Since you are looking for an honest Agoda affiliate program review, this means that you already know that you can make money with Agoda without owning property, and you are thinking if this hotel booking affiliate program is worth it to join or not.
You are in the right place!
I will tell you in this review whether Agoda’s affiliate program was the best option out there, or are there better alternatives to this program.
Note: The BEST affiliate programs can’t make you money unless you have the necessary skills and tools. If you still don’t have these, don’t worry! This platform can help you with getting all the training and tools that you need to succeed.
Agoda Affiliate Program Review Summary
- Name: Agoda Affiliate Program
- Website: https://partners.agoda.com/en-us/login.html
- Founders: Agoda.com
- Price: Free to join, but you need to use paid tools in order to succeed. (More in the last section of this review)
- Worth it? Yes, but you need to read the last section.
Overall OnlinePassiveIncomeGuide.com Rating: 82 of 100
Summary: Agoda offers a good affiliate program that allows you to promote different services, mainly: hotels, flights, and airport transportation, for a good commission based on the total booking value.
The main downfall is that the affiliate cookie ends with the same session the referral leaves Agoda.com website, and the fact that minimum payout is $200, which is high for beginners.
What Is The Agoda Affiliate Program?
The Agoda affiliate program is a program that allows you to make money with Agoda.com without having to own or manage any rental property, but instead, by referring others to use the Agoda website and app in order to book hotels and flights, in exchange of a commission on every customer that you bring to Agoda.
And this is how affiliate marketing works, and it is the same business model of Agoda.com itself, since they get commissions from hotels, airlines, and airport transportation companies on every customer they bring to these companies.
And you get part of that commission.
It is as if you work as a sub-affiliate under the main affiliate, Agoda.com.
Components of The Tripadvisor.com Affiliate Program
Available Services to Promote
Although Agoda starting offering flights booking, and airport transportation, but so far, it seems that the only option for affiliates is to promote hotel reservations in order to get commissions.
As an Agoda affiliate, you will get a commission on every completed hotel stays.
This is one of the main downfalls of the Agoda affiliate program, because many other travel and booking affiliate programs offer a wide variety of services to promote.
Agoda Affiliate Commission Rate
Agoda pays its affiliates a commission that is around 4-7% of the total hotel booking value, depending on how many bookings per month that you bring to them, as follows:
- 0-49 Bookings: You get 4% on each booking value.
- 50-99 Bookings: You get 4.5% on each booking value.
- 100-199 Bookings: You get 5% on each booking value.
- 200-999 Bookings: You get 6% on each booking value.
- 1,000 Bookings or more: You get 7% on each booking value.
For example, if you bring 254 bookings in a certain month, then on a booking that is worth $300, you would get $300*5%= $15 from Agoda on that single booking.
And the same way you calculate the affiliate commission on every other referred booking from the 254 you referred as an affiliate to Agoda that month.
Agoda Affiliate Cookie Duration
Agoda now doesn’t offer a long affiliate cookie duration like it used to be.
The current affiliate cookie of Agoda’s affiliate program ends with the end of the referral’s session to Agoda’s website or app.
This is really bad, as many affiliate programs in the travel and booking industry offer much longer cookie duration that go up to 30 days sometimes.
And outside the booking industry, some affiliate programs offer cookies offer up to 90-day cookie duration or even more.
Languages Available
Agoda is available for users in 38 languages, which means that you have more chances of promoting the website to many people from different countries and backgrounds, and expect higher conversion rates compared to what it would be assuming that they have only one language.
Agoda.com Affiliate Program Cost
Agoda’s affiliate program is free to join, however, one of their conditions to approve your request is to have a website in place, which costs some money.
But don’t worry! In the last section of this Agoda affiliate program review, you will learn about a place where you can start an affiliate site in 30 seconds without a technical knowledge and for a low cost.
And you need some other tools such as a keyword research tool and a good training that will teach you the necessary skills to make your efforts worth the time so that you make money with the Agoda affiliate program.
Agoda Affiliate Payment Threshold & Hold Period
Agoda pays you once you have collected at least $200 in affiliate commissions.
The payment will be processed directly on the next month after the month when the latest commission was earned.
