Alright folks, thought I'd start a thread that may help not only me, but other people, as well. I am loooking to start a hotel/condo booking website for my local sector and wanted to see if I can get some advice before I jump into this competitive and expensive niche. There are already around 10 or so other sites that are booking hotels/condos for my area, but all of them are just trying to make a quick buck with the typical "book here", "book now!", etc. My site is going to stand apart from the crowd because it will sort of be a tripadvisor clone, except, it will be more user-friendly, consist of local articles written by local residents, an advice column written by a local editor, etc. However, the main engine will be a review's component that will allow people to rate and review their lodging experiences, restaurant choices, clubs, etc. This is what I hope will stand us apart from the crowd. I hope people will come to us as a source of unbiased info where they can trust us and stay loyal for future bookings. Having said that, I a few questions: 1.) Shall everything by affiliate based (Ian, etc) or should I get one of those booking engines that several companies are now providing that cost like $600. 2.) Does anyone know if it's allowed to have a combination of affiliate programs (ian, travelocity,etc) or am I only allowed to have one program? I heard that if you write them, some companies let you put both programs on one page, not exclusive. 3.) Is it true that some programs like IAN only let you make a commission from the FIRST booking and not future bookings from the same customer? The good news is that this site has been under construction phase since March/April of last year and it is already out of the sandbox. I hope some of you can help answer the questions above. In return, I will post my progress and keep a journal for other people who are interested in taking the same path. Thanks.
I'm obviously biased, but would personally prefer the affiliate plan for two reasons- less backend (customer care etc) work and a history (the top affiliate travel sites have a good, long history) Most to all online contracts are exclusive. You may be able to negotiate this with a salesperson if you contact them instead of signing up online. Speaking for IAN.com -You get paid for customer you send. If they come back to hotels.com in the future- you are not paid for that boking. However, as an affilaite department, we do work to help you insure repeat visits happen through your site. Hotels.com is our consumer brand. Some affilaites choose to use the brand recognition of hotels.com- but most successful affiliates private label. We can brand your site (URL masking and private labels) throughout the booking process even to the point of a full xml solution where the actual booking takes place on your site. I can't speak for all programs- but am happy to answer questions about IAN
Thanks, so I see that hotels.com won't let me use other affiliates on my site, correct? This will defeat the 'comparison shopping' idea I had.
Ian, Let me butt in here for a minute and ask a few questions myself. I own a small consulting company. We don't travel as much as we used to, but still there's at least a couple of days a month. (used to be like 4 weeks a month X 7 people... whew!) The idea of setting up a small site where I can book my travel and can have my friends and family book travel through while I earn a commission sounds like a no-brainer. How many hotels do you work with? There is one hotel I use frequently that is a small chain, but I'd like to make sure they are on the list. (can't think of it off the top of my head) ... found it: The Wingate Inn Are the prices competitive? I don't always need the best deal, but something close to the best deal would mean I would use it more often. How much are the commissions? Does it cost more to go through an affiliate program rather than booking directly? Are there reviews and such like amazon.com, or is it pretty much just pick your hotel and book? What about a hotel locater? I'm sure I have more questions, and I really do have a lot of other work to do... but the idea intrigues me.
Reading your FAQ: IAN.com pays Affiliates 50% of the commission received for hotel and car services. Does that mean if I affiliated with travelnow.com or somewhere else directly, I'd be getting a higher commission? If so, what is the value add that I'm getting?
The 50% is 50% of what we collect directly from the hotel/car rental agency. It's set up this way because there are so many variations in the business- for example, European hotels have a standard of 8% instead of US 10% comissions. Marriott actually has a standard of $5 per booking- we've negotiated out a higher comission with them though. We also occassionally get a hotel willing to pay a higher comission- and we cut all of it right in half. IAN.com is actually the engine of a number of sites- hotels.com, travelnow.com and vacationspot - any of these will actually bring you to the ian program and none pays more or less.
Always happy to answer questions. We have a number of smaller sized affiliates who do this- either on an intranet, completely over the phone, or simply a link on their website for employees. We work with 12,000 hotels and vacation rentals as merchant properties (prepaid bookings) and about 35,000 through the gds system. We actually work with less through the gds than others because we have a confidence rating system that drops hotels automatically that do not pay comissions. It's actually a bit more complicated than that- but it comes down to how confident are we that we (and you) will be paid. They are competative. GDS rates are the same at every site- but the merchant rates you see are guarenteed- you can read through the guarentee at any of our branded sites. We also offer rebates. 5% for mercahnt rate hotels, $5 for an airline booking, 50% of collected comission for gds car and hotel. no, same prices everywhere we supply There are no reviews- there are star ratings assigned by our team of experts. (you know- those people getting sun burned and running around with tape measures) We have a map you can check out to see if that's what you have in mind- you can also order by distance from a landmark.
What are the monthly earnings of IAN's best affiliates. And also average affiliate. What are their look to book ratios ? What is the average earning per booking ?
If you are going to promote travel programs, dont forget about LUGGAGE, which makes the perfect revenue add-on. Shameless plug: We just raised the commission on Irvs Luggage Affiliate Program, they are parasite free and offer long cookies too. (Full page review on my site below). Sorry Jessica, could not resist.
Thanks for opening this topic. I've learned some very useful stuff already. You could be coopetition by joining the Trip Advisor Affiliate Program, which is managed by 5 Star Affiliates.
Linda- Always happy to have your luggage programs alongside the booking! I used to publish these monthly- At that time the top affiliates (true affiliates, not corperate site were at the mid hundred thousand range. This number has since risen. The #10 affiliate last time i published these was at about $35,000 I think. I can't give you an average- but it wouldn't be too informative if i could since we have thousands of affiliates getting checks and they run the gamut. Look to book- we run these based on searches s bookings instead of uniques (meaning multiple searches from one person are counted multiple times) and top affiliates i am looking at run 1-almost 4%. PPC affiliates run highers, content based affiliates run lower. Average per booking at about $12.50 Jessica
Our company is deciding whether to use the IAN affiliate program or to register with a GDS system and ticket fulfilment partner instead. Our main factor in making the decision is the speed of IAN's xml solution - and what pattern these requests and responses would follow (e.g. User - GDS - Ourserver - User, or User - IAN - GDS - IAN - Ourserver - User. Any ideas? Does anyone know of any examples of true IAN affiliates that use ths technology so that we might be able to see at what speed it handles?
Have a website? Then, why not utilize it to generate additional income (if you are already earning from it). You can earn up to 8% commission by joining our hotel affiliate program. QuickBooker.com offers hotel affiliate program that promises weekly payments in $s for every hotel booking that comes through your website. All you need is to promote our services and products. Salient features of our hotel affiliate program " Payment in $ " Earn every week " User friendly back-office " 24X7 affiliate manager support " 24x7 online hotel booking " More than 10, 000 hotels world wide For more info on to: http://affiliates.quickbooker.com
Does this mean that we get a payment of $2.50 if we have a booking through them, although it may be for 2 weeks @$500 per night? Not quite 5% is it.