Whether you’re a dyed-in-the-wool petrolhead or a blogger who loves helping leisure travelers enjoy their vacation time, you can earn a trunk full of passive income through car rental affiliate programs.
The global car rental market is projected to grow from $82.5 billion in 2022 to more than $137 billion by 2029. There are currently about 417 million car rental customers worldwide, although this number is expected to exceed 602 million by 2026.
With the end of the pandemic driving substantial growth in the travel industry, there’s never been a better time to become a rental car affiliate. And even if you’re not a travel affiliate, your audience might be interested in van rentals for a house move or hiring rental cars for a road trip. Either way, there’s no shortage of opportunities to begin turning traffic into cash.
Read on for our roundup of the very best car rental affiliate programs…
Car Rental Affiliate Programs
- RentalCars.com affiliate program
- Discover Cars affiliate program
- Enterprise affiliate program
- National Car Rental affiliate program
- Alamo affiliate program
- Budget Rental Car affiliate program
- Avis Car Rental affiliate program
- Hertz affiliate program
- Thrifty affiliate program
- Auto Europe Car Rentals affiliate program
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1 RentalCars.com
Rentalcars.com is a major online car rental agency, providing services for more than four million customers yearly in over 46,000 locations worldwide. It offers car rental options from big names like Avis, Enterprise, Hertz, and Thrifty, as well as small local brands.
The company is part of Booking Holdings, which operates metasearch engines in several niches, including Booking.com, Cheapflights, and Kayak.com.
The Rentalcars.com affiliate program offers a 30-day cookie window and pays a 6% commission on each completed car rental booking. Commissions are calculated based solely on the car price, excluding any extras or additional services.
According to the Travelpayouts affiliate network, Rentalcars.com has an average order of €230 and an effective CPC of $0.02.
- URL: RentalCars.com affiliate program
- Commission rate: 6% from each completed car rental booking
- Cookie duration: 30 days
👉 Read more: Travelpayouts review
2 Discover Cars
DiscoverCars.com is one of the world’s leading car rental comparison websites, giving travelers all the necessary tools to find, compare, and rent cars in 145+ countries and 10,000+ locations worldwide. The website attracts more than one million users a month at peak times.
Quotes from Discover Cars include all fees, taxes, and extras, so customers will be satisfied when they pick up their rental. The site also boasts 24/7 customer support and free cancellations.
Sign up for Discover Cars’ affiliate program via the ShareASale affiliate network —the third-most-popular network according to our affiliate marketing statistics.
It pays a commission worth 40% of qualifying revenue generated from each car rental, plus an additional 23% on its FullCoverage insurance service sales. The program has a 365-day cookie window, longer than any other rental car affiliate programs we reviewed.
According to 30-day figures from ShareASale, the site delivers an average sale of $62.72 and has an EPC of $101.34, with a strong 4.85% conversion rate.
Discover Cars affiliates get access to a dedicated account manager who offers affiliate strategy tips. They also get all the necessary tools designed to attract customers and earn money, including banner ads, text links, a fully customizable widget, a landing page generator, and XML API integration.
- URL: Discover Cars affiliate program
- Commission rate: 40% of qualifying revenue generated from each transaction
- Cookie duration: 365 days
3 Enterprise
Enterprise is one of the world’s best-known rental companies, offering truck and car rentals at more than 8,000 popular destinations worldwide. It’s the flagship brand of Enterprise Holdings, which owns various other car rental services, including Alamo and National.
The company has a reputation for offering superb customer service, coming top in JD Power’s latest car rental customer satisfaction survey.
Enterprise’s US car rental affiliate program is on the Impact Radius affiliate network. You’ll earn a 1% cut of all sales converted within the 180-day cookie window as an Enterprise affiliate partner. That might not sound much, but remember that a single booking could cost hundreds of dollars, or even more for premium car fleet hires.
