Are you running a travel blog, publishing hotel reviews, itinerary guides but struggling to monetize your content?
After two years of running both a Mandarin and English travel website(my Mandarin site just reached 1 million page views), I finally found two tools that actually increased my affiliate earnings in a measurable way: Stay22 and Travelpayouts.
In this review, I’ll explain how these two platforms work, compare their performance, and share exactly how I added nearly USD $700 in affiliate income in just three months, without changing my writing style or adding more ads.
(This blog contains affiliate links)
Introduction
I’ve been running my travel website (in Mandarin, not this one) for about two years, and during that time I’ve tested almost every affiliate platform available: Affiliate One, KKday Partner Program, CJ Affiliate, Impact(for Skyscanner and mediavine), Rakuten Affiliate, and more.
They all work, but none of them impressed me as much as the two platforms I’m reviewing today: Stay22 and Travelpayouts.
When I started building my English travel site, I researched international affiliate tools and unexpectedly discovered that both Stay22 and Travelpayouts—although popular in the English speaking world—also work extremely well for Mandarin blogs.
If your travel blog focuses on hotels, tours, tickets or any type of travel product, this guide will help you finally turn your content into predictable income.
Why I Recommend Stay22 and Travelpayouts for Travel Bloggers
After testing both for three months, these tools helped me add nearly USD $700 in affiliate revenue (on my site that has over 60k pv per month)
If you’re a beginner or you already have about 30 articles published, these tools are the fastest way to increase passive income.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing means you recommend a product or service, and when someone makes a purchase through your link, you earn a commission.
Traditionally, you need to:
- Apply for each merchant individually
- Get approved
- Generate custom tracking links manually
- Insert them into your articles one by one
And of course, you hope readers will actually click your link instead of Googling the product themselves.
This system works, but it’s slow, repetitive, and hard to scale.
My Experience With Traditional Affiliate Platforms
As a travel blogger, most of my revenue comes from recommending:
- Hotels
- Tours & activities
- Transportation passes
- SIM cards
When I first built my site, I joined Affiliate One and later KKday’s official affiliate program. They work fine, but the revenue stayed almost the same even as I published more content.
I also joined CJ, Impact, Rakuten, and Skyscanner’s affiliate programs.
A Skyscanner booking often earns less than 1, and the payout threshold is USD $100—after putting some links and I only got 1.5 USD…not worth the effort for me.
Another issue: many affiliate networks require individual merchant approval.
For example, I joined Rakuten Affiliate to promote Celebrity Cruises but got rejected (possibly because my site wasn’t in English).
I promote cruises via CruiseDirect only work through CJ, and setting up Payoneer for payouts took a long time too.
This traditional method eventually felt too time-consuming. I needed something more automated and scalable.
What Are Stay22 and Travelpayouts?
Both Stay22 and Travelpayouts are modern affiliate platforms designed specifically for travel websites.
Originally, I registered Travelpayouts for my English site, but I didn’t pass some merchant reviews due to low traffic. Later, I discovered a Travelpayouts blog post featuring a Taiwanese blogger using AI tools, which made me realize these international tools also work for Mandarin blogs.
After more research, Stay22 immediately caught my attention—so I signed up and installed the script.
Best decision ever.
Want to Increase Your Travel Blog Affiliate Revenue? These Are the Two Platforms I Recommend Most!
Stay22 boosts your hotel conversion rate through its automated script, while Travelpayouts makes it easy to monetize tours, SIM cards, and travel activities. After testing both together, I earned nearly $700 USD in just three months. If you want your articles to start generating passive income automatically, these two platforms are the best place to start.
Stay22 Features & Why It Works So Well
1. Smart Technology That Monetizes Old Articles Automatically
Stay22 provides several tools, including LMA Nova, which uses reader behavior to detect travel intent.
When the system thinks a user might be planning a trip, it opens a new tab recommending relevant accommodations—without interrupting the reading experience.
This is not a pop-up.
It only triggers for about 1–5% of sessions, so it feels natural, not annoying.
The best part:
It automatically shows the reader’s local preferred booking platform.
I never once linked to Hotels.com, yet I still got several bookings from it.
Even articles that have nothing to do with hotels can convert.
For example, in Sept–Nov 2025, my top converting articles included:
- Japan Airlines business class review to Nagoya
- Overnight ferry from Fukuoka to Busan
- Kansai Airport introduction
I originally wrote my flight review because I enjoyed it—yet Stay22 turned them into revenue.
