Anyone who travels for any reason needs a place to stay. Hotels, inns, hostels, and similar accommodation options are, therefore, a huge market, attracting millions upon millions of travelers annually.
It’s a huge business that only grows and grows as the years go by, with hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue made on a yearly basis.
This is why hotel affiliate programs are often quite popular with website owners looking to make a good profit. Though commissions aren’t typically very large in terms of percentage, they can be quite lucrative due to the prices of bookings and packages.
Regardless of the size of your following, you’re likely to always find interested people who want ideas for affordable travel options.
It’s relatively easy to market hotels if you’re part of hotel affiliate programs, and there are many programs of this kind available. Which ones are the best?
Read on to see our recommended hotel affiliate programs and some ideas for how to market these products for big sales!
Hotel Affiliate Programs
- Agoda
- Booking.com
- Hotels.com
- Hostelworld
- Intercontinental Hotel Group
- Marriott
- Priceline
- Red Roof Inns
- Travelpayouts
- TripAdvisor
1. Agoda
- Commission Percentage/Value: 3% to 7%, depending on sales
- Cookie Length: Varies
- Link to Program
Agoda is one of the big players in the world of hotel booking and listing sights. Boasting a huge portfolio packed with different properties and locations across the world, it’s a commonly used website for travelers.
Agoda is most popular in Asia thanks to certain exclusive properties in the continent that are only available via Agoda, or are at least much less costly when booked through the platform. As a worldwide website that focuses on offering language support and international support, you could find a profitable outcome here with more than 2 million different properties onsite.
In order to sign up as an Agoda affiliate, you must either be a certified travel agent or have your own website. If you fill either of those criteria, you can sign up, and the site does not discriminate against small vs large presences.
Commission percentages depend on the number of bookings you complete on a monthly basis. If you sell below 50 bookings, you earn a 4% commission, and that scales up in increments until you hit the maximum commission of 7%, which you earn if you successfully general 1000 or more bookings.
All Agoda affiliates gain access to helpful tools that can aid even the least technologically savvy. Banners, deep-links, search forms, and multilingual translations all make the process easier. In addition, all data is trackable via an affiliate dashboard with detailed reports for free, and plenty of support is offered to affiliates throughout the partnership.
Why Agoda?
As a multinational company with a wide reach, Agoda is renowned, so it’s not difficult to find ways to market this site to your audience. The different tiers of commission payouts make the process of marketing and advertising more rewarding and motivating as you go.
2. Booking.com
- Commission Percentage/Value: 25% – 40%, depending on sales
- Cookie Length: Varies
- Link to Program
Another huge player in the industry, Booking.com is a site that has a name that says it all – it provides travelers with a generous list of hotels to choose from when searching for bookings. It’s arguably one of the world’s largest sites to offer such a service. 28 million accommodation listings make this site a traveler’s go-to.
This means that Booking.com’s affiliate program is a pretty popular one, too. As such, it has a specific requirement: after you sign up, you have to register 50 bookings under your sales before you are officially approved. This is likely due to the site actively seeking high traffic and high volume.
If you do get approved, then your commission will differ depending on how many bookings you have made successfully that month. If you book 50 or fewer people, you get a payout of 25%.
This percentage scales up in increments to 40%, which is achieved when you net more than 500 sales for the site. Do note that commission percentages are based on the commissions that Booking.com earns, not the actual value of the property booking.
As an affiliate, you’ll receive access to a number of tools. The first is a special search box that allows your audience to easily look up accommodation destinations from your site. You also receive a WordPress plugin, which is extra helpful for bloggers on that platform, and lots of widgets are also available to add to your site.
There are also the standard promotion tools, like banners, deep-links, and a handy list of promotions and discounts in your region. All your sales are easily tracked via an affiliate dashboard, so it’s easy for you to see your results in this manner.
Why Booking.com?
Like Agoda, Booking.com is a reputable brand with multilingual support that can be used by audiences all over the world. Its selectiveness in approving affiliates means that if you qualify, you’re likely someone with a bigger platform, you join 12,500 other affiliates just as qualified as you are.
