Forum Moderators: skibum
I am loooking to start a hotel/condo booking website for my local sector and wanted to see if I can get some advice before I jump into this competitive and expensive niche. There are already around 10 or so other sites that are booking hotels/condos for my area, but all of them are just trying to make a quick buck with the typical "book here", "book now!", etc. My site is going to stand apart from the crowd because it will sort of be a tripadvisor clone, except, it will be more user-friendly, consist of local articles written by local residents, an advice column written by a local editor, etc. However, the main engine will be a review's component that will allow people to rate and review their lodging experiences, restaurant choices, clubs, etc. This is what I hope will stand us apart from the crowd. I hope people will come to us as a source of unbiased info where they can trust us and stay loyal for future bookings.
Having said that, I a few questions:
1.) Shall everything by affiliate based (Ian, etc) or should I get one of those booking engines that several companies are now providing that cost like $600.
2.) Does anyone know if it's allowed to have a combination of affiliate programs (ian, travelocity,etc) or am I only allowed to have one program? I heard that if you write them, some companies let you put both programs on one page, not exclusive.
3.) Is it true that some programs like IAN only let you make a commission from the FIRST booking and not future bookings from the same customer?
The good news is that this site has been under construction phase since March/April of last year and it is already out of the sandbox.
I hope some of you can help answer the questions above. In return, I will post my progress and keep a journal for other people who are interested in taking the same path. Thanks.
Read up on their agreements when you sign up and to see if they want exclusivity per site. I usually dont like mixing them on the same site anyway, as the public tends to get confused.
