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Hotelscombined is a Scam

Discussion in 'Affiliate Programs' started by etc, Jul 3, 2013.

  1. qwikad.com

    qwikad.com Illustrious Member Affiliate Manager

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    #21
    Bring traffic to our site and you will not be disappointed. As long as your traffic converts into paid posts you will be paid what is due in a timely manner. We pay our affiliate as soon as they reach $10. Our conversion rate is huge (around 70%). See my signature to find out more or just visit http://qwikad.com

    PS Everyone should join our affiliate program. We have 100's of happy affiliates already out there.
     
    qwikad.com, Sep 2, 2013 IP
  2. tamse

    tamse Greenhorn

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    #22
    that JULY (guy/girl), has no respect to their affiliates too.

    totally POOR SUPPORT!
     
    tamse, Jan 5, 2014 IP
  3. HotelsCombined Support

    HotelsCombined Support Greenhorn

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    #23
    Hello tamse,

    We are sorry to hear that you're not happy with our support.

    Please contact us any time on , and we can try to resolve any issues you're having in using our program. Our support team is always at your disposal to answer any questions and assist you further.

    Thank you

    Regards,
    July
    HotelsCombined Affiliate Support
     
    HotelsCombined Support, Jan 7, 2014 IP
  4. Shadab Malik

    Shadab Malik Greenhorn

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    #24
    It is indeed a scam. They closed my account too when it reached $100. Same reason - leads not converting. They convert perfectly when I do not use HotelsCombined. My website is purely organic visitors - all of inbound marketing. They say to check my linking strategies, visitors etc. BS! If we are sending traffic to you and you cannot convert even 0.5% of it then the problem is with your site not ours. I sent close to 200 unique visitors to their website. For every sale a supplier make it will be minimum 10% commission of the booked amount that they receive from the hotel, maximum can go upto 25%. I am not sure what is hotelscombined share but I can easily guess it should be around at least 40% of the commission of supplier . I have been in the industry 10 yrs to know this well enough. For instance, Agoda works directly with hotels and if you join and pay 35% to their affiliates. Obviously they are earning at least 5% more. So if a booking is made at $100, a big supplier like Agoda would get around $15-$25 commission and a scammer like hotelscombined would then get 40% of this amount which is about $5. According to their average conversion rates, they could easily calculate how much should be paid to an affiliate and 'should' be paid to them when the time comes. On the contrary, we as affiliates are completely in the dark - we dont know whether they are making any revenue, we dont know the amount that was booked, we dont know whether a visitor booked or they at least build their mailing list, let alone deeper analytics on which hotel/s the visitor looked at, what pages they browsed etc.. and none of the merchants actually share that.. and then HotelsCombined blame it on our traffic after making money through us. Thats what we will believe. If you are investigating our data why did you close the account? You could ask us to remove links until your investigation is complete and you complete an investigation and keep it to youself. You do not share the results and expect us to believe that you did a perfect investigation. BS BS BS.. Please do not join this program.
     
    Shadab Malik, Jul 17, 2014 IP
  5. Ray Del Rosario

    Ray Del Rosario Peon

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    #25
    Hi Shadab,

    Thanks for your feedback.

    Although our program is a pay per lead model, we require (and it is expected) that some of your users will generate booking revenue for our compared suppliers. This is clearly stated in our pre-signup Affiliate Program FAQs and the Affiliate Agreement.

    http://www.hotelscombined.com/TrafficInspection.aspx?requestId=8227c2fa-89f7-481b-b802-5ecc84a93df5&requestUrl=%2fAffiliate%2fFAQ.aspx
    http://www.hotelscombined.com/TrafficInspection.aspx?requestId=7dc84289-671d-4819-8c96-b2fbe09c7e1f&requestUrl=%2fAffiliate%2fAffiliateAgreement.aspx

    I can assure you that if you send us quality users looking to book accommodation, then we can guarantee conversion.

    We have thousands of happy and profitable partners in our program so we’re more than happy to assist you further if you can contact our affiliate support on .

