Have you heard about Stay22? They have taken the travel affiliate world by storm in recent years, and I see quite a few questions about them in the various blogging groups I’m part of.
So, in case you are still wondering if stay22 is worth it, I wanted to share my experience which has been great so far. Thanks to Stay22’s NOVA pop-up feature, my hotel income increased by almost 3x the month after I installed it.
In this Stay22 review, we’ll take a look at the pros and cons of including Stay22 in your affiliate marketing strategy, as well as my numbers after 8 months of testing 🔥
This is a sponsored post, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own as always. I asked to write this because I’m so happy with the Stay22 tools.
Article overview
What is Stay22?
Stay22 is an affiliate solution for bloggers and other media in the travel niche looking to make money by recommending accommodation options to their audience. You get 30% of their commission.
Currently, Stay22 includes these booking sites:
- Booking.com
- Expedia
- Hotels.com
- Tripadvisor
- VRBO
- Trivago
- Kayak
You don’t need to be a direct affiliate with any of these companies to use Stay22.
What is the difference between Stay22 and an affiliate network?
An affiliate network is a platform that connects advertisers with publishers who promote the advertisers’ products or services in exchange for a commission. You have to apply to each brand, create the links and manually place them on your website.
While Stay22 is an affiliate solution that places a script on your website that automatically turns links into affiliates, fixes 404 errors and navigates the user to the booking software that is most commonly used in their location.
Stay22 features
Okay, this sounds good and all, but how does Stay22 actually work? Let’s take a closer look at all the features you get within this one affiliate solution.
1. LMA (Let Me Allez)
The “Let Me Allez” (LMA) Optimized Redirect ensures that readers who click on my affiliate links are shown personalized booking options tailored to their interests and needs. This feature has shown increasing conversions by an average of 10.6%.
In addition, LMA maximizes revenue by immediately fixing and replacing all broken links and 404 errors. This is a big help and positively affects SEO because search engines frown upon broken links.
2. NOVA
NOVA is technically part of the LMA script, but I thought it deserved its own recognition. It is the reason why my income from hotel affiliates tripled after just two months.
You can look at Nova as your own AI booking agent that identifies users who are about to leave and acts as a safety net that recommends the perfect booking to them before they go. It’s been shown to increase bookings by up to 50%.
A new tab with accommodation options for the specific location in the article they are reading pops up, which encourages browsing. It only pops up for users with a real travel intent, about 3% of users.
3. Interactive maps
Stay22 also offers interactive maps that can be integrated anywhere on your website, making it easy for users to find accommodations near attractions or certain areas.
Additionally, current prices and only available accommodations are displayed on the maps, along with nearby airports, which can also generate commissions from flight bookings.
What I really like about the maps is that you can click on the map to view hotels, including photos right on my blog. This is particularly helpful for us travel bloggers since we don’t have the time or resources to photograph all the hotels ourselves.
Here’s an example of the interactive map:
4. ListView
Another way to display different options is through Stay22’s Listview tool. It enhances user experience by displaying a comprehensive list of accommodations and related products directly on our websites or apps.
Additionally, Listview boosts organic search traffic by optimizing how listings appear in search results, which is a great way to maximize our potential.
5. Affiliate links and QR codes
Allez affiliate links can be used to link from text, banners, emails, bios and more. These are short links that look cleaner. You can also generate affiliate QR codes and use them in videos, reels, etc.
Do I need to replace all my current affiliate links?
If you are apprehensive about having to change your Booking.com or Hotels.com affiliate links to Stay22, don’t worry.
The script, that I installed in 30 seconds, automatically converts your existing affiliate links. So, I received my first booking via Stay22 after just one day.
Quick tip >> I still like to use original affiliate links from Booking.com or the Allez link generator.
I assumed that all my links would automatically switch from Booking.com to my Stay22 affiliate links, so I was simply using the hotel links directly from Booking.com without applying my affiliate code.
However, the Stay22 code doesn’t always load (it skips maybe 1-2%), causing the whole commission to go to Booking.com if you don’t use your affiliate link. I know this because I still get a few bookings every month on Booking.com.
Pros of using Stay22
If you’re still on the fence, here are the top benefits of Stay22.
Geotargeting and redirection
The best part about using Stay22 is the geotargeting feature, which automatically redirects your readers to the best booking site based on their location and preference.
This has significantly improved the user experience on my blog since I always used Agoda for Asia and then Booking.com for the rest of the world. I had never thought that different regions prefer different sites.
What I have now found, is that the English-speaking world, especially the US, prefers Expedia. While Booking.com is more popular in Europe and Hotels.com is sprinkled in between both.
I have even made my first affiliate commission from flights because of this. I had never bothered to sign up as an affiliate with a flight search engine, so this came as a nice surprise.
