Travelpayouts vs Stay 22: Which One Will Earn You More Money?
Debating using Travelpayouts vs Stay 22?
This subject comes up a lot in the travel blogging world, and one of the things that makes people “Team Stay 22” is Nova Ai (AKA Pop, or the Pop-Up Feature).
As the name states, this is a pop-up (of sorts) that uses AI to make you money, so we’ll definitely get into that (and other things) in this article.
If we haven’t met, I’m Shelley, and I’ve made over $1 MILLION from my travel blogs in just 4 years — so you might say I know a thing or two (or 22!) about making money from blogging 💸
In this article, I’m going to explain everything you need to know to see if Stay 22 or Travelpayouts is better for you.
If I were to give you general advice, I recommend doing exactly what I do (see below). If you have time, read the whole article for all the reasons why.
- Sign up with Travelpayouts here so you have all your affiliate programs in one place
- Sign up with Stay 22 here and use their Nova Ai feature
Travelpayouts vs Stay 22: Which is better?
Right off the bat: Neither is definitively “better” for every travel blogger — though one of them might be better for you.
I know that answer was probably not the one you wanted, so let’s keep diving deeper in order to see how they can both earn you money.
To determine which one is better for you, you’d have to know which one earns you the most money, and for that, you’d have to test them both out.
The good news is you can use/test both at the same time — and in fact, I use them both simultaneously on all four of my travel blogs without any issue.
Both are free to sign up and try, so here are the links to do just that:
- Sign up for Stay 22 here — and you’ll get a $100 BONUS when you get 100 confirmed bookings
- Sign up Travelpayouts here
What is Travelpayouts?
Travelpayouts is an affiliate marketing network built for travel bloggers, content creators and travel influencers.
How an affiliate marketing network is different from an affiliate marketing program is that a network can connect you to numerous programs within one dashboard.
In this case, Travelpayouts brings together 100+ travel brands within one platform so you don’t have to join dozens of separate travel affiliate programs.
With an affiliate marketing program, you’d only be directly connected to that one program — so an affiliate marketing network streamlines things because you’re not juggling a bunch of different affiliate accounts, logins, dashboards, etc.
How does Travelpayouts work?
Below is a step-by-step guide on how to use Travelpayouts — though their support is amazing, and you can reach out to them 24/7 with questions.
2. Create a “Project,” which could be your blog, your social channel, etc.
3. Join the affiliate programs that align with your blog — I usually recommend all travel bloggers join Discover Cars (rental cars), Viator or Get Your Guide (tours), Expedia or Booking.com (hotels), and Airalo (eSim cards)
Once you’re connected to the programs, place deep links in your blog and/or embed affiliate tools like widgets and banner ads into appropriate blog posts.
When your readers click through and book something, you earn a commission.
Your Travelpayouts dashboard tracks clicks and bookings, and payouts are sent monthly to your chosen payment method.
In case you’re wondering, I’ve never had any issue getting paid on time from Travelpayouts. The minimum payout threshold is $50 USD.
⚠️ Already Have Existing Affiliate Links? Read This
If you have been blogging a while, you likely have some affiliate links in your blog already.
You can leave them as is, or you can convert them over to Travelpayouts (which I generally recommend) by using their Link Switcher tool in your dashboard.
If you need help along the way, their support is amazing. You can reach out to them with questions 24/7, and they usually respond within 30 minutes.
What is Stay 22?
Stay 22 is an affiliate‐tech company that helps travel bloggers monetize hotel bookings with smart Ai tools.
In the travel space, they really only work with hotels (but they also have Stay 22 Retail for general online shopping) — and though they essentially only do one thing, they do it very well.
Stay 22 offers several tools (ie. deep links, maps, widgets and Nova Ai), though I only use the deep links and Nova Ai — and have managed to earn more than $50,000 from this program in about 3 years.
How does Stay 22 work?
First, you need to sign up for your free Stay 22 account here — and by using that link to sign up, you’ll get a $100 BONUS when you get 100 confirmed bookings, and so will I. It’s a win-win!
If you don’t have any affiliate links on your site, you can use their “Let Me Allez” deep link generator to create your affiliate links, and you’ll also have access to Nova Ai.
