If you are looking for the best affiliate programs for travel then you have come to the right place! The niche of travel is a highly lucrative space to start a blog in. People travel all over the world every second of the day. According to the FAA, 45,000 flights take off and land every day. And 2.9 million people travel by air every day!
That’s a lot of people buying airline tickets, hotel reservations, and tickets to amusement parks. That is just in air travel alone. How many more people take buses and trains? The total number of travelers per day is enormous.
The potential of succeeding in the travel business, especially through affiliate and internet marketing is huge, to say the least. That is why I have put together a list of the 15 best affiliate programs that people like you can use to monetize your travel blog!
Before we dive into the travel affiliate programs I would like to let you know about an excellent company that I work with called Wealthy Affiliate. This online affiliate marketing community provides you with all the tools necessary to build and grow a successful website in any niche including the art niche.
Wealthy Affiliate is my online business headquarters where my websites are hosted and there’s an entire community of like-minded internet marketers all working together to help each other succeed in their chosen niche. Everything you need to succeed with your online business is all in one place!
So if you are ready to get started in the world of affiliate marketing and ready to start making money online with your own website then click on over to Wealthy Affiliate and get started for free! And if you join for free today I will personally help you start and build your own travel blog and business. No credit card needed!
15 Best Affiliate Programs For Travel
In a hurry? Here is a quick table with the best affiliate programs for travel. If you read on you will learn more about each program.
| Booking.com | Plum Guide |
| Expedia.com | Lonely Planet |
| TripAdvisor | Discover Cars |
| Kayak | Travel Payouts |
| Hotels.com | Sky Auction |
| Tours4Fun | Cruises.com |
| JetBlue Vacations | Viator |
| Agoda |
1. Booking.com
- Affiliate Program: Booking.com
- Cookie Duration: Not Known
- Commission: up to 40%
Booking.com Is one of the best affiliate programs for booking hotel stays around the world. They have over 2.5 million properties around the world with over 29 million bookable rooms. These are not just hotel rooms. With Booking.com you can book an igloo, treehouse, bed, and breakfast, and also trains. Now that’s a lot of options that your customers can choose from.
With their high commission payouts, you’re sure to make big money with Booking.com! They also book around 1.5 million rooms a day. Check out their promotional video below:
2. Expedia.com
- Affiliate Program: Expedia.com
- Cookie Duration: Website Visit
- Commission: up to 6%
Each month 60 million people visit Expedia.com. Wouldn’t you like to get a piece of that action? They list 400 airlines to choose from and 260,000 properties worldwide that can be booked through Expedia. Your customers that use Expedia get to essentially be their own travel agents and make their own traveling plans all on Expedia.
Expedia customers get great discounts on travel and hotels because they negotiate directly with travel suppliers. Customers have said that they sometimes get 50% off their flights and hotel stays. Check out the review of Expedia’s affiliate program below:
3. TripAdvisor
- Affiliate Program: TripAdvisor
- Cookie Duration: 14 Days
- Commission: 50%
TripAdvisor offers a handsome 50% commission on sales which makes it one of the leading affiliate programs in the travel space. The 50% commission is the minimum you will make with TripAdvisor! Think about that one for a moment. There is money to be made with this program!
Customers who click on over to TripAdvisor get to choose from 1.4 million places they can stay. This is one program I highly recommend. Their affiliate program is available on Awin and Cj affiliate networks.
4. Kayak
- Affiliate Program: Kayak
- Cookie Duration: 30 minutes
- Commission: 50%
Kayak is a travel search engine that allows its users to search for the best deals on hotel bookings, flights, and car rentals. With a 50% commission and .95 cents a click you just can’t go wrong partnering with Kayak. Their site gets over 200 million searches per month in 20 different languages. There are over 2 million hotels that you can find with Kayak and they pay out over $76 million a year in ancillary revenue.
5. Hotels.com
- Affiliate Program: Hotels
- Cookie Duration: 7 days
- Commission: 4%
Hotels.com offers hotel accommodations on over 1 million properties in 200 countries. They provide their affiliates with vouchers of discounts that they can offer to their website visitors. Anything from small bed and breakfasts to 5-star resorts can be booked through Hotels.com
6. Tours4Fun
- Affiliate Program: Tours4Fun
- Cookie Duration: Unknown
- Commission: up to 5%
Tours4Fun touts itself as an online travel superstore providing competitively priced vacation destinations for its traveling clientele. The average order through Tours4Fun is $650 with which you get up to a 5% commission if you are one of their affiliates. They have a dedicated affiliate team so you know your questions will be answered.
7. JetBlue Vacations
- Affiliate Program: JetBlue Vacations
- Cookie Duration: 14 Days
- Commission: 2%
JetBlue Vacations offers its customers great deals on vacation packages to over 100 different destinations in the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean. They also offer deals on flights, cars, and hotels. People that click on their site are offered vacation packages that have no cancelation fee. JetBlue’s affiliate program is hosted on the Flexoffers.com affiliate network.