    We hope to hear from you soon.
    Thank you
    Kind regards,
    Ray
    HotelsCombined Affiliate Support
     
    Ray Del Rosario, Jul 21, 2014 IP
  6. nasstar

    nasstar Member

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    #26
    i was actually thinking of joining but it doesn't seem to be worth the trouble, or is it?
     
    nasstar, Jul 22, 2014 IP
  7. TerryTurbo

    TerryTurbo Greenhorn

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    #27
    I was attracted by the high pay outs, but yes I'm afraid they are indeed scamming poor folk with small businesses! When they say they have lots of happy affiliates, these are the big firms that can afford legal action! They did not pay me and said my leads where not converting, although my traffic is from respected travel sites! I now use a different travel affiliates which shows they are converting handsomely and they always pay me on time. The commission is not as high but in essence it is as hotelscombined do not pay, end of!!! You do the maths and don't waste your time.
     
    TerryTurbo, Jul 30, 2014 IP
  8. Oscar Walker

    Oscar Walker Peon

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    #28
    ANY affiliate program pays better, because HotelsCombined has not paid one red cent to anyone that I know of...not one out of "1000s of affiliates"! HotelsCombined IS A SCAM!!!!!!!!

    No, it is not worth your work and time, HotelsCombined does NOT pay - EVER!!!

    NOBODY EVER REPLIED TO MY E-MAILS, NOR DID I EVER RECEIVE MY PROMISED PAYMENT of $209! And, my HotelsCombined account was NEVER reopened, but you guys kept my links to you alive to continue get FREE traffic. Not sure how you can assist people if you block ALL of their accounts. Oh yeah, you cannot because you are lying scammers.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 13, 2014
    Oscar Walker, Aug 13, 2014 IP
  9. Oscar Walker

    Oscar Walker Peon

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    #29
    The HotelsCombined Affiliate Program Review of Affiliates TRUTH

    Is HotelsCombined Safe ? NOT AT ALL!

    Is HotelsCombined Legit ? NOT AT ALL!

    Is HotelsCombined Reliable ? NEVER!


    Has HotelsCombined ever paid even one of their affiliates ? NOPE! Not EVER, Not even one person has been paid one cent by them that I know of and I know several people who where HotelsCombined affiliates. Once they reach $100 (which takes FOREVER) then they suspend your account permanantly and ignore ALL of your emails. They are non-trustworthy THIEVES!

    Is HotelsCombined a Scam ? 100% YES FOR SURE...they are lying crooks, NO DOUBT!!

    If anyone signs up as a HotelsCombined affiliate, they will never be paid any commision, not matter what. The company was awarded world's best hotel price comparison site last year after their popularity literally sky-rocketed after they received record-breaking website traffic...who sent them their traffic? HotelsCombined affiliates did. HotelsCombined is a fake and they will use people in any way to get website traffic. They lie to people say "please do this, please do that" to YOUR website until a steady flow of traffic is coming to them directly from your site/blog. BUT, after awhile, they will suspend your HotelsCombined affiliate account permantly where you can never sign into your account again. However, they will continue receiving traffic from all of your many links that are on your personal websites, blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook accounts...any website or social media site where you put an "affiliate link" directed towards HotelsCombined.

    They will tell all their HotelsCombined affiliates that the suspension is temporary and for their personal purposes to "make sure everything is A-OK before payment", but then you will NEVER hear back from them again because they will block your e-mail address that is associated with your affiliate account. An automated e-mail will be sent to you, it is "robot-generated" by a computer machine and is signed "July" or "Roy" (no last name). If you report them on any type of scam-reporting website (such as this one)...they will post threatening comments saying that they are a reputable company with hundreds of thousands of profitable affiliate partners, etc. etc. etc., blah..blah, LIES! These comments are also signed by "July" and are not commented by real people, but computer-generated. My "fake e-mail" from them said this:

    Dear Oscar,
    I can assure you that there is a valid reason why your account was suspended recently. It is clearly mentioned in our Affiliate Agreement and FAQs that although we pay per leads, we require some of your users to generate revenue for our suppliers. We earn revenue from commissions from our hotel suppliers, and we cannot afford to pay for non-converting traffic that doesn't generate any revenue.

