How Whistler Luxury Hotels Makes Money

I’m sure you see where we’re going with this one.  An SEO-optimized site for a very niched up, but lucrative area; luxury hotels in Whistler.

So basically what they’ve done is review all the big hotels in Whistler with some original content and photos (nowhere near as much as they should), and then setup a hotline for people to call to book “for the lowest rates”.

Obviously they have access to the booking system (they’re a travel agent basically) at the hotel and take a kickback.  If you think about the prices these hotels rent out their rooms for you can imagine the kickbacks could easily average $100 a referral.  Nice.

But there are a few problems with this idea.

These days people tend to take these kind of searches into closed environments, ie not Google, but rather sites like Expedia, Booking.com or Lastminute.

Also, you can often have the problem where someone reads about say the Hilton on your site, but then Googles “Hilton Whistler” and thus never phones you, and so the booking kickback is lost.

There’s not much we can do about the first problem, but we can definitely fix the second problem with a much more modern solution.  Say hello to becoming an affiliate for Booking.com (or Expedia etc).

Basically instead of getting people to ring up, just link them out to the hotel’s page on Booking.com or some other hotel search engine and make the text read “Book Now”.  The affiliate commission is all automatic with a place like Booking.com and of course you don’t risk losing the kickback.

I think Booking.com pays out 10% commission if I’m correct, which is obviously probably a little less than you taking the booking yourself, but is still a nice sizeable amount, especially given how automated this whole process is now.

Anyways, think about what specialized areas you can create such a reviews site in; eg wilderness retreats Montana, or whatever you can relate to.

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