For example, if you get a commission from a hotel booking that was between April 27th and May 3rd, and that commission completed your affiliate earnings to become $200, you get paid on June 15th.
Agoda Affiliate Payout Methods
So far, the only payment method from the Agoda affiliate program is direct deposit to your bank, which is not so good in my opinion as some people might prefer to receive their money through a wire transfer, or through PayPal, especially that a direct deposit might only be available in few currencies such as USD and Euro.
In any case, if you don’t have an American or European bank account, you can use Payoneer, which is an online banking service that gives you a virtual bank account that allows you to receive direct deposits in USD, Euro, GBP, and some other major currencies.
How to Make Money with The Agoda Affiliate Program in 3 Steps
1 – Build Your Loyal Audience
In order to make money with any affiliate program, including Agoda’s affiliate program, you first need to grow an audience that will trust you and would take your recommendations.
And there are many ways to grow an audience online, but the best way is to create a niche website that is dedicated to help a certain group of people.
And anyway, it is a must by the Agoda affiliate program to have your own site before you apply to join them as an affiliate.
Don’t worry if you have no experience with websites, as in the last section of this Agoda affiliate program review, I will tell you about the place that helped me create different affiliate websites without technical knowledge or experience.
And to grow an audience through your website, you need to create and add helpful content to your site that helps your audience.
Let’s say that you make your website about places to go and things to do in Santorini.
You would create articles that help people who are traveling to Santorini in finding what they are looking for such as:
- Best hotels in Santorini.
- Best places to stay in Santorini.
- Best restaurants in Santorini.
- Best beaches in Santorini.
- Best restaurants in Santorini with a view.
- Cheap flights to Santorini.
And so on.
And for each one of these searches, you would create an article listing the best 5-10 options available in Santorini.
2 – Join The Agoda Affiliate Program
In order to be able to make money as an affiliate for Agoda, you will need to apply for their affiliate program and wait for their approval after you have already created your website.
And you can apply to join the Agoda affiliate program through their website.
After you apply, Agoda’s team will review your request and your site in order to make sure that it meets their quality guidelines and the affiliate agreement terms and conditions, before approving your request and accepting you as an affiliate.
3 – Use The Agoda Affiliate Tools to Promote Their Services to Your Audience
Agoda offers many affiliate tools for you to use in your promotions on your site, such as:
- Image affiliate links: You can generate an image ad for almost any property that is listed on Agoda, by selecting the property, choosing the image you want to use, and generating an HTML code that you would embed on your site, which would take your audience directly to that property on Agoda.com when they click on your ad.
- Text affiliate links: These are unique links that you can use as a hyperlink on a text on your site, and would take your audience to the page or offer that is listed on the Agoda.
- Banners: These are general images that you can embed on your site, and they would take your site’s visitors to Agoda.com with your affiliate ID so that they track them and credit you for the commission if someone books what they find there.
- Search Boxes: This is similar to the search box that anyone can use on the Agoda website, but here, you can embed this box on your site in order to make it easier for your audience to use it in order to look for what they need, and after finding something, they will be re-directed to the Agoda website in order to complete the reservation and you would get the commission.
And with these tools, you can link to Agoda from any of the articles you wrote in step 1 above, and when someone clicks on the affiliate links or ads, or if they use the search box and then go to Agoda.com to book something, you get credit for that referral and you get a commission if they complete the staying.
And with these three simple steps, you can make money with the Agoda.com affiliate program.
Agoda Affiliate Program Support
Agoda has an affiliate support team to help you whenever you need help, and it also offers an affiliate dashboard to track your performance, in addition to many tools that you can use as an Agoda affiliate.
Pros & Cons of The Agoda Affiliate Program
Pros:
- The website is available in 38 languages, which helps increase conversions.
- A popular and trusted site for booking stayings.
- Offers both, hotels and homes, which makes it suitable for a larger group of users.
- Many affiliate tools are available, especially the image ads and the search box, as these make the promotions on your site more interactive.
- Performance based commission that increases based on the number of bookings you bring every month.
- Self-hosted affiliate program, which means that you only need to comply to their terms and not the affiliate networks’ terms.
- Affiliate dashboard for tracking and reporting.
