Booking.com affiliate program ends for large group of content creators as of June 20 – thousands of links worthless, revenue lost.
Travel bloggers worldwide received a slap in the face today. Booking.com suddenly ends its partnership with a large group of affiliates, per June 20, 2025. There seems to be a distinction: content creators who structurally generate more than €1000 per month in commission are (temporarily) spared. But those who are below that risk being kicked out of the program. Without personal explanation or opportunity for consultation.
“We have determined that our strategic focus unfortunately no longer aligns with this partnership.”
Booking.com
The decision comes at the worst possible time: just before the busiest time of the year. And the consequences are serious.
Booking.com: hundreds of pages and links immediately worthless
For many travel bloggers, this email means hundreds – sometimes thousands – of pages of hotel recommendations, booking links and itineraries need to be updated immediately. Not only does this cost a ton of time, it is also financially disastrous. Because: All bookings after June 20 will no longer yield any commission.
In other words, Booking.com will collect bookings after June 20, leaving bloggers empty-handed. Preparations for this summer – generated by hard-working content creators – will no longer be paid out. Booking.com also advises partners to “stop promotion as soon as possible” to “avoid disruption to customers.”
They couldn't have chosen a better timing.”Scoundrel,” many bloggers call it in closed groups. And that is putting it mildly.
Not the first blow: travel bloggers are having a hard time
This decision is unfortunately not an isolated incident, but fits into a pattern of increasing pressure on content creators in the travel industry. In recent months, DutchTravelBloggers.com several articles about these challenges:
🔗 Affiliate Marketing – Is it Still Reliable?
🔗 Press trips & per diems – Time for new standards
In this we mention, among other things:
- Declining affiliate revenue and commissions
- Unreliable tracking & payouts
- The Impact of AI on Organic Reach
- Google updates that push down independent sites
Booking.com's choice is therefore a yet another disappointment in an industry that is constantly changing – but rarely to the advantage of the small player.
⚠️ What now? The best alternatives to Booking.com affiliates
Don't want to be left empty-handed? Then now is the time to switch. These two affiliate platforms are user-friendly, reliable and specially designed for travel content creators.
✅ Stay22.com
A visually oriented affiliate tool that lets you integrate hotel maps and accommodation options on your own website. User-friendly, reliable and with clear analytics. Also useful for events or roadtrips. The script allows you to change all booking.com links on your website and convert them to Stay22 with one click. Your referred visitors will simply end up back on Booking.com via Stay22's links. In that respect, nothing changes.
UPDATE 28-5: After careful consideration and negotiations with Stay22, we have decided to share our own referral bonus with our followers. This means that we can now offer our readers a substantial $400 referral bonus can offer – instead of the standard $100.
👉 If you register via this affiliate link sign up, your $100 bonus will be manually increased to $400.
📩 Did you register last week? Don't worry – send me an email with you AID, then Stay22 will ensure that you are added to our referral list and receive the increased bonus.
✅ Travelpayouts.com
A broad affiliate platform with Booking.com alternatives such as Agoda, Hotels.com, and even flight and car rental links. The system works smoothly, is transparent in tracking and is very suitable for content creators in the travel industry. Travelpayouts has also launched a script with which you can update/overwrite all existing booking.com links in one go, so that you do not lose your commission.
Note: the above mentioned scripts that allow you to convert all booking.com links at once, ensure that all visitors you forward via your channels, still end up at Booking.com. However, the tracking and registration is done via Stay22 or Travelpayouts. So you don't miss any commission and the impact for your visitors is zero.
Both platforms help you keep your affiliate revenue – without having to spend weeks manually editing every page.
Prefer to adjust everything manually?
✅ Stop using Booking links before June 20th
Anything you promote after that date will no longer yield any revenue – no matter how well your content converts.
✅ Update your pages step by step
Start with your most popular and best converting articles. Think top 10 lists, travel itineraries, and hotel reviews.
✅ Consider a strategic switch to Stay22 of travel payouts
Both offer better terms and user-friendliness than CJ.com. And with their scripts you can convert your Booking links automatically.
Join the Dutch Travel Bloggers community
Especially in times of great change – such as this unexpected exit of Booking.com – it is important as lifestyle and travel bloggers / content creators, to stand strong together. DutchTravelBloggers.com is the community for professional content creators who believe in knowledge sharing, collaboration and transparency within the travel industry.
🤝 What you get as a member:
- Direct access to exclusive information and solutions in case of affiliate problems
- Support in switching to alternatives such as Stay22 and Travelpayouts
- Tips and scripts to quickly and effectively adjust your affiliate links
- Discussion and knowledge sharing with other serious travel bloggers and content creators
- Access to shared press lists, invitations and job opportunities
- And coming soon: ready-made checklists, templates and advisory tools for content creators
📢 At Dutch Travel Bloggers we identify trends early, we sound the alarm when platforms misbehave, and we think along about new revenue models that fit the current times.
🔗 Join today via DutchTravelBloggers.com
Together we take professional travel content to the next level – honest, independent and future-proof.
Finally, it is time for new relationships
What this situation painfully exposes is how dependent many travel bloggers still are on large platforms. Booking.com – which for years profited from thousands of free SEO links and recommendations from bloggers – is now unilaterally pulling the plug on the partnership. Without a proper explanation.
👉 Maybe this is the moment to build less dependency, more direct revenue models and better collaborations. From bloggers for bloggers. Transparent, honest and future-proof.
Together we stand stronger.
