October 27, 2023
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Skyscanner is a travel search engine and comparison site. It scans the internet and pulls prices for flights, hotels, and car rentals from thousands of online travel agencies and airlines worldwide. Skyscanner wants to show the best deals and cost savings. The Trip.com Group–a large online travel agency in China–owns Skyscanner. Here’s a brief rundown of what Skyscanner offers.
Flights – Filter by the airline, flight duration, stops, and times, or set up a price alert to track prices for a particular route. Use the ‘everywhere’ feature to see all the possibilities from your local airport, filtered by price.
Hotels – Find your perfect hotel by price, location, points of interest, amenities, and user ratings. View results on maps that toggle between a specific hotel’s location and the pricing of alternatives nearby.
Cars – With global and local car rental providers in over 200 countries, you’ll find the perfect deal for your trip. Results are available by price and car size, with features including ‘downtown pickup’ and a ‘fair fuel’ policy. Select the airport terminal, car type, price range, and star rating for more customization.
Company Profile
- Founded by Gareth Williams, Barry Smith, and Bonamy Grimes in 2003
- Headquarters: Edinburgh, Scotland
- Offices in Singapore, Spain, China, the United States, Hungary, and Bulgaria
- Status: publicly traded under Trip.com
- Over 800 employees (as of November 2017)
- Operates in 30+ languages
- The website accepts over 150 currencies
- 100 million users monthly
- Winner of multiple travel app awards
Skyscanner Affiliate Program
Skyscanner has an affiliate program. It’s available on the Impact affiliate network. Here’s a snapshot of the program.
- Cost per action (CPA): Cost per sale
- Commission rate: 20%
- Commission type: Single payment, nonrecurring
- Cookie duration: 30 days
- Payout threshold: $10
- Payment options: PayPal and bank account (get free bank account details for USD, EUR, GBP, and other currencies)
- Affiliate software/network: Impact
Program Eligibility
Acceptance into Skyscanner’s affiliate program includes the following criteria:
- A website that is complete with working links
- The website has HTTPS status
- The website’s traffic volume is higher than 5,000 unique visitors monthly
- The website has up-to-date travel content
- The website has a good user experience
- The website does not book tickets on behalf of their customers
- For influencers, the social media site must have more than 1,000 followers and up-to-date travel-related content
Skyscanner doesn’t work with coupon/discount sites, networks, subnetworks, market performance agencies, or technology partners.
How to Sign Up or Apply
Follow these steps to sign up for Skyscanner’s affiliate program:
- Visit the Skyscanner affiliate program page.
- Check the FAQs to ensure eligibility, then apply to become an affiliate.
- Complete the application on Impact (you must join Impact if you don’t have an account).
- Read and agree to the terms and conditions.
- Click on the “Apply” button.
Program Benefits
An affiliate signup page outlines the program and how it works, and Skyscanner includes sufficient details. However, it’s missing the cookie duration. Otherwise, it does an excellent job of outlining permitted and nonpermitted activities.
Skyscanner’s affiliate commission structure is in line with other travel search engines. It pays a high commission rate of 20% for bookings and redirects.
Skyscanner offers a 30-day cookie. It meets the industry standard, but 60 to 90 days would be more advantageous.
The commission payment threshold is low. Impact issues payments when earnings exceed 10 USD or the local equivalent. Affiliates receive payments to their bank and PayPal accounts.
Impact‘s affiliate marketing software is top-notch. It offers excellent and reliable tracking solutions. Furthermore, the user interface and activity reports are easy to navigate.
Deep linking is available, and it’s how an affiliate creates a link to a specific page on the merchant’s site. Instead of using a standard homepage affiliate link, you can link to a product, page, or article related to your content to increase relevance and conversion rates. Publishers can create links and direct traffic to pages of their choosing. Many travel merchants allow deep linking due to the number of destinations, flights, accommodations, and options. Publishers can leverage multiple marketing tools, such as travel search widgets, banners, text links, APIs, and white-label products.
There’s a full-time affiliate marketing manager. When a merchant has the staff to support publishers, it quickens processes and shows commitment. You can contact the affiliate team via email address.
Skyscanner is an established online travel company with an attractive brand. It was born after the dot com crash and became profitable a few years later. They want to lead the “global transformation to modern and sustainable travel.” Their brand page is complete, with details on their logo, icons, colors, typography, photography, and illustrations.
Program Drawbacks
Reviews for Skyscanner are mixed across regions. However, reviews on Google Play and Apple Store apps are much better at 4.5+. Is the mobile experience much better than on a desktop? Is Skyscanner’s management in a downward spiral after being acquired in 2017? Whatever the reasons for the mixed reviews, they’ll impact conversion rates.
Program acceptance is low, sitting at 21%. If you get rejected, many other travel affiliate programs exist.
Start Earning
Can you make $1,000 a month as a Skyscanner affiliate? It’s unlikely that you will make that amount or a significant income. Although Skyscanner pays a high commission rate, the actual payouts are small at pennies on the dollar. You would need substantial traffic to make headway with its program. Also, a 30-day cookie is not overly beneficial.
Where should Skyscanner rank in your marketing activities? It should be a low priority. The travel industry is saturated and fragmented with search, comparison, and review sites, big and small. Secondly, many of Skyscanner’s competitors receive better reviews and have affiliate programs, including Priceline, Booking, Expedia, and Momondo. Lastly, Skyscanner has lost some of its creativity since being acquired by Trip.com. Trip.com also has an affiliate program that might be worthy of your participation.
I remember when Skyscanner was frequently discussed, but now it’s another travel website offering deals. On the other hand, Skyscanner’s new brand image and loyal following may yield excellent results.
