Best hotel affiliate program 2010

A few things to watch for to ensure your influencers have real-world influence:. Perhaps you want to target a particular group, such as female travelers flying solo.

A partnership with her could help grow this niche guest base. Blogs with backlinks links from outside websites demonstrate the affiliate is growing their organic website traffic and building credibility with readers—which bodes well for driving those readers to your hotel website.

You can use tools like Ahrefs to see all the websites linking to a particular blogger. The Professional Travel Bloggers Association makes it easy with a section designed for hotels and other travel industry businesses looking for bloggers. There are several major travel media events where you can meet bloggers and influencers face-to-face to find the right match.

Finding the right influencer is just the beginning; you then have to convince them to join your affiliate marketing program. Start by understanding what matters most to your target influencers. This may be:. You can establish an affiliate program directly through your website, which requires an affiliate manager and staff depending on the scope of your program.

Alternatively, you can engage with a third-party network, such as Commission Junction , which is essentially an affiliate program service provider. This helps you access better-quality affiliates. Higher overhead. In-house programs require employees who vet affiliates, oversee content, and ensure payments. And these employees require salaries and benefits. Established programs. Look for reviews from existing customers and data proving results.

As we mentioned, affiliate programs are fairly low-maintenance once they are up and running. But you need to have the right tools to get the program going. You will need the right technology platform for your hotel program tying-in analytics to commissions.

Many eCommerce platforms have affiliate functionality, and if not, there are plugins or third-party network providers. Some common terms include:.

Using hotel services or brand specifically for the affiliate marketing agreement and not for any unrelated commercial purposes. Cookie length in the hotel industry averages 30 days.

Your affiliates need to have content, links, banner ads, images, and other material to use in their blogging and social media activity. You can provide these via a secure, password-protected section of your website or send in a. Key performance indicators to track to ensure your affiliate marketing program is worth the effort and cost:.

This is a great way to see which links, ads, and creative content on affiliate blogs or social media accounts are working and which are not. The term refers to the regularity an asset is clicked-on by a user, calculated by clicks divided by the number of times the ad is shown. How much are you paying for website traffic? Calculated as the number of sales divided by the number of clicks, this can help shed light on which creative content, offers, and affiliates are most effective.

A good rule of thumb is to shoot for at least 10 percent of affiliate traffic resulting in actual bookings. Speaking of actual bookings This revenue will determine the overall effectiveness of your affiliate marketing, and help you decide whether to pour more resources into the program or scale-back. Whether you build an affiliate program in-house or use a third-party service, let this guide help you target your goals, track your success, and make adjustments where needed.

Ready for more tips that drive bookings and increase revenue? Check out our free Ultimate Guide to Digital Marketing for more insights and best practices. Affiliates earn If you would like to earn money by referring hotel bookings from your website or other communication channels to IHG HomeAway Affiliate Program: Overview HomeAway is an online search and lodging booking site offering customers the ability to find and reserve homes, apartments, vacation rentals, beach houses, and more.

The platform facilitates listings for property owners — this platform includes more than 2 million properties in more than countries The massive travel industry and online promotions have created quite an opportunity for those offering hotel affiliate programs through their sites.

One of the best ways to make money with a travel site is through hotel offers and promotions. It is a given weary traveler will turn to hotels and accommodations. Business and leisure travel is the top segments of this market. People flock to the Web to find hotel recommendations, pricing, and booking services.

A well-positioned travel blog, using local expertise, can monetize by including offers found through hotel programs. Then already you know the demand. Bloggers across all niche markets have the opportunity to promote hotel affiliate programs. If your audience intends to visit a destination, then you have a way in with sharing hotel offers.

Who uses hotels? Business travelers Vacationers Day-trippers Adventurous parties … really, anyone needing a place to post up for the night. Hotel chains are bigger than you may think. The hotel industry is quick to buy-out smaller companies to expand their portfolio; this has created a wonderful opportunity to promote hotel offers anywhere your site visitors may go. The Hotel Market: By the Numbers The ability to mix and match promotions make hotel affiliate programs such a delight.

Talking about a sporting event? Sharing travel itinerary? Another opportunity. There are endless ways to include hotel offers on your site if you have the least bit of travel included. How big is the hotel market? Look at how often social users add holiday, trip, explore, and tourist to get a glimpse of travels and hotel stays.

Why Promote Hotel Affiliate Programs Besides the inherent need for a place to stay, there are several added opportunities when promoting hotel programs: Seasonal promos Holiday travel Big events General travel Loyalty programs All-in-one packages Local partnerships Sites like TripAdvisor do so well because they share unique experiences and stories.

There is a sliding scale of commissions depending on the number of bookings you refer in a month … 4. If you have, or can drive, worldwide traffic, Agoda may be a good fit. They have a number of tools available to assist affiliates … Hotel Data File — Customize the experience for your visitors. Deep linking allows you to create a link to a specific hotel, or other target at Agoda. Search Form. Install an Agoda search form in your sidebar or content.

Lots of banners and other pre-made displays to start with. They run a very popular affiliate program with lots of tools for making money with Booking.

The one downside of the booking. The commissions are tiered and all based on a percentage of the commissions that Booking. Expedia Group a monster of a company that controls a large percentage of the travel market. Some of the brands … Hotels. They can book hotels, flights, cruises, rental cars and more.

They are certainly the best known travel booking company so being associate with them can not hurt. The commission plan is based on product categories … Hotel — 5. I have been lured in with the book 10 get one free program. I wait until I have nights free and run away for a weekend getaway. Or I will use the value and book a more expensive resort room at a great discount. Second only to their parent company Expedia.

They have near 10 million monthly visitors. So much for exact keyword domain names being an issue. They do run lots of promotions and specials and are very affiliate focused. Priceline started out as a name-your-own-price site.

You were able to bid on hotel stays and other products. They have stopped offering the bidding service and are now a typical price comparison tools.

Tripadvisor is the starting point for many when they start their travel planning. This includes commerce links and ads. There are accelerators for affiliates with higher volumes. They are the third largest travel broker… The affiliate program is managed by CJ Affiliates.

Did I book those with Expedia or Agoda? Because if I did I would not get my hotel frequent stay points. Unlike airlines, hotels only give loyalty points when you book on their website. In many hotels the best rooms are also reserved for those booking directly on the hotel website. So for Hilton, Marriott etc. Unfortunately Intercontinental Hotels exceeded my work budget — that would be a great business perk.

The Intercontinental Hotel group contains a number of hotel properties. All in all they have over 5, hotels, hosting over million stays per year. Their properties range from the category defining luxury Intercontinental to business and family focused Holiday Inn. This is one of the strengths of the affiliate program — something for everyone.

In general, the hotel affiliate programs are best for high-volume travel and other similar niches. This is double the rate of other programs.