    If you could email us directly at affiliate@hotelscombined, instead of replying, and provide us with your affiliate ID, we will review your account statistics and get back to you with a more detailed explanation. To clarify, we have no control over your domains and websites. You are free to remove our content from your site or delete any redirection of your domains to our site at any time.

    Regards,
    July

    After receiving this one email and finding that my account was totally blocked too, I could no longer reply or send an e-mail with my email that I had used with them as an affiliate. They blocked my account AND my e-mail BOTH! In their eyes, I no longer existed. But, my live links where still open and sending them TONS of traffic STILL! HotelsCombined is the worst affiliate program in existance! I am super angry with them after campaigning for 6 years for nothing...they TRICKED ME! Me and several of my friends and family even used their website to book hotels and did not even get the hotel deals promised! They are crooks for sure. And get this: My best friend was using their links on her Travel website for 2 years and as soon as she reached the payout limit ($100) BAM! They deleted her out of existance too (but kept her links on her site alive, still getting traffic). She finally was able to erase every link going to them. It took her forever because her website has 100s of pages/subdomains. Anyways, beware of HotelsCombined. They never pay anybody. I know of 26 people personally, and you will find 1000s upon 1000s of complaints online. Beware that you might be fooled by their comments saying the affiliates are lying. We all online are telling the truth. HotelsCombined are the lying scam artists, not us...and we swear they are! You can choose to believe them or us. But, you WILL be RIPPED OFF and will waste your time!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sincerely, Oscar
     
    Oscar Walker, Aug 13, 2014 IP
  10. Oscar Walker

    Oscar Walker Peon

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    #30
    SCAM ALERT ! HotelsCombined are the biggest internet scam artists EVER, every scam report that I just on this forum and on several other forums, blogs, and websites is true 100% - SO SAD!

    It has already been proven that not one HotelsCombined affiliate has been paid EVER. This cannot be real. I believe this is yet ANOTHER scam post by them - SO SAD how they lie and scam all of these people just to get FREE traffic to their website so they can be rich while others work for NOTHING!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 13, 2014
    Oscar Walker, Aug 13, 2014 IP
  11. qwikad.com

    qwikad.com Illustrious Member Affiliate Manager

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    #31
    I am on neither side of this debate. Complaintsboard.com is too full of people complaining about the program, so I realize there are a lot of unhappy people out there: http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/hotelscombinedcom-affiliate-fraud-c624694.html

    In defense of hotelscombined.com I should say that everyone should read their fine print before signing up for their affiliate program. In their fine print it clearly states that they want quality traffic only and will pay for quality traffic only.

    Think of AdSense, for instance. Sometimes 50% of your daily earnings can be reversed due to low traffic quality. And it's their right to do so, since they are trying to keep a high ROI for the advertisers. I believe same is true for hotelscombined. If an affiliate brings in visitors who never book a hotel or other services - why should that affiliate be rewarded for those low quality leads? So hotelscombined ends up reversing the leads that didn't convert. Sometimes it may mean 100% of the leads will be reversed. The lead has to convert for it to be considered as a quality lead.

    And to add to that matter, if an affiliate consistently brings in low quality traffic sooner or later that account will be suspended, simply because they want affiliates with quality, targeted traffic.

    I personally do not believe that their affiliate program is designed to scam people. To me that's bull. But they do have rather HIGH standards of what is considered a quality lead. Seems like they have gone a bit overboard with the requirements.
     
    qwikad.com, Aug 14, 2014 IP
  12. livingingermany

    livingingermany Active Member

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    #32
    Well I have been with them for years and have had, wait for it, NO PROBLEMS whatsoever. I am not working for them, I provide a small amount of traffic from my sites to their site and the conversion rates are well within what I would expect considering the traffic I send to them. They appear to be honest and I am paid when they tell me that I will be paid.

