Do you want to turn your passion for travel into a thriving online business? Whether you’re a solo explorer, mountain adventurer, family RV enthusiast, or a lover of luxury hotels, there’s a niche for every travel blogger and website. Let’s look at the 20 Best Affiliate Programs for Travel Sites so you can fund your adventures…
What is Travelpayouts?
Travelpayouts is an affiliate network that manages a wide variety of affiliate programs all in one place. You can easily organize your affiliate links, and payments and keep up-to-date with the programs you’ve joined. For this post, we’re looking at my pick of the best travel programs on offer at Travelpayouts.
20 Best Affiliate Programs for Travel Sites at TravelPayouts
1. GetYourGuide
GetYourGuide is a popular platform for booking fun tours and experiences around the world. Did you know 92% of Americans would rather receive experiences than physical gifts during the holiday season!
From adventure to culture to bucket-list experiences. You can offer your audience Catamaran Sailing on the Costa Brava, Whale Watching Cruise in Alaska, an Island Tour of Martha’s Vineyard, a Hot Air Balloon sunrise ride at Turkey’s Cappadocia, and lots more!
GetYourGuide offers you access to their widgets, deep link generators, text links, and banners.
- 8% commission
- 31 days cookie time
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, not the app.
2. Viator
Viator is another leading platform for booking worldwide tours, activities, and attractions. They offer more locations than GetYourGuide. They offer reserve now, pay later payment options.
Viator also provides banners, widgets, a deep link generator, and text links to promote their products.
- 8% commission
- 30 days cookie time
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, not the app.
Viator’s Popular Warm Destinations
3. Rentalcars.com
It’s easy to write about the benefits of hiring a car. A car gives travelers the flexibility to venture off the beaten track for a more unique experience.
From SUVs for off-road escapades or a fuel-efficient hybrid for eco-conscious exploring. They can stop at that gorgeous mountain village and hike in the hills. A rental car gives them the freedom to chase sunsets!
RentalCars.com is part of the Booking.com stable of travel companies. They compare prices across a wide variety of car rental providers.
RentalCars.com provides banners, widgets, a deep link generator, and text links to promote their service. Add car rental to the resources page of your site.
- 6% commission
- 30 days cookie time
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, not the app.
4. DiscoverCars
DiscoverCars is another car rental service that compares prices from different providers and offers the best deals. They score a lot higher in Trustpilot than Rentalcars.
Discover Cars provides you with banners, widgets, a deep link generator, and text links to promote their service.
- Your commission is a percentage of the revenue that DiscoverCars receives from car rental agencies.
- The cookie time is 365 days!
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, not the app.
5. Booking.com
Booking.com is the largest booking engine and a popular name in the travel industry.
Their extensive range includes budget, economy, and luxury hotels, apartments, and vacation homes. For unique stays how about promoting tiny houses, castles, underground hotels, and treehouses?
Their Genius Loyalty Program is very popular and worth promoting since it’s easy for travelers to move up the levels. The higher levels offer more discounts, free breakfasts and upgrades, etc.
Booking.com provides banners, widgets, a deep link generator, and text links to promote their service.
- 4% commission
- 1 session cookie time
- Desktop and mobile versions of the website, including the app.
6. Agoda
Agoda is popular in Asia and Oceania and is also a member of the Booking.com stable of travel companies. Agoda unlocks deals at hotels, vacation homes, apartments, budget hotels, and luxury stays. Although Booking.com is more global, Agoda offers a higher commission and longer cookie time.
- 6% commission
- 1 day cookie time
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, including the app.
7. HostelWorld
HostelWorld is a platform for finding and booking hostels and budget accommodations in 178 countries. Targeting young customers and travelers who want to stretch their money further. This is a nice fit with the budget-friendly WayAway (see Number 10).
They provide you with banners, widgets, a deep link generator, and links to promote their hostels.
- 5-7% commission
- 30 days cookie time
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, not the app.
8. Ekta Insurance
Insurance is a great travel resource to promote with high commissions and lots of reasons why it’s important to purchase before a trip.
On a personal note, I suffered from a lung infection on a South Pacific cruise and the cost of visiting the doctor and a scan was $888. Luckily I was insured!
Ekta offers travel insurance with competitive prices and a high level of service. People don’t usually cancel their travel insurance so it’s usually a sure sale! Add this to your resources page.
Aimed at a global customer base with multilingual technical support chat 24/7. They provide a deep link generator, banners, and text links to promote their product.
- 20% commission
- 30 days cookie time
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, not the app.
9. Radical Storage
Radical Storage provides travelers with handy luggage storage locations in over 70 countries and 500 cities with over 5000 storage points.
Super helpful for travelers when they’re on the move. For example, they’re spending a sightseeing day in Rome before catching a train that night.
