’t worry, you’ll become a better writer as you continue working on your blog.
#2 Publish Your Content
Once you’ve written your blog posts, it’s time to promote them. I recommend focusing on 1-3 platforms to publish your content, otherwise, you will just end up spinning your wheels.
I’ve put together a blog post that you can use to help you start promoting your content. It’s a helpful checklist that will help you get into a blog promotion routine to help you drive traffic to your blog.
#3 Give It Time
This is the hardest part for all of us because it takes time to start seeing results. Unfortunately, it takes time to start seeing results from your hard work.
If you’re a brand new blogger, it can take 3-6 months to start seeing any traffic to your blog. Especially, if you’re trying to grow your organic traffic.
This is why so many bloggers start with Pinterest because they can get faster results. Whatever you do, make sure that you give yourself enough time to see the results you want.
If you need something to stay motivated during your blogging journey, listen to this podcast to help you understand what it really takes to build a successful blog.
Quick Outline of What You Need to Do:
- Get a specific idea of what you want to promote, as you can see, the travel market can be a profitable niche if you take the time to find a sub-niche without a lot of competition.
- Register your domain name on NameCheap and then head on over to SiteGround to install your self-hosted WordPress blog. Pro Tip: Save money on your hosting by paying for more than one month.
- Don’t spend too much time on the design of your blog. Put your head down and write some amazing helpful content for your audience and focus on promotion.
- Take the time to find low competition keywords that you find with KWFinder.
- It takes time to grow a blog, so keep your head down and rinse and repeat. As long as you’re treating your blog like a business, you will eventually start to see growth.
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