3. Hotels.com
- Commission Percentage/Value: 4%, and 1% for gift cards
- Cookie Length: 7 days
- Link to Program
Hotels.com isn’t too far a cry away from the previous two entries on our list. It’s one of the world’s biggest platforms for hotel booking. It attracts customers around the world through its promotions, such as the make 10 bookings, get 1 free, which allows people to eventually avail of a free getaway.
Nearly 10 million visitors head onto the website on a monthly basis, and the site has been around since 1991, though it began under the different name of the Hotel Reservation Network. Its current name started being used in 2001, and thanks to its keyword-friendly domain name, it is virtually synonymous with online bookings.
This may be why the site’s affiliate program is so strict. It boasts one of the shortest cookie spans you’ll find in the industry, which can be discouraging, but a lot of their specials and promotions are focused on their affiliates, which somewhat makes up for it.
If you sign up for the affiliate program and receive approval, you will be able to access programs and inventory with tools that are high-conversion, ranging from banners to widgets and from link generators to tools to create campaigns optimized for your audience.
Reporting on your progress is highly detailed, and an account team dedicated to your partnership is available to offer assistance as necessary.
Why Hotels.com?
Hotels.com has 90 websites localized, meaning it’s easy to promote directly to specific countries, especially with language support for 41 different languages. Hotels.com’s affiliate program is also very highly performing in the market, adding to its credibility, and it can provide you with voucher codes exclusive to affiliates that you can promote.
4. Hostelworld
- Commission Percentage/Value: 40% of total deposit
- Cookie Length: 30 days
- Link to Program
Hostelworld is a site that provides listings specifically for hostels and other similarly priced and owned properties, as opposed to showing off big hotels like the previous entries on this list. Many hostels are family-owned and won’t be found on huge hotel sites, and it’s to Hostelworld that they go for promotion.
Hostels are the go-to budget option for a majority of thrifty travelers who aren’t keen on flashing $100 or more on hotel rooms per night. At just a quarter of that price, hostels offer a less luxurious but still suitable alternative for those who need it.
In some parts of the world, hostels can cost as little as $5 per night, and that’s including wi-fi! This is a great selling point for anyone looking to promote products and earn in return.
Hostelworld has properties in 180 different countries and is suitable for travelers of all kinds, from single travelers to families and from couples to groups (in fact, the maximum reservation possible is for 80 people!).
The affiliate program for Hostelworld is of the cost-per-sale variety, and payment varies depending on how you sign up (whether through affiliate networks or on the site itself).
If you’re accepted, you’ll receive a wide range of tools to aid you in promotion, including widgets, track links, banners, a booking engine, flexible integration, and customer service aid.
Why Hostelworld?
Hostelworld is one of the best hostel booking websites and uses powerful booking technology and a huge inventory of properties including budget hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, campsites, guesthouses, and, of course, the titular hostels. This means that it is both easy to use and easy to promote to a very wide audience, especially given additional multilingual support.
5. Intercontinental Hotel Group
- Commission Percentage/Value: 3%
- Cookie Length: 14 days
- Link to Program
Over 190 million people book stays at more than 5,900 hotels in over 100 countries annually with the Intercontinental Hotel Group. A wide range of hotels geared at families and business travelers alike is available through the group, which offers hotel brands such as Avid, Candlewood Suites, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Hotel Indigo, Intercontinental, and Regent.
Though not as large of a site as some of the others we’ve mentioned, it still offers a good range of hotels, from affordable to luxurious.
The Intercontinental Hotel Group uses an award-winning affiliate program known as PartnerConnect, which claims to treat its affiliates as genuine partners through services, products, and tools that will help you drive traffic to your site and, in turn, theirs. The affiliate program offers a fairly low commission at just 3%, so it’s a good idea for you to only pursue it if you have a good following, to begin with.
Why the Intercontinental Hotel Group?
Regardless of the budget, travel purpose, and preferences of your audience, they are likely to find hotels that they are interested in through this website. The promise of services and assistance that will help your audience grow is also a unique offering.
6. Marriott
- Commission Percentage/Value: 4% to 6% on hotel stays, 3% on vacation packages
- Cookie Length: 7 days
- Link to Program
Virtually everyone has heard of the Marriott, a huge