Affiliate marketing for travel bloggers can be overwhelming since there are so many individual programs and platforms available. In this post I will share my favorite travel affiliate platforms so you can decide if you should use them on your travel website. This post contains affiliate links. When you make a purchase I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Find out more here.
Ready to grow your blog? Check out these helpful resources:
- Web hosting: BigScoots (use code SSBG9QHYST56 for 40% off)
- Keyword research: KeySearch
- SEO tool for blogging: RankIQ
- Travel affiliate platform for bloggers: Stay22 (get $100 when you get to 100 bookings if you sign up through this link)
- Travelpayouts
Stay22
What is Stay22?
Stay22 is a tech company based in North America, in Canada. They use artificial intelligence powered affiliate tools to help travel bloggers and travel creators earn passive income through affiliate commissions.
Based on my personal experience, they are one of the best travel affiliate programs out there.
Stay22 partnered with multiple booking platforms in the travel industry such as Booking.com, VRBO, GetYourGuide, or Hotels.com. This is good news for you because you don’t have to be a direct affiliate with each traditional affiliate network. You can just use Stay22 and get access to all these affiliate programs in a single platform.
There is no minimum amount of traffic required to apply, so you don’t need to be a seasoned travel blogger to use this program. You can apply as soon as you get some traffic. I personally applied when I had about 5K sessions per month on this blog.
You can also be based anywhere in the world. Your geographical location does not matter.
I live in Romania, for example. You can use Stay22 and they pay you in your local currency.
It’s very easy to use. After you apply you just have to insert a shortcode on your website. And then you can start adding unique links in your blog posts.
You will then be able to track your visitor clicks and affiliate sales in their dashboard. Stay22 updated the dashaboard in real time.
Stay22 is only for creators who have a website
If you are a content creator on social media, but you do not have a website you won’t be able to use Stay22. They are a platform specifically designed for blogs, not social media.
I also started on Instagram first. I thought being a social media creator in the travel niche will bring me the financial freedom that I wanted. But in my experience, securing continuous paid partnerships on social media is very hard.
That’s why I started this blog. I diversified my income streams and now I earn passive income every time someone reads my blog posts (through ads income) or when people book something I recommend (through affiliate links). And I am also tapping into a wider audience compared to just social media.
If you’re a travel creator, I highly recommend you start a blog. You can read my guide on how to start a blog here. It’s so worth it!
Stay22 has a great customer service team
Stay22 uses real humans for their customer service team, not AI or robots.
Every blogger that signs up with Stay22 has a Partner Success Associate. They are your dedicated person that makes sure you have everything you need to succeed.
They are also the point of contact for all the questions you might have or the issues you’re facing. I have a great relationship with my Partner Success Associate. She’s fantastic.
Her response time is very fast. Usually I get a reply in a few hours. And she always makes sure my questions are fully answered and my problems are solved.
I love how she always asks me for feedback. Stay22 is constantly trying to implement new ideas and new features to make sure we thrive as bloggers. And they make sure to use our feedback in what they develop next.
It truly feels like a two-way partnership.
My results with Stay22
The main advantage of Stay22 is that you make a lot of money when you use them. And at the end of the day I think we can all agree that this is the most important thing when choosing an affiliate marketing platform.
They use AI-powered affiliate tools to drive conversion rates up. Stay22 uses a combination of their Let Me Allez script, interactive maps, and traditional affiliate links to earn you money.
I personally mostly use the Allez affiliate links and I had incredible results. Let me tell you a bit about my results.
I made my first affiliate booking the day after I installed the Stay22 Allez script on my blog. It was only $1.97, but this was the proof of concept I needed and I knew things would grow nicely from there. And that’s exactly how it was.
In June 2024, the first full month I was with Stay22 I made $191. This number made my blog profitable, so it was a huge win for me.
In December 2024 I was already making over $500 per month.
And as of May 27 2025 my overall affiliate earnings for May were over $2,200 and I had 184 total bookings. That’s roughly an 11.5X or 1,150% increase in revenue compared to June 2024.
In less than a year my income skyrocketed. And the best part is that I’m just getting started. I can’t wait to see my affiliate income growth a year from now.
Stay22 cons
I already mentioned this, but if you are a travel creator only active on social media and don’t have a website you can’t use Stay22.
While Stay22 partners with some of the top brands in the travel industry, their partner list could be longer. For example, they don’t yet have partners for eSIMs, travel insurance, bus tickets, or private transfers.
I do appreciate that they constantly expand their partner list, but I would love to see even more names on the list.
Stay22 also offers a referral program. For example, if you sign up for Stay22 using my referral link you make $100 when you reach 100 confirmed bookings, and I make $500. It’s one of the highest-paying referral programs in the industry and I’m a huge fan of it.
But the drawback is that you can’t track these affiliate referrals in your dashboard. So I have no idea how many people signed up for Stay22 through my link.
In order to find out I have to email my Partner Success Associate and ask. It’s not the end of the world, but I find it quite inconvenient.
I love to be able to see all my data, so this is a disadvantage for me.
TravelPayouts
What is Travelpayouts?
Travelpayouts is another one of the top affiliate programs for content creators in the travel space. Their headquarters are in Thailand, but they work with creators worldwide.
They have a longer list of partners compared to Stay22. They partner with 100+ top travel companies for hotel bookings, car rentals, flight search engines, travel insurance, train tickets and more.
