Agoda
Agoda is an online travel agency selling hotel and accommodation bookings, strongest in Asia-Pacific, with a catalogue it puts at over 925,000 properties.
What it is
Agoda is an online travel agency selling hotel and accommodation bookings, strongest in Asia-Pacific, with a catalogue it puts at over 925,000 properties. It takes the booking and payment end to end, so partners only have to send traffic. Its affiliate program is aimed at travel sites that can convert readers into stays.
The deal
The single most important detail is what triggers a commission: not the booking, but the completed stay. Bookings that are cancelled or never checked out pay nothing, and the rate ladder is counted in departures per month rather than bookings made, so a cancellation-heavy audience earns less than the click volume suggests. The ladder itself is narrow, moving by half a point between bands, and the rate applies to booking value after taxes and fees are stripped out, which is a meaningful haircut on hotel bookings.
One inconsistency worth knowing: the partner FAQ describes the model as progressive and offering “up to 7% commission on revenue”, while the commission calculator and the affiliate agreement both top out at a lower published rate. The tier table above is what the agreement and the live calculator actually state. Agoda can also change the percentages on the first day of any month with 15 days’ notice.
Tracking is unusual. There is no cookie window: you register your domain, Agoda whitelists it, and any link from that domain carrying your tracking code is credited. Bookings appear in the partner centre within a day.
Getting paid
Payment is by bank transfer only and there is a fairly high floor before anything moves, with anything under it carried forward. Because commission is tied to the guest’s departure rather than the booking, money lands well after the sale: a stay this month is paid the month after it ends, and agency bookings wait a further two months on top. An international transfer carries a small bank charge deducted from the payment, and errors have to be raised within 90 days.
The rules
The agreement bans paid search, SEM and SEO activity around Agoda’s marks, the Agoda site and hotel brands, along with double serving and cloaking. You need a live website before you apply; redirecting a bare domain with no site is banned, and travel search or price comparison sites need written permission. Affiliates cannot personally profit from bookings, and reselling bookings to third parties is a material breach that lets Agoda cancel confirmed reservations. Sites can be rejected on content grounds, and affiliate accounts are excluded from Agoda Rewards.
Sources
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