They provide a deep link generator, banners, and text links to promote their storage points.
- 8% commission
- 30 days cookie time
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, not the app.
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10. Wayaway
Wayaway is a flight ticket aggregator with a membership plan offering 24/7 travel support and up to 10% cashback on tickets, tours, hotels, and more.
Cashback sites are growing in popularity as travelers look to save money. Check the payment details at Travelpayouts as they’re quite specific.
- 1.1-1.3% commission
- 30 days cookie time
- $10 fixed reward for Wayaway Plus sale
- COOKIE LIFETIME APP 180 days
11. Tiqets
Tiqets is an innovative ticketing platform that allows visitors to easily discover, purchase, and use tickets for museums, shows, cultural experiences, and attractions.
Tiqets is an ideal affiliate program if you blog about ‘things to do’ in your region of expertise.
For example, the Amsterdam Light Festival in winter; the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco with an aquarium, planetarium, rainforest, and a natural history museum; Singapore’s botanical wonderland, Gardens by the Bay.
- 8% commission
- 30 days cookie time
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, not the app.
12. Airalo
Perfect for travel! With Airalo, travelers can choose from a wide range of digital eSIMs for over 200 countries and regions, selecting the data amount, validity period, and location that best suits their needs. No more plastic SIM cards!
Travelers can easily top up or switch out their eSIM data plans in less than five minutes. This is an easy product to promote to your audience.
- 12%
- 30 days cookie time
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, including the app.
13. CheapOair
CheapOair provides great deals on airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, and vacation packages through its extensive partnerships with top travel brands.
They offer text links, widgets, and banners.
- $30 per sale of vacation packages;
- $19 per hotel bookings;
- $10 per sale of flight ticket;
- $7 per price of car rental.
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, not the app.
14. SuperTravel
SuperTravel provides great travel deals over SMS, Messenger, and WhatsApp. This service was originally called SnapTravel.
- 5% commission
- 7 days cookie time
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, not the app.
15. HolidayTaxis
HolidayTaxis offers airport transfers in over 21,000 resorts in cities throughout 150 countries. The service provides highly reliable vehicles at a great value, with vehicle types to suit every budget and party size, from shuttles to private taxis to large coaches.
- 10% commission
- 30 days cookie time
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, not the app.
16. BikesBooking
Perfect for blogging! This is a unique offering with vespas, Harley Davidsons, mountain bikes and a wide range of motorcycles, scooters, quads and bicycles all around the world.
BikesBooking is an online booking portal that compares the prices of 950 rental companies from over 40 countries. 50,000 vehicles are available for booking in more than 2,000 locations around the world.
Text links, banners, deep links, and widgets are on offer.
- 4% commission
- 30 days cookie time
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, not the app.
17. Busbud
Busbud is an online bus booking platform that has compiled the world’s largest selection of bus tickets in over 80 countries.
Travelers can find the cheapest tickets and the trips with the shortest durations. Many global currencies are accepted. Text links and banners are offered.
- 6% commission
- 7 days cookie time
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, not the app.
18. GetTransfer
Hire a private driver, or even a helicopter or airplane to get you where you need to go! GetTransfer.com is a booking service for transfers and car rentals with a personal driver at the best prices. Any city or country and all cars are new (not older than 5 years old).
Banners, text links, and widgets are offered.
- 7% commission
- 30 days cookie time
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, including the app.
19. EatWith
Another great option for bloggers. Get to know the locals and enjoy a meal at their place. EatWith connects travelers with hosts in over 130 countries. Here’s what they say:
“Each of our hosts is hand-selected by our team, with a diversity of culinary experiences – from a dinner party in an elegant Parisian home to an Italian feast with a Roman family, an authentic cooking class in Tokyo, or marveling at the Manhattan skyline over a rooftop brunch!”
You’re sure to find an experience and budget that your audience will love. Banners, text links, and widgets are on offer.
- 8% commission
- 30 days cookie time
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, not the app.
20. Priority Pass
Priority Pass provides frequent travelers with lounge access in over 1500+ airport lounges worldwide. Priority Pass Members can now also benefit from free WIFI and airport dining, retail, and spa discounts.
Priority Pass also provides you with banners, widgets, and landing pages to promote their service. You could also promote this with round-the-world airfares for travelers who are visiting many airports.
- 10% commission
- 30 days cookie time
- The desktop and mobile versions of the website, not the app.
Insiders Tips – Find Your Perfect Match
Choosing the right affiliate program is crucial. So, Let’s look at the essential factors to consider that maximize revenue and align with your blogging goals.
Sales Attribution
Travelpayouts lets you know in the ‘About’ section of each merchant’s information where your sales will be counted. Here’s the information for Airalo global SIM cards. It’s great to see sales in the app because that’s not common.
