Best High Paying Travel Affiliate Programs

This is the publisher's guide to the best high-paying travel affiliate programs — the ones where the commission actually justifies the content. We'll cover what makes a travel program pay well (it's rarely the headline percentage alone), the categories where the real money hides, a ranked shortlist of programs live in the Affground directory, and how to build a travel affiliate site that earns. Written for travel bloggers, comparison sites and creators who want their wanderlust content to actually pay.

What actually makes a travel program "high paying"

Beginners chase the biggest commission percentage and get burned, because in travel the percentage is only one of four things that decide your actual earnings:

Earnings ≈ commission rate × order value × conversion × repeat/recurring.

A 3% commission on a $2,000 holiday package beats a 10% commission on a $40 activity. A car-rental program paying 70% of a small profit can out-earn a hotel program paying 6% of the booking. And an insurance program paying a modest recurring cut can, over a year, dwarf a one-off booking commission. High-paying travel programs win on the product of those factors, not any single one.

That's why the highest-earning travel affiliates think in categories, not brands. Flights are famously terrible (wafer-thin margins mean tiny commissions); car rental, tours, insurance and packages are where the money actually is. Match your content to the high-margin categories and the same traffic earns multiples more.

Affground's take: "high-paying travel program" almost never means the biggest percentage — it means the biggest number after the math. Discover Cars paying up to 70% of a car-rental profit, or SafetyWing paying a recurring cut of an insurance subscription, will quietly out-earn a flashy hotel rate, because they win on order value, margin or repetition. Judge travel programs on realistic earnings per booking, not the rate on the banner.

How travel commissions actually work

Travel programs pay in a few distinct shapes, and the shape matters as much as the size:

The two shapes that make travel high-paying are the ones people overlook: high percentage-of-profit (car rental pays up to ~70% of the profit) and recurring (insurance keeps paying). Meanwhile flights — the thing travellers search most — sit at the bottom, because airlines keep almost all the margin. The lesson is to point your best content at the categories that pay, not just the ones with the most search volume.

The best high-paying travel affiliate programs

Here's the ranked shortlist — a deliberate spread across the highest-earning travel categories, every one live in our directory with terms pulled straight from it:

A little more on why each earns its place:

• Travelpayouts — not one program but a whole travel network, bundling 100+ travel brands (flights, hotels, tours, car rental, insurance) behind one dashboard with revenue share up to ~70% of each program's commission. The fastest way to monetise a broad travel site, and the most beginner-friendly on-ramp to the vertical.
• Discover Cars — the quiet high-earner. Up to 70% of the car-rental profit plus 30% of insurance revenue (roughly $8–9 per booking), and an extraordinary 365-day cookie. Car rental is a high-margin, high-intent category, and few programs pay this generously.
• SafetyWing — travel-medical and nomad insurance paying recurring commission (historically ~10%) for as long as the policy stays active. Insurance is a perfect affiliate product — high intent, low refunds — and the recurring model means your referrals compound. A dream for nomad and long-term-travel audiences.
• GetYourGuide — around 8% on tours, attractions and experiences, with a generous ~31-day cookie. Experiences are high-margin and high-intent, and "things to do in [place]" is some of the most convertible travel content there is.
• Viator — the Tripadvisor-owned experiences giant, paying up to 8% across 300,000+ bookable tours. The natural counterpart (or rival) to GetYourGuide for destination and itinerary content.
• Booking.com — not the highest rate, but the highest conversion: the most recognised name in accommodation, with enormous inventory that turns browsers into bookers. Volume is its superpower.
• Expedia — tiered commissions of roughly 2–6% across Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo. Modest percentages, but brand trust and huge range make it a dependable all-rounder for broad travel audiences.

Prefer to browse and compare yourself? The full affiliate networks directory and programs directory let you filter by vertical, payout terms and cookie window.

What each travel category actually pays

Where you focus your content decides your ceiling. Here's the rough shape of payouts across the main travel categories:

Two takeaways jump out. Car rental and insurance punch far above their weight — a high cut of profit and a recurring stream, respectively. Flights are a trap: they pull enormous search volume but pay almost nothing, so use them to attract readers, then convert on the categories that actually pay. (For how to compare offers on one honest number, see our guide to EPC in affiliate marketing.)