Cons:
- The cookie duration is limited to the session when your referral visits Agoda.com through your link. If they leave the site, and come back an hour later to book something, you don’t get a commission.
- Only staying properties are offered for you to promote, unlike other travel programs that allow you to promote packages, flights, rental cars, cruises, experiences and more.
- There’s an approval process to join the Agoda affiliate program, which means that you might not get approved.
- The minimum affiliate payout is $200, which is high for some people, especially beginners.
- The only affiliate payment method is through direct bank deposits, which might not be possible for some affiliates.
Agoda Affiliate Program Alternatives
If you were not approved to become an Agoda affiliate, or if the program doesn’t offer what you need in terms of variety of offers, payment methods, minimum payout, …etc., then you can find other travel and booking affiliate programs through any of the different methods for finding affiliate programs, but here are three of them:
- Tripadvisor.com Affiliate Program: Tripadvisor.com offers many products to promote, such as: hotels, flights, rental cars, experiences, cruises, and more. They pay their affiliates 50% of their earning on every booking, and they have a 14-day affiliate cookie duration, in addition the many tools that affiliates can use.
- Skyscanner.net Affiliate Program: Skyscanner.net offer a good range of products and services to promote, such as: hotels, flights, and rental cars. The cookie duration is 30 days, and the commission rate is around 20% or more of their earnings on every booking that you bring, and goes higher for affiliates with more conversions and better performance. They also offer good tools including the search box.
- Booking.com Affiliate Program: Booking.com is one of the oldest and most popular booking sites, and they offer many products and services that you can promote as an affiliate. Their affiliate program is hosted both: in-house and on affiliate networks. But the main issue is that, like Agoda’s affiliate program, the affiliate cookie duration of the Booking.com is limited to the session your referral makes after clicking your affiliate link.
Conclusion – Is Agoda.com Affiliate Program Worth it?
Agoda’s affiliate program is a good one for making affiliate commissions in the travel and tourism industry without having or managing rental properties, especially that the website is available in 38 languages and offers both, hotels and homes.
- Name: Agoda Affiliate Program
- Website: https://partners.agoda.com/en-us/login.html
- Founders: Agoda.com
- Price: Free to join, but you need to use paid tools in order to succeed. (More in the last section of this review)
- Worth it? Yes, but you need to read the last section.
Overall OnlinePassiveIncomeGuide.com Rating: 82 of 100
However, the main disadvantages of the Agoda affiliate program are: small range of services to promote, short cookie duration, high minimum affiliate payout, and one payment method.
And all of these might limit your ability of making money with Agoda’s affiliate program, compared to other travel affiliate programs like the alternatives mentioned in the previous section.
Affiliate Programs Like Agoda’s DON’T Make You Money, Unless ….
Unless you have the required skills and tools, you can’t really make a living with Agoda’s affiliate program, or with any other affiliate program in any niche or industry.
That was a problem for me when I started out with affiliate marketing, despite having joined many of the best affiliate programs out there.
But this all changed after I joined the right place to learn how to start and grow my affiliate marketing business the right way.
And this amazing place is an online platform that is called Wealthy Affiliate.
This place that I found, provided me with all what I need in order to become successful with affiliate marketing, such as:
- The step-by-step, detailed affiliate training.
- The best affiliate marketing tools to find opportunities for making money with affiliate programs like Agoda’s affiliate program.
- The very easy-to-use website builder, in addition to the amazing web hosting that comes with the best support so that I don’t worry about technical issues.
- And most important, the very nice and amazing community of more than 2 million online entrepreneurs who would gladly help you whenever you need help, and would push you forward to stay on the track.
And much more.
And you can get all of this for an affordable monthly fee that doesn’t come with any upsells and surprises.
If you are interested in learning affiliate marketing the right way from people who have been doing it for over 15 years now, then check out this review of Wealthy Affiliate in order to learn more about this platform, and you will also learn how you can get started with the FREE Starter plan at the beginning in order to try it.
I hope that my Agoda.com affiliate program review was helpful for you and that you found answers to all of your questions regarding this program, and how you can make money with it.
If you still have any question about anything I explained here, please, let me know in the comments’ section below and I will be happy to help you out 🙂