How do travel creators use affiliate marketing in the UK?

What to take away

How the affiliate model pays a travel creator

A creator writes a guide to a hotel, a rail route or a guided walk, then adds a tracked link. If a reader books through it, the merchant pays a commission: a percentage of the sale or a fixed sum.

Payment does not follow the click. The network waits until the booking is confirmed and the cancellation window has closed, then releases the commission. A cancelled trip removes the payment entirely.

This separates affiliate income from paid work. A sponsored post pays once for a defined deliverable, while a well-ranked guide can earn for years.

Networks and programmes UK travel creators join

Creators rarely approach merchants one by one. They join a network that handles tracking links and payment, or apply to a programme run by an airline, rail operator or hotel group.

Two names come up most often. Awin covers travel, retail and booking brands, while Amazon Associates suits gear, guidebooks and travel kit.

Travel merchants run their own schemes as well. Booking.com, Expedia, GetYourGuide, Viator and Trainline all take affiliate traffic directly as well as through networks, and hotel groups, tour operators and destination bodies often do the same. Larger networks such as Rakuten Advertising, CJ Affiliate and Impact also carry travel and booking merchants, while Skimlinks can turn an ordinary link into a tracked one without a separate application for every merchant.

Rates come from the merchant, so two destinations can pay very differently for similar work. Cookie windows, the period after a click in which a later booking still counts, and payment thresholds, the minimum balance a network holds before it pays out, are set programme by programme, so check both in the terms before you build a page around one. Some programmes also ask for rights to reuse your clips in their own marketing, and the guide to UGC licensing terms sets out what those clauses normally cover.

Disclosure: what the ASA expects

An affiliate link is a marketing communication. The CAP Code, enforced by the Advertising Standards Authority, requires ads to be obviously identifiable; rule 2.1 says that marketing communications must be obviously identifiable as such. The ASA publishes its codes and rulings in full.

A hashtag at the foot of a caption is not enough. Wording next to the link works better: "This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you book through them." If a brand also paid for the content, say so.

Setting up affiliate income: a sensible order

Tracking, reporting and personal data

Tracking links rely on cookies, so you are sending data to a network on each click. Run a newsletter alongside them and you are handling personal data yourself. Most organisations that process personal data must pay a fee to the ICO, whose guidance for organisations sets out the basics: the fee tier depends on your staff numbers and turnover, and some small organisations are exempt.

Reporting inside the network shows clicks, bookings and cancellations separately. Judge a post on confirmed commission rather than click totals, since a click is not a sale.

Record keeping and VAT

Commission is trading income, so keep a note of gross payments, network fees and arrival dates. Once total turnover passes the UK VAT registration threshold, which rose to £90,000 in April 2024, you must register with HMRC through its online VAT registration service, and then charge VAT on your commission.

Commission from overseas merchants raises place of supply questions that catch many creators out. The guide to VAT on travel creator fees covers the common UK cases.

Common questions

Do I need to disclose affiliate links on Instagram?

Yes. The CAP Code applies across social platforms, so any post with a link you earn from needs a clear label before the click. Small text buried at the end of a long caption is easy to miss.

Can I run affiliate links as a sole trader?

Yes. Sole traders can earn commission, but the money is taxable and counts towards VAT turnover, so keep records from the first payout even if the sums are small.

How much do UK travel creators earn from affiliate links?

There is no published UK average, and any figure a network quotes reflects its own clients. Commission is usually a percentage of the booking value or a small fixed sum, so the same click rate earns far more on a week-long stay than on a guidebook. Cancellations remove the payment, so a high click count on its own means little.

Do affiliate links count towards the VAT threshold?

Yes. Commission forms part of taxable turnover. Once your total turnover passes the registration threshold you must register, whatever mix of fees and commission you receive.