Questions about setting up a Hotel Affiliate Program

[cclayton]

Hi Guys and Girls.

I have a couple of questions about setting up a Hotel Affiliate Program and whether it is worthwhile, do you mind helping me out with your feedback. I am interested in setting up a Hotels Booking Site initially with approx 7,000 (mostly European) hotels and am considoring setting it up for affiliates - I dont have the option of XML to affiliates at present but this would be planned much further down the line possibly, initially the following would be on offer:

- Deeplinks into hotel and search facility of that hotel
- Search Box to add into your site
- Basic 8% commission but the belief that prices would be more competitive than other sites therefore increasing your conversion.
- Simple Booking Process
- No Phone Number on site except on Contact Us Page

Now the key question is, is it better to set this up inhouse or go down the CJ.com route for example - from an affiliates or merchants perspective. Also a lot of bookings get cancelled/amended by consumers how is this dealt with by the network? Generally would affiliates get commission after travel on CJ.com?

Any thoughts and ideas on this would be greatly appreciated, many thanks!

[Paul-Morris]

In regards of your key question of whether its worth setting up an in house program or going with network; it all depends who you ask! The in house programs e.g. 1shoppingcart.com, Affiliateclicks.com, etc (i have a long list if you want it!) will provide you with many selling points of an in house solution (no override fees, full control, etc) and of course likewise for the networks (a more managed solution, help with strategy, less technical knowledge required and less time spent on management, the ability to put you in touch with a ready made army of affiliates, etc)

It will also depend on your budget, overall objectives, resource, margins, etc in terms of which solution to pick. Without lecturing you or boring you with a thesis on my reasoning, my gut feeling would be to go with a network. Which network all depends and i am not going to give an opinion here. CJ are good but there are certainly others out there (again i have a list if you want it).

Do not worry about the cancelled/ amended booking problem - it can be dealt with. You would certainly have some input in this e.g. de-authorising bookings manually however how much work you would have to do and how much the network will help you all depends on which network you go with and how much you pay them.

Good Luck,

Paul Morris
Affiliate Director
Yucca - Affiliate Management Agency - Bristol

[Travel Pixel]

Ill make this a quick and concise response:

In house or network: both - but offer a higher % on the inhouse

Network: AWIN or AF or WG - not CJ.

API: Have it ready before launch

Incentives: Have travel related prizes on offer.

Dave