As mentioned earlier in this article, I’m going to explain Nova Ai below — which is the real reason travel bloggers love Stay 22, so keep reading.
⚠️ Already Have Existing Affiliate Links? Read This
If you already have existing hotel affiliate links on your site, you’ll need to install a script into your blog’s head code to convert the links over to Stay 22.
This will work for converting your Booking.com links, Expedia links and Agoda hotel links, and you can also convert Get Your Guide tour links.
Not tech savvy? No worries! Installing the script is easier than it probably sounds, and their support is available to help you.
They can also make sure the script is working properly, so you don’t miss out on any affiliate commissions during the link conversion.
Then, when a reader clicks through and books via these partner platforms (Booking.com, Expedia, etc.), Stay22 pays you a commission.
What is Stay 22’s Nova Ai tool? (And why do I need it?)
The subject of Travelpayouts vs Stay 22 comes up a lot in the travel blogging world, and one of the things that makes so many people “Team Stay 22” is Nova Ai.
The easiest way to explain Nova Ai is with an example, so let’s say someone is on your “best walking tours in Paris” blog.
Since they’re on a travel blog about Paris, they likely want to travel to Paris, so Nova Ai opens a new tab in Booking.com, Expedia, etc., showcasing available Paris hotels they can book instantly.
After they book and stay in said Paris hotel, you’ll earn your affiliate commission.
Essentially, Nova identifies commercial intent and monetizes it “behind the scenes.”
It does so without interfering in your existing blog strategies because it opens a whole other tab outside of your blog (which is often referred to as a pop-up).
But don’t pop-ups suck?
I know you’re probably thinking “Ummm, that whole ‘opening a new tab/pop-up’ thing sounds super annoying” — and you’re not wrong.
However, Nova actually works VERY well for many travel bloggers — me included — and I’ve earned more than $50K from it in the last few years.
I also recently saw the exchange below in a travel blogging Facebook group where people were discussing how many bookings they earned from deep links vs. Stay 22’s Nova Ai “pop-up.”
The operative part of the chat is the last “yeah but they work” part — which came after someone else said “as a user I personally hate pop ups!”
So if you’ve been on the fence about installing the Stay 22 Nova Ai script, please stop ignoring the writing on the wall.
Nova Ai works (full stop 🛑) so sign up for Stay 22 here, and you should see an increase of up to 50% in hotel bookings within a month.
Don’t believe me? Look at the text exchange above again.
You’ll see how one blogger says they got 4 bookings from deep links and 39 from Nova Ai/Pop — which is nearly 10X MORE bookings in just one month.
It came out several years after Nova Ai, so I assume they’re trying to make a competitor tool because so many bloggers love Nova (me included).
They basically do the same thing, so you’d have to test for yourself to determine the “best” one for you.
However, as someone who’s been with Stay 22 for years (and made a ton of money with them), and because the Booking Booster is so new, I have to defer to Stay 22’s long track record of success.
Can I use Stay 22’s Nova AND Travelpayouts at the same time?
If you’re already with Travelpayouts like so many travel bloggers are, you might not want to switch to a new service (totally understandable).
The good news is that you don’t have to — as you can use Travelpayouts and Stay 22 in tandem.
To do this, sign up for Stay 22 here, and reach out to their support to get a custom code that only activates the Nova Ai “pop-up,” and doesn’t interfere with any of your current links.
This way, you don’t interfere with your existing Travelpayouts links, but still get the benefits of Nova Ai.
I actually have BOTH Stay 22 and Travelpayouts on all my travel sites, and have not experienced any issues with this.
My Final Thoughts on the Travelpayouts vs Stay 22 Debate
I use them both, so I definitely can’t say that one is better than the other 😜 but I can say that they’re both great services.
They also both pay on time, and have excellent assistance available for affiliates — something I sadly can’t say for every affiliate program out there.
I, like so many other travel bloggers I know, swear by Stay 22’s Nova Ai. They even feature me on their testimonials page singing its praises.
I also use Travelpayouts because it lets me put my affiliate programs under one single dashboard (and I also love their Content Analytics tool).
If I were to give general advice, I’d recommend you do exactly what I do using these two programs simultaneously.
- Sign up with Travelpayouts here so you have all your affiliate programs in one place
- Sign up with Stay 22 here and use their Nova Ai feature