Access to major booking sites
Stay22 partners with the biggest booking sites in the business that your audience already trusts. You get immediate access to over 35 million properties in 220 countries.
This comprehensive coverage is valuable since I run a general travel blog, meaning I write about destinations all over the world.
From cave hotels in Matera to breathtaking resorts in Bali – with Stay22 I always find the perfect accommodation options for my articles.
They are flexible
Stay22 offers the flexibility to exclude specific programs from automatic redirection, you can just email them about it. This allows you to test whether you get the best results with Stay22 or a direct affiliate you might have a long relationship with.
For example, I regularly check my Booking.com results from the same month the year before to make sure I’m not losing out. I check the same month because bookings go up and down with the seasons. So far Stay22 is the winner.
Depending on your traffic and booking rate, you can ask them for a higher commission. From the beginning, you get 30%, but the more you produce the more you can negotiate.
Easy to use and to get help
Working with Stay22 couldn’t be easier. You can register for free, get the script up and running and even make your first booking within the same day.
Customer service has also been great so far. They are always open to suggestions for improving our experience and respond quickly to any questions I have. Though, they are not always forthcoming with all information.
Reporting
I love the reporting inside the Stay22 dashboard, where I can see the booking, start and end date, which country the booking was made from, which Stay22 feature was used, and in some cases, which hotel was booked. If I see a hotel booked several times, I include information about that hotel in the article.
Through the new page analytics, I can also see which article is performing the best. I get statistics on clicks, total bookings, how much each article has earned and pending earings.
Right now my post about the best areas to stay in Chicago is performing very well, which tells me that I should create that same type of article for more destinations.
Stay22 cons
The one thing I wish was different about Stay22 is that they don’t reveal the total booking amount. We only know that we receive 30%. But 30% of what?
With Booking.com I can see the total price a person paid for that booking. This is something I use in my media kit, saying “people book accommodation for x amount of money through my blog every month”.
I have also seen some people complaining that the average commission is smaller with Stay22, and I have noticed that too. And I also have a lot more cancellations now than before, like the percentage of canceled bookings is high.
But still, I earn three times more than before so it’s worth it.
My results using Stay22
Stay22 contacted me for months, maybe even a year before I finally noticed them. I don’t know if I thought it was spam or what, but it flew under my radar.
What a mistake that was. As I mentioned earlier, Stay22 has tripled my income from hotel affiliates. It took me just two months to get my first payout (the payment threshold is $100 to get paid through PayPal).
I made more than that my first month, but people usually book their accommodation in advance, and you get paid when the stay is completed. You can request a payout once a month.
A look inside my dashboard
So you can see that I’m not just making things up, here’s a quick look inside the Stay22 dashboard. This is a random screenshot I took in May.
My best month for affiliate income is always January, you can see below that I made $619.13 with Stay22 this year, vs. $43.02 with Booking.com in 2023.
Of course, it’s important to mention that my traffic was 26k pageviews in January 2023 and 45k in January 2024.
Since my traffic has grown quite a bit since last year, let’s look at another example. In November 2023, the first month I had Stay22 running, I made $136.42. The month before I made $43.51 with Booking.com.
That’s why I say that Stay22 tripled my income, although, in reality, it is probably even more than that.
How to get started with Stay22
So what do you think? Are you ready to sign up? If you have a website in the travel niche, you literally have nothing to lose.
1. Use our link to sign up
Click here to learn more about Stay22 and fill out the request form.
2. Look for an email
A customer success manager will be in touch, I got an answer within the hour. They will explain how to get started and install the script, which is super easy. They will also follow up after about a month to see how you’re doing.
3. Tell them about other networks
Make sure to notify them if you use another network like Travelpayouts or if you’d like to keep your direct booking links.
And that’s it, you’re all set to start cashing in!
Conclusion: Is Stay22 worth it?
Yes! Stay22 has proven to be one of the easiest to use, yet most valuable monetization tools I have tried so far in my blogging journey.
As you can see above, I’ve experienced a significant increase in bookings compared to direct affiliates.
If you don’t achieve similar results, you can ask for optimization help from their team or simply remove the code. You are not bound to any sort of contract like with some ad agencies.
Stay22 or Travelpayouts?
The answer is both! Travelpayouts is more of a traditional affiliate network where you can sign up to promote some of the biggest players in the travel world. They also have some great widgets and solutions to optimize your earnings.
I have made most of my sales through Stay22’s NOVA pop-up feature, which puts them ahead of everyone else in the accommodation niche. So for now, use Stay22 for accommodation and Travelpayouts for tours, car rentals and other travel services.
Want to learn more?
Here are my most popular posts about blogging and working as a content creator.
- How to become a travel content creator: Step-by-step guide
- 23 amateur blogger mistakes you are probably making
- How to create a media kit for content creators/influencers
- How to pitch brands as a micro-influencer/creator + pitch example
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