Who has the Best Hotel Booking affiliates program...

Help, I am interested in checking out a new accomodations booking affiliate program. The people I am currently with offer 6% of the total bill plus a booking fee which can be set to your liking, but recently I had some friends who were going to Kings Dominion book via my site and found out that they were tacking an additional ( quite hefty too) fee to the bill. When I questioned the company about it they said it was for local accomodations taxes but would not provide particulars. I also had one of my friends book at the desk and they were given the same quoted price but minus the 20% "local tax". It seems a bit fishy to me so.. I am interested in checking out possible new programs and learning more about the subject. Is this a standard practice? Why would online bookings be taxed where walk ins are not? Any information or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

This is a tough question. I have been working with different hotel affiliate programs. World Choice Travel used to be good but now they are completely saturated by other affiliates. There affiliates are everywhere and in most top tier locations. Then, when you get someone to go to your site, they can tell that this is the same thing that they already found.

Orbitz has an affiliate program that used to be lodging.com. They are so messed up I can't even start! Hotels.com has an affiliate program, but they tack on those fees you mentioned.

If I was you, I would stick to writing travel content and putting adsense on your site. That is what I am doing now and it is turning out better than I could have imagined.

One other note. When you actually get a hotel reservation on your site, divide your commission by 2. 1/2 the time either people do not show up at the hotel or the hotel rooks you out of commission by just 'saying' that the person was a noshow.

Good luck
Eightperhour

 

I usually book a couple of thousand dollars in booking monthly as compared to 50-60 bucks monthly from adense. So booking is definately the way to go on my site. I just want an affiliate program that I can believe in.

 

Wow! It sounds like you are doing great anyway.

I have tried 4 at this point and really do not trust any of them either. Guess we are in the same boat.

Have you thought about doing something like TripAdvisor where they are direct affiliates with companies like expedia. This would be lower commission, but they already have their brand and it might increase your booking percentage.