How to build a travel affiliate site that earns

Travel rewards a specific playbook, because the buying journey is long and research-heavy:

1. 1Pick a focused angle — a region, a travel style (road trips, digital nomad, luxury), or a category. Depth beats a generic "travel blog."
2. 2Lead with high-margin categories — build your money content around car rental, tours, insurance and packages, not flights.
3. 3Write at the decision stage — "best car rental in [country]," "is [insurance] worth it," "top tours in [city]." These catch readers with a wallet open.
4. 4Layer recurring where you can — an insurance program like SafetyWing quietly compounds while you sleep. (More on this in recurring commission programs.)
5. 5Exploit long cookies — travel is planned weeks ahead, so a 365-day cookie (Discover Cars) or a 31-day one (GetYourGuide) captures the slow booker a short cookie loses.
6. 6Diversify across programs — spread across a network (Travelpayouts) plus a few direct programs so no single rate change sinks you.

Affground predicts: as travel keeps shifting to experiences and long-term/remote travel, the money will keep migrating from flights and hotels toward tours, car rental and recurring insurance. The publishers who build authority in those high-margin categories now — rather than chasing flight search volume — will own the most profitable corner of the travel vertical as it grows.

Common mistakes in travel affiliate marketing

• Chasing the headline percentage — a big rate on a thin-margin or low-value product loses to a modest rate on a high-value one. Do the earnings math.
• Building around flights — huge traffic, almost no commission. Attract with them, monetise elsewhere.
• Ignoring cookie length — travel is booked slowly; a 24-hour cookie forfeits most of your bookings.
• Skipping insurance — one of the highest-intent, lowest-refund, recurring-friendly products in travel, and constantly left on the table.
• Promoting one brand only — travellers compare, and a single program can't cover every destination or category. Diversify.
• Thin, generic content — "10 best places to visit" with bolted-on links converts terribly. Decision-stage depth wins.

How to start

1. 1Choose your niche — region, travel style or category you can be genuinely credible in.
2. 2Join a travel network (Travelpayouts) for instant breadth, plus 2–3 direct high-payers that fit your angle.
3. 3Publish decision-stage content around the high-margin categories.
4. 4Add an insurance/recurring program so part of your income compounds.
5. 5Track earnings per booking and per program, then double down on what actually pays.

Affground's verdict

The best high-paying travel affiliate programs aren't the ones with the loudest commission rate — they're the ones that win the earnings math. Discover Cars handing over most of a rental's profit, SafetyWing paying a recurring cut of an insurance subscription, GetYourGuide and Viator at ~8% on high-margin experiences, and a travel network like Travelpayouts giving you the whole vertical at once — these out-earn a flashy hotel percentage because they win on margin, order value, cookie length or repetition. Booking.com and Expedia round it out with the brand trust and volume that convert.

So build for the categories that actually pay, write at the moment travellers decide, exploit the long cookies travel gives you, and let part of your income compound through recurring insurance. Do that, and travel stops being a low-paying gallery of pretty photos and becomes one of the most profitable niches in affiliate marketing. Affground's bet: the travel publishers who follow the margin — not the search volume — will out-earn the ones still counting flight clicks.

• Up to 70% of the rental profit per booking
• Extra 30% of insurance revenue on top
• Exceptionally long 365-day cookie window

• Recurring commission (historically ~10%) for the life of the policy
• Subscriptions renew monthly, so income compounds
• In-demand product for digital nomads and long-term travellers

• Around 8% commission on high-intent experience bookings
• Generous ~31-day cookie window
• Huge catalogue of tours and attractions worldwide

• Up to 8% commission on experience bookings
• 300,000+ tours and activities worldwide
• Backed by Tripadvisor's brand and scale

• Earn on the world's largest accommodation inventory
• Trusted brand that converts browsers into bookers
• No minimum payout threshold

• One of the most recognised names in travel booking
• Huge global inventory across Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo
• Broad product range: hotels, flights, packages and activities