TripAdvisor
Pays at least 50% of the commission it receives from hotel booking partners — and pays on the click-out, with no booking required.
About the TripAdvisor affiliate program
TripAdvisor runs its affiliate programme in-house and pays a minimum of 50% of the commission it receives from its hotel booking partners. The mechanism is the thing to understand: a user arrives on TripAdvisor through your link, then clicks out to one of TripAdvisor’s hotel booking partners, and that click-out is what earns. No booking is required at any point — TripAdvisor notes your readers may still be researching, so there is no need to push for a sale. The referral window is 14 days on a multi-touch attribution model, which is more generous than the length suggests: if the user returns to TripAdvisor within those 14 days and clicks out, you are credited even if they came back on a different device or through a banner, an ad or another channel entirely. TripAdvisor publishes three real publisher examples, which give a usable sense of scale: 170 clicks sent earning $60 a month, 870 clicks earning $550, and 6,100 clicks earning $1,720 — roughly 28 to 63 cents per click sent. Affiliates can embed links naturally in their content; TripAdvisor states explicitly that sponsored posts are not required. The catalogue behind it covers 795 million reviews, 1.4 million places to stay, 5 million restaurants, 1.1 million activities, 500 airlines and 70,000 cruises, though commission is earned on hotel traffic. Note that TripAdvisor also owns Viator, which runs a separate programme at 8% of completed bookings.
Pros and cons
- ✓No booking required: you earn when a user clicks out to a hotel booking partner, whatever happens next
- ✓Minimum 50% of the commission TripAdvisor receives, so the floor is published rather than the ceiling
- ✓Multi-touch attribution over 14 days — credit survives the user returning on a different device or through other channels
- ✓Links can be woven into normal content; TripAdvisor explicitly says sponsored posts are not needed
- –Only a 14-day referral window
- –The 50% is of TripAdvisor’s own commission from its booking partners, not of the booking value
- –Earnings depend on click-out rate rather than conversion, so the per-click amounts are small
- –Hotel traffic only — restaurants, attractions and cruises do not earn here
Topics
TripAdvisor runs its own affiliate program. Look for an "Affiliates" or "Partners" link in the footer of their website. We list program details for reference and don’t link out — always confirm the current terms with the program itself.