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At-home travel agents can earn commission on hotel bookings in a variety of ways, whether it’s through a major online travel agency that’s been around for a while (perhaps OTAs aren’t all that bad) or an established network. However, if you aren’t getting at least 10 percent on bookings these days, chances are you aren’t looking very hard for a better way to book.

Major OTAs such as Expedia and Priceline offer options to travel professionals to make money booking hotels and other travel services. Heck, travAlliancemedia has its own hotel booking engine for agents, HotelRewards offering thousands of hotels and paying 10 percent commission.

Here’s a look at top booking engines that offer competitive commissions to travel agents.

HotelRewards
HotelRewards, the online booking engine from travAlliancemedia, not only boasts more than 144,000 hotels worlwide to choose from, but also pays 10 percent commission on every online booking your clients make.

On top of that, checks to agents are delivered promptly once a month, ensuring that travel agents get paid in a timely manner.

So, how do you start making money?

First, you’ll want to register an account with HotelRewards to receive a HotelRewards Discount Code. This code will allow agents to track their confirmed bookings and earn commissions while they are logged into their account.

Commissions are paid at the end of the month in which the clients booked a hotel room, not at the end of the travel period that was booked. So, for example, if a reservation was made in December for Jan. 15-20, you will receive the check at the end of December. On top of that, if you book a hotel room offline over the phone, you will still receive 5 percent commission as long as your HotelRewards Discount Code has been credited to the offline reservation.

When arriving at the hotel, clients do not need to present their HotelRewards booking confirmation. All they need is a photo ID at the time of check-in to verify their prepaid hotel stay.

All agents who follow the proper procedures will be paid a commission, even if they reside outside of the United States.

And when it comes to support, the HotelRewards program ensures that agents get the help they need. HotelRewards has three specialized support departments: Affiliate Reservations Support Department, Reservations Assistance; Affiliate Reservations Support Department, Offline Sales; and HotelRewards Travel Agent Support Department.

This ensures that agents, no matter when they need help with something, aren’t stuck on hold for too long.

It’s one more way that travAlliancemedia gives agents the credit and respect they deserve.

For more information, visit www.hotelrewards.com.

Expedia Travel Agent Affiliate
The Expedia Travel Agent Affiliate Program (TAAP) pays 10 percent

commission to agents for prepaid hotel reservations. If you become a preferred partner in TAAP, the commission rate is higher.

For bookings made directly with the hotel, Expedia offers 7 percent commission. Agents can also receive 2 percent for GDS bookings, 3 percent for vacation packages of less than three nights booked through Expedia, 5 percent commission for vacation packages of at least three hotel nights, 6 percent on car rentals and 10 percent on activities and attractions.

Expedia features more than 240,000 hotels, thousands of attractions and more than 300 airlines.

How does it work?

After registering for the TAAP on Expedia, you will be sent an email on how to access the website and begin making reservations to earn commissions. Expedia’s booking system allows for real-time reservations and includes a dedicated support call center for agents.

All commissions will be calculated by “usage date” (for example, post-stay or post-journey) and paid monthly for commission totals that add up to more than $50.

Expedia is open only to U.S. travel agencies and accepts IATA (IATAN), ARC, CLIA and True ID numbers.

For more information, visit Expedia.com or send an email to support@expedia-agents.com.

Orbitz for Agents
The Orbitz for Agents program offers several benefits.

For one, Orbitz pays 10 percent commission to agents on standalone bookings and 4 percent commission on vacation packages. Air and car packages also earn $5 per package. Orbitz pays 60 percent of net revenue on insurance sold with packages.

Commission checks are also mailed monthly, based on hotel check-in date. To receive commission, you must register with Orbitz for Agents, complete the included W9 form and email it to ofaw9comm@orbitz.com.

If desired, Orbitz for Agents also allows agents to include an additional amount to the reservation price or service fees that are opaque to the client. These can be added on the fly.

For easy searching, Orbitz also allows agents to define search parameters. If you have a client who usually flies out of LAX, for example, you can filter your search by Los Angeles.

Travel agents also have the ability to save itineraries for easy reference later so you don’t have to continue losing time pumping out the same itinerary outline.

Orbitz also has a customer service team ready to assist agents every day of the year 24/7.

Orbitz’s services come complete with real-time revenue and sales reporting to ensure everything is up to date.

For more information, visit www.orbitzforagents.com.

Priceline Travel Affiliate
The Priceline Travel Affiliate Program (PricelinePartnerNetwork.com) offers three ways for agents to partner up: the Priceline Private Label Partner Platform, the XML Direct Platform and the Commission Junction Affiliate Program.

The Priceline Private Label Partner Program features over 200,000 hotels in over 12,000 cities worldwide, along with car rentals. It includes detailed information for each hotel and car rental booking such as directions, photos, maps and user reviews. The program’s Dynamic Packaging feature enables agents to bundle air, hotel and car into a vacation package.

The XML Direct Platform is great for agency websites, mobile app developers (and the agents who develop them) and large supply aggregators. The Priceline Partner Network’s API allows you to connect to multiple product sources to display rates and availability easily on your website. That includes data for hotels and resorts, rental cars, airlines and vacation packages.

The Commission Junction Affiliate Platform provides mobile site tracking and reporting, an RSS feed for new hotel deals, extensive linking via Priceline’s Product Catalog, newsletters with sales and coupons and links and widgets to keep you in tune with the ever-evolving world of technology.

Priceline also pays 10 percent commission to agents on bookings.

For more information, visit www.pricelinepartnernetwork.com.

CCRA Travel Commerce Network
Recognizing an opportunity to provide reservation services to thousands of independent and home-based agents with no access to the GDS, CCRA developed its own booking engine, CCRAtravel.com. Agents who are registered on CCRAtravel.com have five rate categories available to them, aggregated on a single site, including net, Internet, GDS and CCRA negotiated rates, as well as CCRA’s 15 percent commission.

Block space is now available online exclusively through CCRAtravel.com. Agents can now access and confirm blocked space online at over 60,000 hotels worldwide, including “same-day arrival” inventory at many hotels.

Agents can now confirm space bookable directly at www.CCRAtravel.com — no more calling a help desk to request availability. Agents also get access to CCRA’s highly competitive net rates. The hotel program offers passive segment capability for Amadeus and Sabre agents, who can add bookings made on CCRAtravel.com to the PNR via a passive segment.

Agents can also make money on air via AirSelect Central, a new booking engine introduced in 2014. The web-based domestic and international air transportation booking engine — powered by Sabre — features more than 30 international airlines.

Agents can make commissions of up to 25 percent for qualifying reservations from CCRA preferred international airline partners, found through the “CCRA Preferred” icon. Agencies will then receive 80 percent of the total air commissions earned. There is an automatic $5 processing fee charged per ticket. AirSelect Central also allows agents to add their own service fee at the time of purchase.

The AirSelect Central booking engine is available to qualified travel agencies and travel agents who are members of OSSN, TRUE, ARC, CLIA or IATA.

For more information, visit www.ccra.com.