Stay22 Affiliate Review: Is It Worth It?

Travel bloggers, have you ever heard of Stay22? There has been a lot of chatter about this affiliate solution, and after using the platform for nearly a year, I’m here to give you the scoop.

What Is Stay22 & How Does It Work?

Stay22 is a fairly new affiliate solution for travel bloggers and travel content creators who are looking to make money by recommending hotels and accommodations to their readers.

Stay22 is a combination of many different affiliate programs including:

• Booking.com
• Hotels.com
• Expedia
• VRBO
• + many more

However, Stay22 is not an affiliate network. Instead, they are an affiliate solution that places a code on your website (they call this a ‘script’). This code is invisible to the people who are reading your website.

And what this code does is when someone clicks a link on your website to say, Booking.com or Hotels.com, it will navigate that user to the booking software that is most commonly used in their location (hence, increasing the likelihood that they will book their accommodations).

Example

If someone from Singapore is on your blog post and they click on your hotel recommendation and it’s a Booking.com link, Stay22’s script will convert that link to the booking software or aggregator that is most commonly used in Singapore.

Perhaps more people in Singapore use Expedia to book their accommodations rather than Booking.com. Maybe Expedia is more well-known or their marketing efforts are stronger in that region.

This makes the user more likely to book their stay rather than leaving your Booking.com recommendation for Expedia instead.

Is Stay22 an affiliate network?

To be clear, Stay22 is not a traditional affiliate network like TravelPayouts, Impact, Awin, or Commission Junction.

Affiliate networks simply work as the landlord for individual affiliate programs. Stay22 is a code added to your website to increase affiliate conversions.

Do I need to replace all of my current Booking.com links for Stay22 links?

One of the biggest deterrents for making the switch from Booking.com direct to Stay22 is that many bloggers think you need to spend a ton of time changing out your affiliate links.

Luckily, you don’t have to change ANY links. In fact, I highly discourage you from changing your current links, which I will cover in the “How To Get Started” section below.

Stay22’s script does all the work for you so you don’t have to make any changes. This will save you a ton of time while still making you a heck of a lot more money.

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My Personal Experience With Stay22

My experience with Stay22 didn’t start out positive. The company first contacted me via email to tell me about their affiliate solution, but I was already using Booking.com, so I didn’t understand why I would need to use Stay22.

Unfortunately, they contacted SO many times promoting their affiliate solution that it made me overwhelmed. To say I was “turned off” by their approach was an understatement. I also didn’t believe them because no one else was talking about or using Stay22.

I finally told them to stop contacting me, which they did. Yay!

But several months later, one of our students in our course and coaching program, Scale Your Travel Blog, posted a comment in our Facebook group about her experience with Stay22.

Here is part of her post:

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This was really intriguing for me and from that moment I thought, “okay, someone else has tried it and they had a good experience with it. I might as well give it a try, too.”

With my tail between my legs, I contacted Stay22 and asked if they could help me set up the code for my website. This process took less than five minutes, and after that I was up and running.

I tend to check my affiliate earnings once per month, and over that month we had tripled our accommodation booking commissions. That means we earned three times more with Stay22 than we did with Booking.com directly.

And these results continued over the next several months, too. I was sold.

Inside Our Stay22 Dashboard

To show you what Stay22 looks like, peek at the screenshots below.

In the first image, you can see which provider the booking is coming from (ie. Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, etc). It shows you the booking date, and the payment status as well.

In the image below, you can see how much we’re earning in commission from each booking, which blog post generated that booking, and the resort the booking was made for.

In the sidebar, you’ll find Analytics with more intricate details about what is performing well for your blog, the Payments tab, and more.

Important Tip: You can request a payment withdrawal via PayPal, ACH, or check when you reach $100, or you can request via wire transfer when you reach $500.

The $100 threshold is not difficult to reach, but if you’re struggling to earn affiliate income and reach this milestone, consider joining us in Scale Your Travel Blog.

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Common Questions About Stay22

Having worked with hundreds of bloggers, I know you likely have more questions about Stay22 and whether or not it’s worth it for your travel blog. Here are the most common questions we’re asked:

Does Stay22 take a portion of my commission rate?

Another reason I see a lot of travel bloggers shy away from the idea of using Stay22 is that they DO take a small commission from your booking commissions.

But this doesn’t bother me at all because the code they put on your website is likely going to produce three times more bookings than you would typically receive if you were going direct with Booking.com or other affiliate programs.

Therefore, the very small percentage that they take from your booking commission is actually not going to make a difference. You will still make more money than if you went direct.

When I see people use this as an excuse to not add Stay22 to their website, I think it’s quite silly because here are your options:

1. DON’T use Stay22 and go direct with Booking.com (or other programs) = slightly higher commission, but fewer bookings, which means earning less money
   
   – OR –
   
2. USE Stay22 = slightly lower commission, but more bookings, which means earning more money

Take your pick: less money or more money.

For me, I choose making more money every time. It’s a no brainer.

So anytime I create a website where I’m recommending places to stay, I’m using Stay22 every time.

Which should I use: Stay22 or TravelPayouts?

Another question I see come up often is: can I use Stay22 and TravelPayouts? Is one better than the other?

At the beginning of this post, I talked about the differences between Stay22 and TravelPayouts. These two options are not the same, and luckily, you can use both programs at the same time.

TravelPayouts houses many amazing affiliate programs, so I do recommend joining their network, too. You can click here to learn more and join!

The biggest thing you have to remember if you’re using TravelPayouts is that you need to tell Stay22 that you’re using their network.

It’s quite simple: when you have Stay22 help you put the code onto your website, you’ll tell them that you’re using TravelPayouts and they’ll use a special code to make sure your links are converting properly.

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How To Get Started

If you want to give Stay22 a try, here’s how you can get started:

STEP 1. Use our link to sign up

Click here to learn more about Stay22 and register your website.

STEP 2: Reach out to Stay22 for help

The next thing you’ll want to do is contact Stay22 to help you get the code added to your website. This is not something I recommend you do on your own unless you’re a coder.

Although I’m familiar with coding (but by no means an expert), I didn’t even do this step myself because I wanted to be sure it was set up and working properly.

You can contact Stay22 here: rami@stay22.com

STEP 3: Tell them about TravelPayouts if you’re also using their network

And finally, if you’re using TravelPayouts, be sure to tell Stay22 so they can use the correct code for your site.

QUICK TIP: Make sure to use your original affiliate links

Here’s something that I messed up on while using Stay22.

I assumed that all of my links would automatically change from Booking.com to my Stay22 affiliate link, so I was simply grabbing the hotel link directly from Booking.com without using my Booking.com affiliate link.

This was exciting for me because it meant that I didn’t have to sign into my Booking.com affiliate dashboard and create individual affiliate links for all of these different hotels and stays. They would automatically convert for me.

BUT I didn’t realize that sometimes the code from Stay22 didn’t work properly, so instead of converting those links, they just went directly to Booking.com without my affiliate attached to them.

Although it didn’t happen often (maybe 1-2% of the time), I still wasn’t profiting from those instances.

Now, I make sure to use my original affiliate links from Booking.com direct (or TravelPayouts, if that’s who you’re working with) every time in case the code glitches.

Again, only one or two bookings per month slip through the cracks, but I’m happy I have my original links there to catch any that do.

The Verdict

For anyone on the fence about using Stay22, you really have nothing to lose. I recommend adding it to your website, monitoring your accommodation income results for 3-6 months, and if you don’t see the results you were hoping for, you can simply remove the code.

It’s as simple as that.

If you have any other questions about Stay22, feel free to leave them on our Youtube channel video, and I’ll be sure to get back to you.