Thread: What are Expedia playing at?

I agree send them $300 flight and get paid $2 wtf is that all about.

Well at least they let you bid on their keywords (except expedia on its own).

lol pericom expedia payout is a joke. How much does travel agent get for selling a holiday or flight must be a lot more?

They also pay zero on Package Holidays!!!

I do (<em>proper</em>) work in the travel industry (among others) and commissions on flights are tiny. <5% in many cases. Ground segments (hotels, car hire, etc) are better.
The way they work is they take your money when you book and pay when you travel, so get to keep a healthy bank balance.

I doubt the budget airlines will be able to pay a commission that makes things worth while for affiliates, most don't even give travel agents any commission on the flights (well, didn't 4-5mths ago).

Rich

edit : Sorry, I'll try to use less ()'s in my next post

Rich,

My comment was more to do with lack of communication than poor commissions. Expedia have dropped their rates without explaining, whereas Tradedoubler seem incapable of providing any link which doesn't double your page loading time. I've found that I can get round some of this by using multiple tables - that way at least anything above the TD code loads properly.

I know travel agents' margins are tight, but remember who owns Opodo (9 European airlines). Maybe that's why they pay more. But the key thing is that when you send someone to these sites, there is a good change they will come back again. So $3 is still a pittance to pay in my books for a new customer acquisition.

As for Ryanair etc, I know they don't pay travel agents, but they do spend a fortune on press ads. Affiliate programmes would surely give them better ROI?

I did see Buzz once bidding £1 for "flights" on Espotting, but they appear to have decided that was too much. Even if they just paid 5p per unique, that would be something, and still only the lowest starting bid on the ppc engines.

Just got the Expedia affiliates newsletter, in which they are pleased to announce the new structure, all in the name of having four different categories. Nothing to do with being tight or anything?

Have emailed Tina @ CJ:

Tina,

Can you please explain what is up with Expedia?

They were offering 2% per booking, which was generating an average of $7, against their claimed £6-8 - a perfectly reasonable offer, although not as competitive as Opodo.

This month, Opodo raise their offer to £14 per booking (up from the standard £7), and Expedia are "pleased" to announce a massive drop to just $3 per booking.

I have found the Expedia system so far to be very efficient, and would like to continue referring customers their way. In November, I produced around 80 bookings, and would expect around 120-150 bookings this month. Whereas Opodo have raised their commisison after just 5 bookings, I have only had a fall in payments from Expedia.

An explanation would be very much appreciated.

James Avery
Flightmapping.com

Even at lower commissions, which Expedia are "pleased to announce" LMAO, we find they out perform other flight companies and in general is a good program. On the new scheme we estimate our earnings would be less than half for the equivalent business placed their way in 2002....hhmm

Expedia tend to bid between 20-25p per click on the ppc., their earnings per click on CJ is 11 cents, we attained a moderate 19 cents. Perhaps they could be a little more generous.

We have not tried Opodo yet, they look interesting, they did / do get heavily involved on the ppc. It depends which network they are with.

We appreciate margins are tight on flights, but for hotels it is a different story and you should choose carefully.

With regard to Hotels, an industry standard is 8% commission on the TOTAL amount!

Some merchants try to palm you off with a hyperthetical £5 per booking whether it's 1 person or 10 people.

For example if a hotel costs £100 per person, 10 people are booked in for a conference. Total sum = £1000 : Commission is £5 as it is considered a single booking.

Within the industry it would be 8% of £1000 = £80.

If you get offered anything from £5 to £8 PER PERSON or 4% and above then this would be a reasonable deal.

If your getting short changed in the first deal mentioned, then seek an alternative.

As you see there is a significant difference, therefore perhaps we should continue the thread discussing other travel programs to ascertain which of the two their offer applies to.

Make sure you check very closely on the affiliate deal, it is sometimes a little ambiguous, therefore make sure you get clarification by email from the network or merchant .

Just spoke to CJ and they claim that Expedia don't intend publishers to lose out overall with the latest changes, they were just splitting up the various categories to better reflect the return for them. So do have a moan to CJ if you've suffered as a result of the change and you may get some action.

Expedia are sincere about working with affiliates, probably best to see how the results pan out.

... for $598
My commission = $3
I make that about half a percent.
Now I have an afternoon of changing links ahead !!

Aly

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Expedia are sincere about working with affiliates[/quote]
And is that why they are 'pleased' to announce what effectively amounts to a cut in payments for flight sales?

as aly highlighed above, this seems a strange move for a company which historically has used affiliate marketing a great deal and done it well.

I'm sure there could be better deals for those that contact expedia - but this move seems strange in my book.

I don't have a travel site, (yet - as I keep on saying) but people like flightmapping.com do, and if from looking at this change - apart from expedia's excellent affiliate search engine. Why would you stick with them? - especially with folk like Opodo rapidly gaining a good reputation in the affiliate marketing field.

I don't normally venture into the CJ forum, but I am glad i did today!

We are very very keen to capture affiliate market share, but know full well there is plenty of business and room for Expedia, ebookers, Travelselect and numerous others....

Because January is such a key booking month, we took the decision to offer a special promotion for this month, and offered 50% more last month so that we could reward our affiliates as much as we could.

The discussions relating to our commissions on sales are factually accurate, although some agencies work quite differently than others. For us, we mark up our prices to ensure they are highly competitive and provide a wide choice of fares and airlines, but do not get higher commissions because of our shareholders All airlines have to treat the agencies in an equal way. Our decision to offer £14 is based on a "loss leader" mentality and was not meant to produce a price war... so far, our top affiliates have earned in excess of £200 so far this month and we have had record sales, so it's all good!!!

Considering that flights are not the easiest or quickest thing to sell (not compared to CD's or books) due to the price factor, it seems a real shame to pay $3.. I can see why affiliates aren't happy...

Hi abbies
The increase is welcome as always !
Can I ask if you pay commision on holidays too or is it just flights ?
If the answer is yes is there any chance of some creatives with this in mind.

Thanks
Aly

Yippee, a sale of $978 and a commission of $3. I think I will give up on this one for a while!