Affiliate/Sheet

What Travel Affiliate Marketing Programs Are

Travel affiliate marketing programs pay a partner when a reader books through their link. Here is how the category works.

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How affiliate programs work
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A reader plans a trip. They read your hotel guide, click your link, and book a stay. Travel affiliate marketing programs are how a brand can reward you for that booking.

What travel affiliate marketing programs are

A travel affiliate program is a deal between a brand and a partner. The partner puts a link on their own site or channel. When a reader clicks it and books, the brand pays the partner a reward. Travel covers many kinds of booking: hotels, flights, and more.

Some travel brands run their own programs. Others list their programs on a network. A network is one place that holds many brands' programs, so a partner can join once and apply to several brands.

Where travel programs run: networks and platforms

Each platform below runs its own network or marketplace.

  • Travelpayouts runs the Travelpayouts affiliate platform.
  • CJ runs the CJ Affiliate publisher network.
  • impact.com runs the impact.com Affiliate Partner Marketplace.
  • FlexOffers runs the FlexOffers.com publisher network.
  • Rakuten Advertising runs the Rakuten Advertising publisher network.
  • ClickBank runs the ClickBank affiliate marketplace.

Awin runs the Awin affiliate platform too.

Hotel and flight programs within travel networks

The details of each hotel or flight brand's offer live on that brand's own program page.

Luxury and high-end travel programs

What each luxury travel brand pays is on its own program page too.

Who can join and what it costs

Travelpayouts' homepage says anyone with a public channel, such as a blog, website or social media, can become an affiliate partner. Its homepage also says sign-up is free, with no sign-up fees and no ongoing costs.

Other networks state their own joining rules on their own pages. Read them there before you apply.

How rewards and rates are stated

Travelpayouts' homepage says each program states its reward rate in its terms, as a percentage or a fixed sum. So one brand may pay a share of the booking, and another may pay a set amount. The rate belongs to the brand whose page states it.

How tracking works for travel programs

When a reader clicks your link, the program records that click. That record is how the brand knows you sent the buyer. How long the record lasts varies by program. Read about how tracking works and the cookie window on their own pages.

How payouts are sent

Travelpayouts' homepage says it pays automatically via PayPal or bank on the same day each month. Its homepage also says it gets paid by brands and does not take a cut of partners' earnings.

Other programs state their own minimums, waits, and payment methods. See how payouts are sent for how to read those lines.

Read the FTC affiliate disclosure requirements before you publish your first travel link.

Each program's own page is the source for its rates, rules, and payouts. Check it on the day you join.

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