2. No Need to Generate Affiliate Links Manually
This alone saves hours of work.
With Stay22, you simply insert a hotel’s official URL into your article, and the system automatically tracks it.
If you’re coming from Affiliate One like I was, short links won’t be tracked. I manually replaced all hotel links with official URLs, but it was a one-time effort.
3. One Script Covers All Partners—No Separate Applications Needed
Stay22 partners with:
- Booking.com
- Agoda
- Hotels.com
- Expedia
- GetYourGuide
- and many others
No more getting rejected by individual merchants.
4. Extremely Easy Installation
Their setup video is clearer and easier than Mediavine Journey’s installation.
It took me less than five minutes.
5. Customizable Script
If you already have a direct partnership—for example with GetYourGuide—you can ask the Stay22 team to customize the script and exclude certain platforms.
6. Friendly and Supportive Account Manager
After signing up, I was assigned an account manager who also runs a travel blog.
She understood exactly what challenges bloggers face and even gave me layout tips to increase conversions.
💡 Use my Stay22 referral code: Get $100 bonus once you reach 100 bookings!
👉 Register for Stay22 with my referral codeMy Real Results After Using Stay22
I started earning on day one, which genuinely shocked me. I read another bloggers also said the same in her review.
Before Stay22, I averaged fewer than 2 hotel bookings per month using traditional affiliate platforms.
After installing Stay22 in late August 2025, here were my results from September–November (3 months):
- Website traffic: ~60,000 PV per month
- Confirmed bookings: 63 bookings
- Average commission per booking: USD $7.26
- Main source of conversions: LMA Nova script (not the embedded map)
Their reporting dashboard is detailed—you can see:
- Which article generated the booking
- User device type
- Country
- The exact hotel they booked
- Booking date
This level of transparency helps identify which articles have the most monetization potential.
💡 Use my Stay22 referral code: Get $100 bonus once you reach 100 bookings!
👉 Register for Stay22 with my referral codeMy Real Results Using Travelpayouts
Travelpayouts also works well, especially for:
- Trip.com
- Klook
- Flights
- SIM cards
- Tours & activities
In three months (Sept–Nov), Travelpayouts earned me USD $231.99 (including potential earnings still pending confirmation).
It’s not as explosive as Stay22, but it’s still an excellent tool for diversifying revenue streams.
⚠️ Important note:
Although Travelpayouts says its script is compatible with Stay22, my English site received a warning from Google regarding script violations, so I removed their script to be safe.
Your experience may differ, but keep this in mind.
Stay22 vs Travelpayouts: Which One Is Better?
| Feature | Stay22 | Travelpayouts |
|---|---|---|
| Payout transparency | Not publicly shown | Clear % commission |
| Application (per vender) required? | No | Yes (per merchant) |
| Best for | Hotels, accommodations | Hotels, flights |
| Ease of setup | Very easy | Easy, but includes approvals |
| Payout method | PayPal | PayPal |
| Payout threshold | $100 | $50 |
| Works for low-traffic blogs? | Yes | Yes |
| Automation | Excellent | Moderate |
Even though Stay22 doesn’t publicly show commission percentages, the increased volume makes up for it.
My hotel conversions increased from <2 per month → 21+ per month.
The only downside: about 30% of bookings may be cancelled (fairly normal in travel affiliates).
I use PayPal for all payouts and keep the balance in USD for future travel purchases—like booking my 2026 Virgin Voyages trip.
Final Thoughts: Should You Use Stay22 or Travelpayouts?
Absolutely YES, especially Stay22.
For me, Stay22 is one of the highest-ROI tools I’ve ever added to my blogging tech stack.
In just three months, combining Stay22 and Travelpayouts earned me nearly USD $700 —without needing viral content or massive traffic.
If you’re a travel blogger, you should try Stay22 immediately.
If it doesn’t work for you, just remove the script—nothing to lose.
Want to Increase Your Travel Blog Affiliate Revenue? These Are the Two Platforms I Recommend Most!
Stay22 boosts your hotel conversion rate through its automated script, while Travelpayouts makes it easy to monetize tours, SIM cards, and travel activities. After testing both together, I earned nearly $700 USD in just three months. If you want your articles to start generating passive income automatically, these two platforms are the best place to start.
If you are interested in earning more from your blog, you may also want to check out my Journey by Mediavine review, the ad network I use. Starting Jan 15, 2026, even sites with under 1,000 monthly sessions can apply—amazing news for new bloggers!