8. Agoda
- Affiliate Program: Agoda
- Cookie Duration: 30 days
- Commission: 5% up to 7%
Agoda was established in 2005 and offers web, app and promos in 38 different languages so no matter where you promote their program around the world you know your prospects will understand the language. They have an affiliate team ready to help you get started promoting Agoda’s hotel and travel deals.
As an affiliate you also get free detailed data reports and a personal dashboard to track your earnings and performance. The more bookings you make in a month the higher your rate of commission is up to 7%.
9. Plum Guide
- Affiliate Program: Plum Guide
- Cookie Duration: 90 days
- Commission: Up to 80% commissions
Plum Guide books beautiful homes that you might not find anywhere else. As a VIP partner you can earn up to 80% commission on bookings. This is one of the most competitive commission rates in the travel industry. They vet all the homes that they book only excepting 3% of homes vetted. As an affiliate with Plum Guide you get a dedicated team of affiliate marketing professionals to help you get started with their program.
You will like that they provide detailed reporting and real time stats on Partnerize affiliate platform. Plum Guide also offers creative solutions to promote their affiliate program.
10. Lonely Planet
- Affiliate Program: Lonely Planet
- Cookie Duration:
- Commission: 15% commission on printed travel guides and e-books
Lonely Planet offers up travel guides and e-books for download. You get a 15% commission on the purchase of these through your affiliate link. Lonely Planet is also going to offer a travel service in the near future that you can earn commissions on as well. Below you can watch the fascinating story of how Lonely Planet came to be.
11. Discover Cars
- Affiliate Program: Discover Cars
- Cookie Duration: 365 days
- Commission: Up to 70%
Discover Cars is a car rental service. They offer a competitive commission rate up to 70% that is paid out monthly via PayPal or wire transfer. As an affiliate you get a dedicated affiliate manager to answer all your questions.
They also have a revenue sharing scheme that’s attractive for people looking to promote their program. Affiliates also get a 30% commission from their full coverage that together with the 70% commission rate makes the Discover Cars affiliate program one of the most attractive programs in the industry.
12. Travel Payouts
- Affiliate Program: Travel Payouts
- Cookie Duration: 30 days
- Commission: Up to 80%
Travel Payouts is a CPA travel affiliate network that works with travel companies such as hotellook.com and Airbnb. Their affiliates get paid from bookings of hotels, motels, car rentals, airline tickets and more. Their affiliate program has paid out over 32 million dollars since 2011.
Affiliates get the opportunity to use Travel Payouts advanced promotional tools such as WordPress plugins, mobile SDK, API, deep links widgets and more. The tools are available in 60 different languages. They also have a blog where you can read about different tips and tricks to make the most of your promotional efforts.
13. Sky Auction
- Affiliate Program: Sky Auction
- Cookie Duration: N/A
- Commission: 2% on sales and $2 for every person who registers through your affiliate link
Sky Auctions had been around since February of 1999. They are a travel auction site who negotiates deals with the leading airlines, cruise , hotels and resorts. Their customers can by airline tickets, cruise packages, restaurant certificates, hotel bookings and more. Sky Auction is privately and have professionals running the business with over 100 combined years of experience.
LinkShare is Sky Auctions affiliate network. They also have a specialty auction where they auction off watches, jewelry, memorabilia and more.
14. Cruises.com
- Affiliate Program: Cruises.com
- Cookie Duration: 45 days
- Commission: 3%
Cruises.com is obviously a site that books cruise packages. They work with company’s such as Carnival Cruise Lines, Disney Cruise Line and Costa Cruises. Visitors to their site have a great search feature where they can look for last minute cruise deals and more.
As an affiliate you get a 3% commission on sales with a 45 day cookie duration that gives people plenty of time to come back and book their cruise. They have been in business for over 15 years and have a strong reputation in the cruising industry. They run their affiliate program through the CJ affiliate network.
15. Viator
Affiliate Program: Viator
Cookie Duration: 30 days
Commission: 8%
Viator has over 300,000 products for their affiliates to promote. They offer an 8% commission with a 30 day cookie duration. They offer cooking classes, multiday tours, helicopter tours, and walking tours to name a few. Viator is your one stop shop to purchasing tickets to events and tours while on your vacation.
Conclusion – Best Affiliate Programs For Travel
Well that’s my list of 15 of the best affiliate programs for travel. Like I said earlier there’s big money to be had in the travel blogging business with many attractive affiliate programs to choose from. I believe you made a great choice in entering this space and with the end of Covid restrictions traveling will resume as normal for those looking for a vacation destination and airline tickets.
If you have started your travel blog or deciding on starting a travel blog then I suggest you check out Wealthy Affiliate as your go to headquarters for your online business. I have been a member of Wealthy Affiliate for over 3 years and I couldn’t run my business without there affiliate marketing tools. It’s free to get started and they provide everything you need to run a successful travel website.
