Hotel Bookings

[retired_member33]

Guys I am trying to decide which affiliate program to add on a website I recently bought.. Its a hotel comparison website.

So my question is.. When you book a hotel, which website do you normally book it?

If you picked other, can you please share which site you then use?

Thanks

 

[RobM]

I used to use booking.com - was great even had a 400 euro commission on a 2 week stay in dubai. Had them on about 300 hotel sites. However traffic died (not booking.coms fault) due to google update so I let them go. They are great if you want to provide data from an xml feed. The only problem is you have to store all the photos yourself and keep them updated. I needed a dedicated server just for that.
I now use hotels combined on the same kind of sites. Not as much earning but more often because you get paid for lookups. They provide information files but thankfully store the photos. You only have a smallish database and a quick program to do daily updates.
You can see worldwide and citywide at roomrate.org and ratesparis.com. However please *dont* click on lookups. I like to keep everything legitimate.

So to recap - booking.com for commission/booking - a very nice xml feed but quite a bit of work.
Hotelscombined.com for commission/lookup - a lot easier to implement.

 

[Retired_member41]

Contrary to what I've said in the past.

Do not use laterooms. Don't pay commission. You email them no reply.

Nightmare.

 

[retired_member32]

i use trivago, don't think they undertake affiliate schemes because they are basically an affiliate scheme themselves....

 

[fabpack]

I always check with agoda.com

 

[stevebrowne]

As a consumer (I don't run any hotel sites), twice recently I wanted particular hotels, which appeared sold out - EVEN ON THEIR OFFICIAL SITES - but booking.com had availability. Both confirmed with the hotels after booking as valid.

So with my consumer hat on, I will always look there after an official site from now on.

 

[Stas]

As a consumer, I like and use booking.com too from all of them. Just from usability prospective I really like it. Use Hotels.com sometimes as they usually have 10% off code. And hotwire.com and lastminute.com for secret rooms to book 5* rooms pretty cheap.

 

[retired_member33]

Thanks for the replies so far.

I am currently using Hotels Combined but I am rather dissapointed with the earnings, I run Hotels.com on another site and commissions are 20-30 Euro on average, to get the same amount via Hotels Combined I will have to generate a lot of leads, just not worth it.

I won't be coming near Laterooms, I have used them on a B&B site and have always been suspicious about whether commissions are being paid or not..

Also did a poll on Facebook and looks like it will be either Hotels.com or Booking.com, just need some more votes to find out exactly what people are using to book their hotels.

Too bad that Viagogo doesn't have an affiliate program as it would be a perfect fit.

 

[mally]

You might want to have a look at hotels sletoh.com (hotels backwards) , is a price comparison website, doesn't take any cut, you enter your affiliate id's from the different networks. I've got there search box on here http://www.reservation.co.uk/booking-hotel-accommodation/

 

[retired_member33]

Yeah looked at that.

How is your experience with them?

I just thought that the name sletoh.com might put customers off from booking.

You might want to have a look at hotels sletoh.com (hotels backwards) , is a price comparison website, doesn't take any cut, you enter your affiliate id's from the different networks. I've got there search box on here http://www.reservation.co.uk/booking-hotel-accommodation/

 

[Retired_member41]

I've just looked at your sletoh link. Same hotel as booking .com is £30 a night cheaper going to booking com direct.

Sorry meaning a hotel on sletoh displaying a price from booking is much cheaper if you go to booking and search again.

So there must be some cut somewhere.

Works well though.

 

[mally]

I'm being honest where I say I've can't say good or bad things about them. My site has very minimal visits, and I've never had a successful booking from what I can tell I'm afraid. I can see though that through the networks that they have received hits, just haven't converted.

 

[mally]

further, I've just added the internal seach box, at the bottom of the page link I gave, this means the user shouldn't leave my site till they are ready to order, so the name shouldn't really make a difference.

 

[Pred]

i use google

 

[chippyb]

I use laterooms, and I have always thought it was a bit wierd say having a 100 people use the search box on my site and have no bookings at all.

But then I do a test booking myself and it shows up so who know, I was looking into booking . com but I can not find there cookie lenght or the commission % anyone know this?

Also do they still have xml or a csv feed, cant find it when logged in now