Why Booking.com Cut 'Thousands' of Affiliate Partners – and What Comes Next

Booking.com's purge of affiliates is about cutting costs and reducing fraud, but it's created a lot of confusion in the process.

Booking.com has abruptly ended its affiliate partnerships with travel bloggers and other content creators, giving just 30 days' notice and offering no explanation for the decision.

The move has sparked confusion and frustration among affiliates – they face lost income and work to update or remove affiliate links.

Booking.com declined to say how many partners were affected, but the travel networking platform Travel Massive called the cuts “Bookinggeddon,” and estimated that “thousands” of affiliates were dropped.

Booking.com's website says it has more than 17,500 affiliate partners. But the cuts are believed to be aimed at smaller partners without substantial scale.

Booking.com's affiliate program is essentially a marketing channel for the company; it's a way to get the brand in front of new customers and attract bookings.

Travel blogs and other small travel businesses could sign up directly with Booking.com to become affiliate partners. They could add Booking.com links and banners to their websites and be able to sell hotels and other travel products via Booking.com.

In return, affiliates would receive a share of 25% to 40% of Booking.com's commiss