Vivastay.com – The affiliate ripoff?

I was reading some affiliate things tonight and I am not impressed at all at how Vivastay.com structure their affiliate program. It seems that rather than pay their affiliates out of the profit margin, they simply increase the price and pass it on to the end user instead.

Here is a typical hotel if you visit the site normally:

And the same hotel if you visit via an affiliate link:

This is disgraceful, Vivastay and Affiliate Window are  just adding on the 5% affiliate commission to the sale price, stiffing the end user and the affiliate in the process.

How can you legitimately build up a loyal readership on your site once the readers realise they are going to get screwed every time they follow one of your recommendations?  The readers who do understand how affiliate links work then need to clear their cookies before buying, even although you convinced them to book that hotel in the first place – how is that fair to the affiliate who sent the traffic, when they get paid nothing for a converting customer?

Thanks to Keep Your Woman Happy for providing the images used.

Further reading on the Affiliate 4 Travel blog.

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3 Responses to “Vivastay.com – The affiliate ripoff?”

1. Kiddies-Kingdom.com – Like a spoilt child, they just won’t play fair says:

   May 27, 2010 at 5:14 pm

   [...] commission is an optional extra, to be avoided at every chance possible.  We’ve already had Viva Stay adding on an affiliate surcharge,  who will make my “Affiliate wall of Shame” next? Do I need to create a new category [...]
2. kcheung says:

   June 10, 2010 at 3:32 pm

   Hi, i hope you’re well, I’ve got some news for you on the vivastay front, we have taken of affiliate management of the campaign as of 27th May 2010, I’m please to say that the issue that you mentioned above was corrected prior to us starting on the account. I’m also pleased to mention that with our experience (we currently manage Healthy Direct, Angels fancy dress, Kiddicare, Pizza Hut and Vitabiotics affiliate programs), we’d hope the campaign will improve and deliver for all parties involved. I’ve spoken to Vivastay and suffice to say they were very upset at the reaction this has caused them to seriously reconsider their approach to affiliate marketing and rectify the issues that were causing problems, Vivastay are still extremely keen to work with affiliates and we’re currently making recommendations on how they can further improve the process for both customers and affiliates.

   i hope that with news of a legit and reputable agency now managing the campaign your readers and you will reconsider relegating Vivastay to the sin bin. should you have any questions of if you feel that there’s more that we can be doing to help, please feel free to contact me on my email – ken<>bluebarracuda <> com

   on a side note you’ll be interested to know that kiddieskingdom was also managed by the same affiliate management agency that was previously managing Vivastay and caused this issue.
3. Nuala Donovan says:

   October 21, 2010 at 1:26 pm

   Hello,I booked hotel in Krakow with vivastay. did not get confirmation, so phoned hotel ,was told my booking wasmade by TRANSHOTEL. Who are they?.Why did this happen. Thanks. NUALA.