70% vs. 6% Comission - Is this legit?!

[Emmanuel Betinis]

Most travel affiliate programs like Expedia.com
and Travelocity.com offer commissions around
2% - 6% for affiliates on bookings.

But this one website, HotelsCombined.com, offers a whopping 70% commission for affiliates on bookings!

Am I missing something here, or can HotelsCombined.com
really afford to pay that high of a commission when "others"
are giving much less commissions?!

I just don't understand why there's such a huge difference
in payout between HotelsCombined.com (70%) and
the "other" big travel sites. What gives?

Can anyone fill me in on this? I'd really appreciate it!

[Johnathan]

Easy.

It is a case of getting "half a dozen" as opposed to "six" items.

Reading the fine print -- it is 70% of the fee charged to visitors.

So if a hotel is $100. And the website charges $110 ($100 hotel booking + $10 fee), then you get 70% of the fee ($10*0.70=$7.00)

That being said, it is quite possible that they still pay more than Expedia and Travelocity. You just need to compare the net commission paid out between the programs.

Johnathan

Originally Posted by anapest

Most travel affiliate programs like Expedia.com
and Travelocity.com offer commissions around
2% - 6% for affiliates on bookings.

But this one website, HotelsCombined.com, offers a whopping 70% commission for affiliates on bookings!

Am I missing something here, or can HotelsCombined.com
really afford to pay that high of a commission when "others"
are giving much less commissions?!

I just don't understand why there's such a huge difference
in payout between HotelsCombined.com (70%) and
the "other" big travel sites. What gives?

Can anyone fill me in on this? I'd really appreciate it!

[Emmanuel Betinis]

Jonathan,

thank you for covering my butt.

I need to go to sleep now and recharge the noodle! I'm losing it!

[redicelander]

Anapest, you need to read the fine print of how their site works, and Jonathan is on the right track but also doesn't have it right. You need to read more closely, if you knew you wouldn't ask this question. I know because I'm an affiliate with them. Hotelscombined.com is essentially a search engine for hotels. They have relationships with over 30 different hotel booking websites, many of them the biggest names. They give 70% yes, but this is pay per click. Hotelscombined.com does not get any money for hotel bookings, they are merely paid for the lead (in their model is merely a click) they send to say, hotelclub.com or priceline.com; The largest fee they charge is $1.00 per click, so the largest commission you will ever get is $0.70, or 70 cents for click.

For example, a user who got to the site through your affiliate link searches for a hotel in Paris, and comes up with 11 different rates from 11 different hotel sites. User chooses priceline.com as they have the best rate so click on that link. Priceline.com then pays hotelscombined.com 60 cents for that link, and you get 42 cents for that click as they got to the site through your affiliate link. Make sense?

So, yes they pay high commission, but it's not on bookings, it's on clicks/leads. The power in their program is that you know a user is going to find the best rate from your affiliate link (or you can set your own website using their system), but you know you will only get paid a lot from that visitor if they search for a lot of hotels and click a lot of links out of the site. The most I got from one user on my own tracking was about $15, as they obviously were really searching around looking for the best deal, and thus clicked out on many searches over the course of at least an hour.

In the long run, do they pay more overall compared to if you just used another site that pays commission on bookings? I don't really know. You know with hotelscombined you'll always get the best rate as they search over 30 of the top sites, but the payout is low. Obviously, the action required is simply a click, so that's an advantage over hoping someone actually books a hotel. So, you'd just have to run a test if you can move high volume and compare.

[Emmanuel Betinis]

Wow, BAM!

Another kick-butt answer.

Thanks again!

[Johnathan]

Yes, sorry -- my mistake. I forgot to add that I believe it is for clicks. (I was using the fees as an example, but I believe it is actually 'per click').

Johnathan