How does Booking.com make money as one of the biggest online hotel and property booking portals?
This is a question that many people ask, and it is a very important question to find the answer for in case that you want to start making money online.
And most important, how can you take advantage of the Booking.com business model and make money for yourself even without having to start a very big website and do lots of expensive branding and marketing like what the Booking website owners did?
These questions and more, I will be answering in this article, so bear with me till the end where I will show you where you can go in order to start your “mini-booking.com” website that could make you money in the same way.
How Does Booking.com Make Money?
Booking.com makes money through the commission-based model that is called affiliate marketing. This means that booking.com gets a commission from property owners for every reservation that happens through the Booking.com website.
For example, if you plan to book a night in a 5-star hotel in New York, and you look for one on Booking.com and reserve a room and pay for it, Booking.com will get a commission from that hotel.
And the value for the commission for every reservation depends in value on your reservation period, the hotel, the room, the location, the season, the country, …etc.
This model is called affiliate marketing, and it’s a legitimate model and my favorite way of making money online.
That’s how the Booking.com website works and makes money through connecting property owners with tenants.
Can You Make Money With The Booking.com Method?
Sure!
Affiliate marketing is a very popular way, and the best way for creating a passive income online, and millions of affiliates make money with it, including myself.
And you can do that as well if you are willing to put in the work and time and stay persistent until you succeed.
And for making money like how Booking.com makes it, you need to start your own website.
But don’t worry!
Creating websites today is not difficult and doesn’t require a technical experience or knowledge.
In fact, I have written an article on how to create a free affiliate website in 30 seconds.
And you don’t need your website to be as big as the Booking.com website in order to make money with the same model.
Affiliate marketing websites come in all sizes and forms.
Even better, with affiliate marketing, you don’t have to make your website about hotels’ reservations, it’s just one option.
You can choose any niche for your affiliate site and make money with it.
For example, you can make a website that makes you affiliate commissions through helping others book flight tickets, retreats, cruising trips and more.
Even better, you don’t have to create your affiliate website around something related to reservation in the first place.
You can make an affiliate site around an interest, a skill, or a hobby that you have.
Something like Basketball for example, where you can recommend to people the best Basketball shoes for the year, the best online course for dunking, the best Basketball hoops, …etc. and make a commission if anyone buys what you recommend after they find it through your website.
Exactly like I do with my website that teaches people how to jump high for dunking where I recommend an online training course for vertical jumps.
And the same goes with other niches like Yoga, graphic design, cooking, fishing, cycling, and so on.
And you can still make it about booking hotels and properties, but in a slightly different way than what Booking.com does.
Another example, you can make a website about your country city, and you can write different articles around the place, the services (lawyers, accountants, hotels, restaurants, …etc.), the destinations, and recommend the best options out there, and make commissions from them if they get clients through your website.
And that works even if you were a total beginner, if you follow the steps in the following section:
Make Money with Your Own Mini-Booking.com Business in 3-Steps
1 – Decide on The Niche You Want to Work on
It’s better to choose a niche about something that you are interested in or you are passionate about.
This will make it easier for you to work on it for a long period of time and build a sustainable affiliate income, which is the ultimate goal here.
Something you are passionate about could be a hobby or a practice such as: Yoga, sports, cooking, woodworking, knitting, …etc., or it could be a cause that you care about such as: veganism, financial education, self-help (self-confidence, dating help, rehab, …etc.)
And something you are interested in could be something related to a certain technological field or any profession such as: graphic design, video editing, green energy, …etc.
2 – Create a Simple WordPress Website
After you have chosen your niche, you can now pick a relevant domain name that you like for your website, and you can create it.
A WordPress website doesn’t require any prior experience or coding knowledge, which is why it is the most popular type of website creating platforms for affiliates.
You don’t have to do something like Booking.com and hire coders to do it for your in order to make money with the same model that Booking.com follows.
And don’t worry! In the following sections, you will learn about the place where they provide you with all what you need in order to create this website with ease and they will take care of all of the technical stuff so that you focus on doing what matters the most, making money like Booking.com does!
3 – Find What Questions People Have & Give Them Helpful Answers & Recommendations That Make You Money
This is the part that really makes you the money.
Like it is Booking’s job to help people find the best options for staying based on their budgets, destinations and their purposes, it is also your job to help your audience (niche) find the best options for what they want and the best solutions for their problems.
For example, if your website is about basketball for kids, you help parents find the best basketball shoes for kids that are comfortable to wear, best hoops that are safe to practice on, or hoops that are adjustable so that they keep adjusting them as their kids get taller with time.
And if your website is about vegan cooking, then you might recommend the best vegan cooking books and recipes, or maybe online courses for vegan cooking.
And if your website is about tourism or sightseeing in a specific country or town, you can recommend the best restaurants, services and hotels, classes, …etc. in that place.
And you could even place banner ads for Booking.com on your website, and if people click on them and go to the booking.com website and reserve a room in a hotel, booking.com will treat you as their sub-affiliate and give you part of the commission they get from the property owner or hotel.
And so on.
And whenever you recommend something to your audience on your website, you need to link to the vendor or company that sells those products and services through a unique link that is called “affiliate link”.
This link will help the owner or vendor of the product you recommend track the purchase that happened and credit it to you in order to give you the commission.
And with these three, easy-to-follow steps, you can create your “mini-Booking” website that makes you money in the same way that Booking.com makes money online.
And in the following section, you will learn where you can find all the training and tools necessary for starting your business that would make you money like how the Booking website makes money.
But Where to Go in Order to Start This Business in 5 Minutes from Now?
In order to start a business that makes you money with the same way that Booking.com makes money with, which is affiliate marketing, you need three main things:
- You need the detailed training that would help you learn affiliate marketing step-by-step.
- You need the tools and the easy website builder that doesn’t require technical knowledge or experience.
- You need the expert and community support that would help you in every step through your journey.
And luckily, I have found all of these three in one place, which is the same place where I learned how to build my websites and monetize them with the same model that Booking.com follows.
And this place is called Wealthy Affiliate, the place that provides you with all what you need in order to start and grow your affiliate marketing business.
This is a comprehensive platform that provides you with the detailed, step-by-step, affiliate marketing training, hosting for your website with a premium support, advanced research and content writing tools, and most important; expert and community support from around 2 million online entrepreneurs that are willing to help you whenever you need help.
And this platform provides all what you need in one place for an affordable cost, and they even provide a free membership plan to try it before you pay anything.
If you are interested in learning this model and starting your own online business that makes you a passive income using the same model that Booking.com uses to make money online, then you can check my Wealthy Affiliate review here in order to learn more about what this platform offers and how they can help you.
At least, get the free membership which gives the first level of the training (10 lessons) completely for free. This will help you understand how this model works very well.
And from there, you decide if you want to join the paid membership and save the time on yourself, or to go and start your business alone and bootstrap things.
Conclusion
I hope you found my article helpful and you understood how Booking.com makes money online through affiliate marketing.
If you are interested in starting your own business that makes you money the same way that the Booking website does, then you can go with my recommended platform in the previous section above.
And if you still have any questions about anything in this article or about how Booking.com generates revenue and profit, then please, feel free to leave it in the comments’ section below and I will be happy to answer you asap 🙂