The best travel affiliate programs, from a blog that actually uses them
Most “best travel affiliate programs” lists are written by people who’ve never earned a penny from half the programs they recommend. This one is different.
We’re Charlie and Luke, UK travel bloggers, and this is the honest version: which affiliate programs we actually use on Charlie on Travel, which ones earn, which ones did nothing for us, and the single tool that out-earns the lot.
The Short Answer
If you only set up one thing, make it Stay22. It’s our highest-earning affiliate tool by a clear margin, and because it bundles Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, Vrbo and GetYourGuide into one, it saves you applying to each separately. The rest below are worth knowing, but be honest with yourself about which actually suit your content before you spread yourself thin.
Quick note on commissions: rates and cookie windows change constantly, so treat the figures below as a guide and check each program’s current terms before you rely on them.
Travel Affiliate Programs We Use and Rate
1. Stay22 — best overall (and our top earner)
What It Is: An affiliate tool built for travel content that aggregates the big booking sites (Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, Vrbo, GetYourGuide) and adds an interactive accommodation map to your posts. It’s fantastic because it covers these big booking websites all in one platform, reducing the total affiliate programs you need to be signed up for.
Best For: Any travel blogger whose content sends readers to book stays or activities.
Our Take: It has earned us more than every other platform combined in recent months, and mostly runs itself once it’s in. It’s incredibly intuitive, more so than any other travel affiliate platform, because it has a suite of AI tools that automatically optimises your blog with referral links and saves you heaps of time. However, commission rates are around 30% of the total commission paid by the booking provider, so it works out less compared to using booking provider affiliate programs directly. Full earnings and details in our Stay22 review.
Sign up with our referral link 👈 Stay22 runs a creator referral scheme, so you get a $100 bonus once you hit 100 bookings and we get a reward too.
2. Skimlinks — best for passive, hands-off coverage
What it is: A network that automatically turns your existing links across thousands of merchants into affiliate links.
Best For: Monetising a big back catalogue without manual work. There are many sports, outdoors and clothing retailers we link to who are merchants on Skimlinks, including The Sports Edit, BAM Bamboo Clothing, Rapanui Clothing, The North Face UK, Finisterre, Helly Hansen, and Eastpak. For us, these are brands we love and buy travel gear from, so we’re glad to recommend them.
Our Take: Easy to use with a wide range of brands, but the commissions tend to be low. We keep it on as broad, passive coverage rather than a main earner.
3. Booking.com — best for accommodation volume
What It Is: The largest accommodation affiliate program (we access it through Stay22, and it’s also available in Awin).
Best For: Destination guides where readers are choosing where to stay.
Our Take: High booking volume; commissions are per completed stay. Booking.com’s own platform login usually fails for us and it’s difficult to use effectively. Easiest to use bundled inside Stay22 rather than managed alone.
4. GetYourGuide — best for tours and activities
What It Is: Tours, activities and experiences worldwide.
Best For: “Things to do in [place]” content, and activities widgets.
Our Take: Handy for activity-led posts, though a modest earner for us on its own. We previously used it directly, but we now use it via Stay22 to save us having multiple platforms. Commission rates are currently 8% and you would receive a higher commission using GetYourGuide directly than via Stay22.
5. Expedia Group — best for flights + hotels in one
What It Is: Hotels, flights, car hire and packages via the Expedia creator/affiliate program.
Best For: Broad trip-planning content.
Our Take: hasn’t performed strongly for us in isolation, but we admittedly aren’t big users of Expedia ourselves and don’t link it very often. Again, covered within Stay22.
6. Amazon Associates — best for Kindles etc.
What It Is: Commission on Amazon purchases.
Best For: Packing lists, gear reviews, “what to pack” posts.
Our Take: Low commission %, ranging from 1% to 10% for standard sales, make the program not ideal to use. Only worth adding links for higher ticket items such as Kindles in our opinion.
Other Programs Worth Knowing
We haven’t earned meaningfully from these programs or don’t use them ourselves, but they’re well regarded and may suit your niche.
- Travelpayouts — The main alternative aggregator to Stay22 (bundles 100+ travel brands). Worth a look if you want to compare against Stay22.
- Viator — Big tours/activities program (a GetYourGuide rival).
- Skyscanner — flight comparison; commissions on flight referrals. We use it but earnings have been next to nothing.
- Discover Cars — Car-hire affiliate, strong for road-trip content.
- SafetyWing / travel insurance programs — Recurring-friendly, popular with nomad audiences.
- Networks (Awin, CJ, Impact) — Big brand marketplaces. Plenty of choice, but they’ve never really earned their keep for us compared with Stay22.
Quick Travel Affiliate Platform Comparison
| Program | Best for | How you link | Our verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stay22 | Stays + activities, all-in-one | Map + auto/manual links | Our #1 earner, set it up first |
| Skimlinks | Passive, whole-site coverage | Automatic script | Easy, but low commissions |
| Booking.com | Accommodation volume | Via Stay22 / Awin | Solid, best bundled in Stay22 |
| GetYourGuide | Tours & activities | Partner links / via Stay22 | Handy, modest on its own |
| Expedia | Hotels + flights | Links / via Stay22 | Underwhelming solo for us |
| Amazon Associates | Travel gear | Product links | [CHARLIE: verdict] |
| Travelpayouts | Aggregator alternative | Links/widgets | Worth comparing to Stay22 |
| Awin / CJ / Impact | Brand marketplaces | Per-brand links | Never earned much for us |
How to Choose (Don’t Sign Up for Everything)
The mistake we made early on was joining too many programs and managing none of them well. What actually worked was picking the strongest accommodation tool (Stay22), and the network with merchants we reference most often (Skimlinks), and adding others only when a specific post needed them.
Your travel affiliate strategy will depend on your specific travel blog niche and what types of stays, activities and gear you most often recommend naturally in your content.
Travel Affiliate FAQs
Stay22, because it bundles the major booking sites, adds a map that converts, and mostly runs itself, so you’re not juggling multiple applications and dashboards on day one.
It depends entirely on your traffic, your social media followings and how booking-focused your content is. Our figures are still modset, but we’re not full-time travel bloggers. For example, Stay22 averages£120/mo for us.
Yes, if your content has booking intent (where to stay, things to do). Hotel commissions are worth enough per booking that even modest, targeted traffic adds up.
Yes, you absolutely can, and we do ourselves. However, the more affiliate programs you have, the more there is to manage. We recommend finding the highest performers for you and going hard with those.
Disclosure: This guide contains affiliate and referral links, including our Stay22 referral link. If you sign up or book through them we may earn a commission or referral reward at no extra cost to you. Every verdict is our own, based on our real experience using these platforms on Charlie on Travel.