Travelpayouts Review: Can You Make $1,000 a Month?
Travelpayouts is an affiliate network focused exclusively on travel brands.
They have partnered with over 100 big travel brands like Booking.com, Viator, Rentalscars, Tripadvisor, etc., and the network keeps growing.
Joining Travelpayouts can be a huge time-saver if you are in a travel niche. You will need to create just one account instead of having multiple affiliate accounts for each affiliate program.
From your Travelpayouts account, you will see all the essential things in one place. For example, you can view your affiliate commissions from all the affiliate programs in one dashboard and create affiliate links for all from the same interface.
Travelpayouts Affiliate Program
To get started with Travelpayouts, you need to create a free account.
Travelpayouts doesn't have any approval process, so your account is created instantly.
Once in your account, you can click on "Programs" and browse all the Travelpayouts partners. You can use the search filters at the top if you are looking for specific affiliate programs like only car rentals.
Each affiliate program on Travelpayouts includes information about the program, like the commission rate and cookie duration. You will also learn if the program has widgets, banners, and other helpful information.
Note that you have to apply to each program individually. Travelpayouts account does not make you automatically eligible for their partners' programs. You still have to apply to each separately as each affiliate program has different terms and acceptance requirements.
When you click on the join button for a first affiliate program, you will be prompted to "create a project." Think of it as the application process. You must provide Travelpayouts with a link to each platform you will use for promotions and some information about your traffic, like how many monthly viewers you have on average.
Fortunately, you only need to do this once, and then you can use the same "project "for other affiliate programs. However, since the affiliate programs have different acceptance requirements., the same project can get you accepted to one program but might not get you into another one.
Some programs don't have any acceptance requirements, and all you have to do is accept the terms of their affiliate agreement.
Travelpayouts Affiliate Program Commission
How big your Travelpayouts commission will depend on the affiliate program you join.
Note that the commission on Travelpayouts can differ from the brand's in-house affiliate programs. If you read my review for Booking.com, you will learn that the structure for calculating affiliate commission is quite complex. On Travelpayouts, the commission is 4% on completed hotel stays
Accommodation affiliate programs on Travelpayouts have about 4-6% on average. For instance, Agoda has 6% and Trip.com 5% for hotels.
Bigger commissions have tour affiliate programs. For example, with Tripadvisor company Viator, you can earn up to 9%. With GetYourGuide up to 10%.
The referral window for most affiliate programs is 30 days, but exceptions exist. For example, Booking.com has only a short session cookie while Discover Cars have 365 days.
According to Travelpayouts, the top-earning affiliate programs are Agoda, Booking.com, GetYourGuide, Rentalcars, Tripadvisor, CheapOair, and Aviasales.
Aviasales is Travelpayouts default affiliate program, and there are no requirements to join this program.
Can You Make $1000 a Month as a Travelpayouts Affiliate?
The advantage of being an affiliate in the travel niche is that you can promote many different services within the same piece of content.
Imagine you are a travel blogger and publish an article about the Barcelona itinerary.
You could mention hotels you used and recommend during your stay, but you could also suggest a car rental for those who want to explore Barcelona's surroundings.
Furthermore, you could suggest Barcelona tours. Not everyone wants to explore the city independently, and some prefer joining a guided tour.
Next, you could mention that you got travel insurance because you feared getting Covid-19 during your holiday.
You get the point. When it comes to traveling, there are so many services you might need during your holiday.
If you were only promoting Booking.com accommodation, you could miss out on the commission for the other services.
A person reading your article might already have a hotel booked but not a car. Or they have everything booked but haven't thought about the insurance.
Of course, it is doubtful that one person would buy all these things based on your recommendation, but you are increasing your chances of earning at least something.
The commissions for travel affiliate programs are usually not the highest, but they can quickly add up. Sometimes you will also get lucky and receive a commission for a longer booking.
Look at the Travelpayouts homepage; they have a nice animation of an earning example.
Hostel Barcelona, 3 nights with a commission of just $7.25.
But also more significant amounts like 14 days car rental in Ljubljana with a commission of $81.54.
In my opinion, travel affiliate programs have great earning potential, and you can make even more than $1000 a month if you have the right approach.
Travelpayouts WordPress plugin
Travelpayouts has a WordPress plugin that connects to your account and makes it easy to create widgets, forms, and deep links.
Travelpayouts allows you to customize the widget, and for some affiliate programs, you can even create a white label design with your brand name.
The plugin currently supports widgets for Aviasales and Hotellook.
If you want to add a widget for other affiliate programs like Booking.com, you can, but you have to do it through your Travelpayouts account and not the WordPress widget.
Travelpayouts Referral Program
Travelpayouts has a referral program that allows you to earn some extra income.
You get 7% of the income generated by your referral. For example, if an affiliate you recruited earns $100, you receive $7.
What I like about Travelpayouts is that they made earning through the referral program very easy.
When you create a widget, it will have a small "Powered by Travelpayouts" badge. The badge is connected to Travelpayouts via your referral link, so your widget has the potential to generate commissions from affiliate, but also the referral program.
If you don't want to participate in the referral program, you have an option to hide the badge.
Should You Join the Travelpayouts Affiliate Network?
If you are a travel blogger or website owner, joining the Travelpayouts affiliate network will make your life easier.
You can apply to travel affiliate programs and track your earnings for all the programs from one dashboard.
For some affiliate programs, you will even get a better commission than in-house affiliate programs. For instance, Viator has an 8% commission, but on Travelpayouts, you get 9%.
Travelpayouts also nicely present information about each affiliate program so you can quickly compare them. Commissions might change, so it is good to have an overview of all programs and notice these changes rapidly.
Is there a minimum traffic requirement to participate?
To join Travelpayouts no.