Tip: Both Booking.com and Agoda offer commissions on sales made in the App. Great news because a lot of hotel bookings are made in their apps.
According to Travel Weekly in the year 2022 40% of total travel bookings were made via the Booking.com app (source). That number is growing.
Your Commission
This is the percentage of the sales that you earn if a visitor makes a purchase from the merchant after clicking on the affiliate link on your site.
The higher the commission rate, the more money you make. Travel commissions tend to sit in the low range, 1-6%. But some, like Viator, are 8% and HolidayTaxis is 10%. Airalo digital SIM card commission is 12%!
Tip: In some cases, like Booking.com, you make a percentage of the commission that Booking.com makes. So make sure the commission listed is yours and not the merchant’s.
What are Cookie Times?
This is the amount of time that a cookie remains on a visitor’s computer after they click on the affiliate link. The longer the cookie time, the more likely it is that the visitor will purchase from the merchant. Even if they don’t make the purchase immediately.
It’s easy to focus on the commission and not the cookie time. But do this at your peril! I’ve found, especially with accommodation, that a longer cookie time is important.
Cookie times can vary from 1 hour to 24 hours to 30 days and beyond. I’m always looking for long cookie times!
Booking.com’s cookie time is only 1 session – that’s short! So if the person clicks through my link, goes away, and returns to Booking.com – I’ve lost that commission.
Products and Services that Fit Your Site
Choose products and services that help your audience and align with your content. If you’re writing about luxury travel, consider luxury hotel brands like IHG, Hilton, and Four Seasons. These can be booked through Booking.com, Trivago, and Agoda.
The Hilton Honors Loyalty Program is connected to the Points.com program on Travelpayouts. You can promote this to your audience so they can buy more points.
Vacation Rentals
VRBO Vacation rentals are popular for families and couples. They offer an eclectic range from tiny houses to castles! The cookie time is 7 days, but a low commission of 1.8%.
Budget Travel
If you’re targeting travelers who don’t want to spend a lot of money then budget hotels and backpacker hostels can be booked at Hostelworld.
You can also find budget hotels on Booking.com, Agoda, Trip.com, and CheapOair at Travelpayouts.
Merchant Support
If you have any questions or problems then Travelpayouts has a Help Center with useful articles, how-tos, and answers to popular questions. Their chat service isn’t instant but they reply in a few hours.
Trackability
Tracking and analyzing your links and content is vital in affiliate marketing.
You can attach a trackable link, e.g. a name or number, to the affiliate link you’re given. So you can track individual links. This means you see the number of clicks, and what links make money and which ones don’t.
I also cloak and track my links with a WordPress plugin called Pretty Links. I can see where my audience is located, what links are popular, and the number of clicks. You can also see a graph of the clicks over time, which is a great visual of the link performances.
Read the Program’s Terms and Conditions
This is very important since each merchant has different rules.
This can include whether you’re allowed to cloak links and the rules around promotion on social media and paid ads.
For example, I’m also a member of the Amazon Affiliate Program, and they don’t allow link cloaking.
Expert Tips for Success
- Do your research: Before you sign up for any affiliate programs, take some time to research the different merchants and programs that are available. Read reviews from other affiliates and compare the terms and conditions of different programs.
- Start small: Don’t sign up for too many affiliate programs at once. Start with a few programs that you’re familiar with and that you think are a good fit for your audience.
- Choose your links: I recommend you try a combination of widgets, banners, and deep-text links to see what works for you. I find deep-text links are the most successful. These connect directly to a product or service, e.g. The Ritz Hotel in London, rather than a home page.
- Travelpayouts offers a Google Chrome Extension that pops up with your affiliate deep link when you’re on a merchant’s website. You can add your own tracking code too. Saving you a lot of time with a quick copy and paste.
- Promote your links: Once you’ve signed up for some affiliate programs, be sure to promote your links on your blog and social media channels. The more people who click on your links, the more money you’ll make. As I said above be sure to check the rules of the program first.
- Track your results: It’s important to track your results so that you can see how well your affiliate marketing efforts are working. Track your results with the free tools – Google Analytics and Google Console.
Key Takeaways – 20 Best Affiliate Programs for Travel Sites
These 20 best affiliate programs for travel sites offer a wide range of resources in the travel niche, including hotel bookings, flights, travel insurance, activities, bikes, food, and more targeted at a diverse range of travelers. Partnering with these programs helps you monetize your website or blog.
It’s important to know your audience and what they need help with. What are their pain points, what are their desires and dreams? Then target your website content and the products and services you recommend to your targeted audience.
Be their ‘go-to person’. Be their inspiration. As they learn to trust you, they’ll not only click on your affiliate links but (importantly for your business) buy those travel products and services you recommend to them.