If you are a blogger who wants to promote a lot of different services in the travel space, this is a great advantage since you have everything in a single place.
Travelpayouts also offers a referral program. If you sign up for Travelpayouts through my affiliate link I will earn a commission that is equal to 7% of all your earnings for the next 24 months.
The good news is that you can track your referrals in your Travelpayouts dashboard. If you’re someone like me who loves to track everything this is a nice perk.
Travelpayouts can be used by creators who are not website owners
If you are a travel content creator on social media platforms and you don’t want to start a blog, you can still use Travelpayouts. You can create affiliate links in their dashboard and share these links with your audience on social media.
Whenever someone books through your links you make a commission. It works exactly the same as it works for blogs, but you can share these links on social media.
Conversions are low and, thus, your affiliate revenue is low
The main disadvantage of Travelpayouts is that their conversion rates are low and you don’t make much money through them. At least this was my experience with them.
I used Travelpayouts ever since I started this blog in January 2024. In May 2024 I was at 5,000 monthly sessions, but I still hadn’t made any affiliate income through Travelpayouts.
Even though my blog didn’t have that much traffic I was still expecting to see at least a few hotel bookings via Travelpayouts. But this was not the case.
Even though I could see that people clicked on my accommodation links, I literally made $0 in hotel affiliate revenue.
This was what made me look for alternatives and that’s how I switched to Stay22 for hotel, car rentals, and activities links.
I now use Travelpayouts only for programs that are not yet available on Stay22. As soon as these brands will join Stay22 I will stop using Travelpayouts.
Even though my blog is now close to 50,000 monthly sessions I still only make $15-25 per month on Travelpayouts.
You have to apply to each partner program
Unlike Stay22, you have to apply to each partner you want to use on Travelpayouts. You don’t get direct access to all their 100+ partners.
If you want to use 20 partners, you have to apply to each of the 20 partners through the Travelpayouts dashboard.
I think this defeats the purpose of being an aggregator like Travelpayouts. I use an affiliate platform because I don’t want to submit individual applications to all the affiliate programs. But it turns out you still have to do that on Travelpayouts.
Klook
Klook is one of the most popular affiliate programs for Asia. They are headquartered in Hong Kong.
Klook offers some passes and unique activities in Asia that you won’t see in other travel affiliate marketing programs. So if you write a lot about Asian destinations you should definitely take advantage of this program.
It works exactly the same way as all the other affiliate programs. You just have to insert a unique affiliate link in your blog posts every time you recommend
I recently traveled to Singapore and Malaysia, so I started using Klook after this trip so I can include some unique activities in my travel guides for my readers. For all other destinations I use Stay22.
FAQs about travel affiliate programs
Is it better to sign up for individual affiliate programs or platforms?
I personally think that it’s best to use travel affiliate platforms instead of individual programs. That’s because you can use affiliate links for some of the biggest travel brands and track the performance for these links in one place.
As a travel blogger you will most likely need to use affiliate links for a lot of different travel brands: hotels, flights, car rentals, travel insurance, eSIMs, train tickers, bus tickets, and more.
I find it very inconvenient to apply to all these programs individually and then track the performance of so many programs. It becomes overwhelming and you end up wasting a lot of time checking that many different websites when you want to insert affiliate links in your content.
So I would recommend you sign up for these affiliate platforms first. And if you can’t find a travel affiliate platform you want to use on these platforms you can then sign up for individual programs to fill in this gap.
How much do you make from each affiliate program?
Each affiliate platform has their own commission structure, but most of them are in the 4-10% range.
This might sound low, but if you have enough blog traffic and use affiliate programs that have high conversion rates, the numbers can add up quickly. I made over $2,000 per month with Stay22 when my traffic was less than 40,000 sessions per month, for example.
The good news is that there is no maximum cap. You can continue to grow your blog’s traffic and your affiliate revenue grows too.
How do I get paid?
For Stay22 you can request a payout once a month if you reach the minimum payout amount. For example, for someone based in Romania, that’s $100 per month.
You will get the money deposited in your local bank account in your local currency.
After you request the payout you will receive the money in a maximum of 30 days. I usually get the payout after 21 days. This might vary depending on your country, bank, and payment method.
Klook payments work in a similar fashion, but the threshold for the minimum payment amount is $150.
For Travelpayouts I get paid through Paypal. The minimum sum to get paid is $50. As soon as you get to $50 or more they will process the transaction.
Can I use multiple travel affiliate programs?
Yes, you can. You do not have to be an exclusive partner with any of them. So you can use other affiliate tools as well. This way you have the opportunity to include affiliate links for all the different type of content and destinations you write about.
Do you want to learn more about blogging? Check out some of my other articles.
Amateur blogging: complete guide to start a blog
Stay22 review: is this affiliate platform the best?
RankIQ review: is this the best SEO tool for blogs?
Keysearch review: the most affordable keyword tool
SEO for travel blogs: free tips that get you traffic
Free guide on keyword research for travel blog posts
Ioana was born and raised in Romania, lived in NYC for 14 years, and is now back in Romania. She fell in love with traveling when she was little and used to visit her aunt in Vienna. Then in high school she was able to visit Siberia, Turkmenistan, Istanbul, and Tokyo through chemistry competitions. As an adult she started to travel solo once she turned 30 and visited 20+ countries so far. Ioana is a full time travel blogger and content creator with an audience of 80K+ people on Instagram. She loves to share travel recommendations and tips.