[dennisdornon]

Not sure if this is the place for this, feel free to move if not, but does anyone have information HotelsCombined?

Just became an affiliate and seen some good things but I just came across this -
secondcity.in/2009/06/06/hotelscombinedcom-scam-story-continues/

from Story:

In our last post from the series ‘hotelscombined scam’, Sven (one of the victim) replied to hotelscombined.com and raised many questions about their decision to forfeit his affiliate commission without any reason. Reply from hotelscombined.com was very interesting one!

[Haiko de Poel, Jr.]

We are happy to consider re-activation of your account if you could kindly explain to us:

1.
How you were able to achieve 500% conversion from clicks to leads (a lot more than the average achieved by other partners).
2.
Why there was not a single booking to end suppliers as the result of your leads.
3.
Why your leads have a highly unusual average time difference between them.

Bravo Hotels Combined.

[dennisdornon]

Haiko,

Please excuse my ignorance but are you saying their is nothing to worry about and it was a bad affiliate and HotelCombined did the right thing?

Sorry if being a bit paranoid but planned on giving them a prominent place on my site and just want to be sure their OK. I usually use CJ for affiliates and not the direct merchant so extra touchy.

[Haiko de Poel, Jr.]

500% and 1345% conversion rates scream of affiliate fraud.

[dennisdornon]

Thanks Haiko! - I guess the blog writer just has a thing against HotelsCombined - Looks like they've done 3 similar posts.

P.S. Noticed you removed the link, sorry if it's not appropriate to add links just thought it would explain the issue better

[killcombineddotcom]

Unfortunately, during our last review we identified an issue with the traffic originating from your account. Specifically we analysed 2320 leads generated by your account and found that none of these leads resulted in hotel bookings for our suppliers.

We cannot charge our supply partners for such leads. As your account generated no revenue, and as per our Affiliate Agreement, please consider this to be your Affiliate Account Termination Notice effective immediately. Your remaining unpaid balance will be forfeit.
THEY SAY THEY PAY FOR TRAFFIC WHY DO I ****ING CARE IF THEY BOOK OR NOT?I JUST SEND THEM VISITORS

[hog]

Originally Posted by killcombineddotcom

Unfortunately, during our last review we identified an issue with the traffic originating from your account. Specifically we analysed 2320 leads generated by your account and found that none of these leads resulted in hotel bookings for our suppliers.

We cannot charge our supply partners for such leads. As your account generated no revenue, and as per our Affiliate Agreement, please consider this to be your Affiliate Account Termination Notice effective immediately. Your remaining unpaid balance will be forfeit.
THEY SAY THEY PAY FOR TRAFFIC WHY DO I ****ING CARE IF THEY BOOK OR NOT?I JUST SEND THEM VISITORS

really? as if anyone's going to pay you for sh!t traffic. try that with adsense as see how far you get. actually, try that with any affiliate offer and see if you get a dime!
-hog

[nulius]

hotelscombined pay but the scam part is that they suddenly stop paying stating that you don't generate any bookings and they cannot charge their supply partners for leads which did not end in hotel bookings.
I am 100% sure that they are paid from the partners and they keep their and your money by terminating accounts.
Things to make me sure they are lying.
1. they say there is not a single booking from your website and there are only leads. since they cooperate with 40 booking websites and people get results from all of those and therefore generate leads for you, what if 5 people book from 2-3 of those websites. then they can't say anything and they pay you. what about the rest 35 websites? of course they get money from them.

2. previous months I had no bookings from my website but only leads and guess what... They paid me. So, this is another proof that they charged their partners without a single booking and they got money from them. So this makes me believe/know that they get my money and they said they can't charge their partners.

3. hotelscombined is an advertiser in commission junction. whether there is a booking or not they should pay leads. that proofs hotelscombined GET MONEY FROM THEIR PARTNERS AND THEY DON'T PAY AFFILIATES claiming they can't charge their partners.

They pay those who generate a lot. if they see someone who does not generate money they terminate his account and they keep his money.
Again, this makes me believe that hotelscombined is scam and I can say they should be renamed as hotelsCONbined and it's a website to avoid.

[Chuck Hamrick]

Many hotel affiliate programs only commission when the room is paid for. That can take up to six months. You need to be working very closely with the affiliate manager to understand how to get paid. Not sure how they determine leads so its in your best interest to get on the phone and have a direct relationship.

[Marky]

I am sorry to say that this company cannot be trusted.
You never hear from them.....till the moment you have reached the amount of money they have to pay you out. Then they let you know that your account is closed and that they will not pay you out because no booking was made.

I am 100% sure bookings were made, even people that booked via my site thanked me for their stay in a hotel and for having a good deal so they booked.

Then they say i have to prove bookings were made.

I am 100% honest, never cheat or deal with strange amount of leads etcetera. So in my vision this company cannot be trusted!

[Jordan@hotelscombined.com]

Hi Marky,

My name is Jordan, I am an account manager here at HotelsCombined. I can assure you that there is a legitimate reason your account was suspended. If you want clarification, feel free to email through to jordan@hotelscombined.com and we can discuss your situation.

King Regards

[Midohash]

HotelsCombined is SCAM ... They left their banners displayed on my website for several months until I achieved a payment threshold of $168 then they suspended my account because my leads failed to achieve hotel bookings as per their e-mail and I got paid Nothing from them! Their terms & conditions never say that leads should book a hotel or otherwise affiliate will never get paid! ... My advice is Avoid HotelsCombined!

[Jordan@hotelscombined.com]

Hi Midohash,

I'm sorry to hear that you are disappointed with our affiliate program. To clarify our affiliate agreement clearly states the following:

5.6 All the Affiliate’s marketing efforts must target booking generation rather than Qualifying Lead generation

The full copy of the affiliate agreement can be found here:

Compare Hotel Prices - Best Hotel Deals Guaranteed

We are like any other company with an affiliate program, we generate revenue from commission from our supplier sites. No affiliate program will pay for traffic that doesn't convert leaving them with a negative ROI.

If you want me to personally investigate your case, feel free to email through to jordan@hotelscombined.com

King Regards

Jordan

[irongloves]

Originally Posted by Jordan@hotelscombined.com

We are like any other company with an affiliate program, we generate revenue from commission from our supplier sites. No affiliate program will pay for traffic that doesn't convert leaving them with a negative ROI.

Sorry if I play Devil's advocate here, but what you just stated above here is one of the reasons why you should have implemented a % Revenue-Share model.
With CPL you are not going anywhere, and that's so bad because you have a great website.

I don't even understand why should someone venture in such kind of affiliate schemes with merchants.

I remember the old structure of HotelsCombined some years ago.
Affiliates back then could even use their own aff. networks feeds.
No wonder I dropped from the program when there was the switch to the new pay model.

While I think that's too much to ask, for me the best way to go for hotel affiliate is the revenue share (70%/30% or 80%/20% for top affiliates).

Sorry if I sound like an I-know-everything-about-everybody, but I have been in affiliate marketing since 2006, raised €2M in commissions in these years, and definitely know my s***t.

[fedupwithaffiliate]

Hotels combined pay model is really worse than stock market. Nowadays look like their lead value is getting much worse than previous years. Adsense is much , their pay model doesn't fluctuate like stock market.

The only reason i am not using sprice or wego is because they don't have white label solution. If not, long time ago I have switch to the others. Any least i know, the commission doesn't fluctuate like this.