The New Airbnb Affiliate Program: Airbnb Associates [Update March 2021]

Update March 2021: Airbnb Associates is closing

After less than a year, the Airbnb Associates program is closing. One of the most promising travel affiliate programs is no more.

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Airbnb just launched a “real” affiliate program! With the old affiliate program it was only possible to earn Airbnb credit when you referred NEW members to Airbnb. Now Airbnb launched their new affiliate program called Airbnb Associates. With this new program you’ll earn 30% of the Airbnb service fee for EACH trip booked through your referral link (within 28 days after clicking the link). And instead of credit, you can cash out! Find out more about the program in this article.

Registering for the Airbnb Associates program

Registering for the Airbnb Associates program is super easy. All you need is a regular Airbnb account. Log in, go to https://www.airbnb.com/associates and click on “Get Started”. Your Associate account will be created and activated immediately. That’s it! No traffic requirements for your website, no long forms. Just one click on the button and you’re in.

How much can you earn?

The new Airbnb Associates program has a lot more potential than the old Airbnb affiliate program. Here’s why:

Commission Rate

The commission rate for the Airbnb Associates program is 30% of the Airbnb service fee
from each completed reservation. The commission will be paid after the booked trip ends. With the old affiliate program you could only earn credit if you referred a new customer who also needed to book a trip.

Cookie duration

Airbnb Associates uses a cookie duration of 28 days. So every time someone clicks on your content and books a stay within the next 28 days, you’ll be credited.

Potential earnings

As stated above, you will earn 30% of the Airbnb service fee. The Airbnb service fee is generally somewhere between 6% and 14% of the booking subtotal. So let’s say Airbnb charges a fee of 10% for a place that asks $100 per night. If someone books this place for a long weekend of 3 nights, they’ll pay $300 and Airbnb charges $30 service fee. You’ll make 30% of this $30, which equals $9. With the new affiliate program you’ll get a commission for EACH booking. This means that there is a huge earnings potential for the new program, much better than with the old affiliate program.

Promotional Tools

Airbnb Associates offers three types of promotional tools to share. As an affiliate you can create text links, widgets and landing pages.

Text links

You can use text links if you want to link to a specific place or specific location.

Example: Check out this custom link to places in Rotterdam. I’ve created this link with the custom link builder.

It’s a rule of the Airbnb Associate program to add an affiliate disclosure, so even though I created the link for example purposes, here it is: As an Airbnb Associate, I earn when you book through this link. (I’ve written more about the Airbnb Associate rules later in this article.)

Landing pages

You can also create landing pages for saved stays. All you need to do is create a list of saved places in your Airbnb account. Once you’ve created this list, go to the Airbnb Associates dashboard. Click on the “Saved Stays-widget” and select your list. You can create a landing page for each list you’ve created in your Airbnb account.

Example: Check out this list of Tiny Houses in the Netherlands. I’ve created this landing page with the Airbnb Associates landing page builder.

Once again, here’s the affiliate disclosure: As an Airbnb Associate, I earn when you book through this link.

Here’s a screenshot of the landing page builder from within the Airbnb Associates dashboard. As you can see it’s really easy. The sample landing page above took less then 5 minutes.

Widgets

Airbnb also offers widgets that you can embed on your website. Here’s an example of the Search Widget:

Visitors can use this widget to search directly from your website. This is a great tool because now you can also earn a commission from bookings that you haven’t written about. Also the affiliate disclosure is included in the widget, which isn’t very important, but it sure is convenient.

Here’s a screenshot of the Widget builder from the Airbnb Associates dashboard:

Airbnb Associates Dashboard and Analytics

The Associates program comes with a pretty straightforward and helpful dashboard. You can track your views, clicks, bookings and earnings. You can see these stats for each promotional tool you’ve created.

Airbnb Associates Rules and Guidelines

Here are some of the rules and guidelines for the Associates program. Nothing out of the ordinary, but this one is specifically important for affiliates: you can’t promote Airbnb through paid advertisements. These are some other ones to consider:

• You need to add a clear affiliate disclosure, such as ” As an Airbnb Associate, I earn when you book through this link.”
• Airbnb employees and agents can’t participate.
• Don’t remove Airbnb’s branding. Don’t use any other Airbnb trademarks and copyrighted materials.
• Don’t run paid advertisements in print or digital format. Don’t bid on Airbnb keywords or arbitrage Airbnb’s global audience.
• And of course: Don’t book through your own links

You can find more about the rules, guidelines and terms and conditions and here.

Airbnb Associates Payout

Depending on your country of origin there are different payout methods to choose from, but generally it’s these three: PayPal, Bank Transfer and Payoneer. Payouts happen on the 20th day of each month. You can view your payouts in your Associates account.

That’s it!

Personally, I believe this is one of the most promising affiliate programs in the travel industry. It’s super easy to register for the affiliate program so just give it a go. If you want to know more about this program (or other affiliate programs and information in general), join our newsletter!