    At the end of the day, if you are sending them traffic, which are visitors looking to book a hotel, then the traffic converts. If you are sending them visitors who are just browsing and have no idea what they are looking for, then the conversion rates will be poor, as expected.

    My advice is to write about an amazing place, mention that finding accommodation is easy by clicking on the following link and the visitor will only go to their site when they are truly looking at booking a stay at the place that you talk about. Deep link but not too deep. Hope that helps.

    Finally, wild accusations can hurt businesses, especially when they are operating honestly.
     
    livingingermany, Aug 15, 2014 IP
    qwikad.com likes this.
  13. DinoJRG

    DinoJRG Member

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    #33
    Yeah, I had somewhat of the same problem. I was actually getting paid every month from them. I pushed so as much high converting traffic because I was getting positive results. It was short lived. On the third month they did the link change. When I changed them the commission ended while my traffic was good. When I went for support they started throwing all of these hoops and saying I have to change the Cname and dns crap. Every time I did what they wanted it wouldn't work and they would tell me to go to my host because they cannot fix it.
    It was just a pile of crap. Anyone who supports this company and claims it to be honest either has not worked with them or is a total dink. I've never met ONE single person who has honestly not been banned or screwed over by them. They are so bad that they have this A-hole employee selling turnkey blogs in DP to suckers. The guy keeps changing accounts and reselling a new turnkey.

    I busted my A for months and those morons just shut the door on me. I'd love to knock the owner the hell out myself.
     
    DinoJRG, Sep 16, 2014 IP
  14. Toon-c

    Toon-c Well-Known Member

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    #34
    Switch your links to Agoda / Expedia / Travelocity / Booking ... and you will be shocked how much you wre missing out ...

    Just to confirm, HotelsCombined worked fine for me for couple years, but recently, and during the last year, there was something strange going on ..

    Maybe the link change talked about by the OP .. but overall they are not trustworthy anymore ..
     
    Toon-c, Sep 24, 2014 IP
  15. www_HypeFree_com

    www_HypeFree_com Active Member

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    #35
    I hate fine print it's like a license to deceive people. I have been "fine printed" so many times over the years I lost count.
     
    www_HypeFree_com, Sep 24, 2014 IP
  16. tareq msn

    tareq msn Greenhorn

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    #36
    Dear sir,

    look at this before 1-12-2014
    Welcome tareq (ID: 123045) -
    Unpaid earnings: $814.05
    Paid earnings: $0.00
    Next payment amount: $518.96
    Next payment due: 25 - 30 November


    and look at this after 1-12-2014

    Welcome tareq (ID: 123045) -
    Unpaid earnings: $814.05
    Paid earnings: $0.00
    Next payment amount: $814.05
    Next payment due: 25 - 30 December


    I will remove all links in my websites

    Hotelscombined SCAM
     
    tareq msn, Nov 30, 2014 IP
  17. HotelsCombined Support

    HotelsCombined Support Greenhorn

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    #37
    Hi tareq msn,

    Just to clarify, our records show that the payment for your affiliate account has been processed.

    Please feel free to contact if you have any questions.

    Best regards,
    July

    Affiliate Support
    HotelsCombined.com
     
    HotelsCombined Support, Dec 1, 2014 IP
  18. tareq msn

    tareq msn Greenhorn

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    #38
     
    tareq msn, Dec 2, 2014 IP
  19. tareq msn

    tareq msn Greenhorn

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    #39
    Thank you HOTELSCOMBINED, I am very sorry of that , today morning when I check my email I saw your message of sending 518$ on my account on PAYPAL , so I am very sorry of my last post and you are not a Scam ... I am very sorry.. thank you
     
    tareq msn, Dec 2, 2014 IP
  20. DinoJRG

    DinoJRG Member

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    #40
    Don't worry. Eventually you'll not be getting paid for bringing them traffic and they will tell you "do this, do that" for months while you are giving them free traffic only to never work out the problem with your site again.
     
    DinoJRG, Dec 2, 2014 IP