To help you drive sales and traffic, Enterprise offers a variety of promotional materials, including logos, banners, and text links.
- URL: Enterprise affiliate program
- Commission rate: 1% per sale
- Cookie duration: 180 days
4 National Car Rental
National Car Rental is part of Enterprise Holdings. It serves customers in 1,500+ locations across the US, Canada, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Australia.
One of National’s most attractive features is the Emerald Club rewards program, which offers special privileges for frequent renters. For instance, members earn rental credits for every qualified car rental, with seven credits adding up to a free rental day.
Find National Car Rental’s affiliate program on Impact Radius. It pays a flat 3% commission on all sales and has a 180-day cookie window. Commissions are paid once the reservation has been completed, typically within 30 days.
- URL: National affiliate program
- Commission rate: 3% per sale
- Cookie duration: 180 days
5 Alamo
Another brand under the Enterprise umbrella, Alamo specializes in cheap car rental. Its website is designed to make travel planning easier, offering customers travel directions, weather reports, fun travel activities, and various other tools. The company also runs a rewards program, offering members up to 5% off base car rental rates.
Alamo has signed up to the Clorox Safer Today Alliance to put travelers’ minds at rest. As such, it receives regular support and guidance around safety guidelines from experts at Cleveland Clinic and the CDC.
Alamo’s car rental affiliate program is on the FlexOffers affiliate network. It pays a 5% commission on all sales and has a generous 180-day cookie window, much like its fellow brands, Enterprise and National.
- URL: Alamo affiliate program
- Commission rate: 5% per sale
- Cookie duration: 180 days
6 Budget Rental Car
Budget is a global car rental company that also offers truck rentals in the US. The company provides car rental services at more than 3,000 locations worldwide. It is part of the Avis Budget Group, which owns Avis and Zipcar.
The Budget Rental Car affiliate program is managed through the Partnerize network. All new Budget car rental affiliates earn up to 4% per sale, based on rental time and mileage. However, higher rates are available for top-performing affiliates.
Budget offers a detailed affiliate dashboard that allows users to view up-to-date information on clicks, sales, and earnings, which can help you optimize campaign performance.
Remember that you must have a live website to apply for the Budget Rental Car affiliate program, as the company reviews all sites before acceptance. Budget currently only works with affiliates based in the US and Canada.
- URL: Budget Rental Car affiliate program
- Commission rate: Up to 4% per sale
- Cookie duration: Unlisted
7 Avis Car Rental
Avis was the first company to offer car rentals from airport locations. Today, it’s part of the Avis Budget Group, along with Avis, Budget, and Zipcar. With its subsidiaries, it operates one of the world’s best-known car rental brands, with approximately 5,500 locations in more than 165 countries.
The company offers customers peace of mind through its best-price guarantee. If renters find a cheaper qualifying rate elsewhere, Avis pledges to match the base rate and offer a further 10% discount.
Like its subsidiary, Budget Rental Car, Avis has chosen the Partnerize network to run its rental car affiliate program. It pays new affiliates up to 4% commission for each transaction based on mileage and rental time. Like Budget, it also offers higher commissions to top performers.
Affiliates can enroll multiple sites under a single affiliate account, provided each website has a separate URL. However, Avis currently only accepts affiliate applications from companies or individuals in the US and Canada. Once approved for the affiliate program, Partnerize will offer full technical support to help you start earning fast.
- URL: Avis affiliate program
- Commission rate: Up to 4% per sale
- Cookie duration: Unlisted
8 Hertz
Hertz is another giant of the car rental world, operating more than 10,000+ airport and neighborhood locations across 145 countries and six continents. As well as the Hertz brand, the company owns the budget car rental companies Dollar and Thrifty.
To encourage customer loyalty, the company runs a rewards program, Hertz Gold Plus Rewards. It has more than 11 million members worldwide and issued six million complimentary customer upgrades in 2019 alone.
Before joining the Hertz rental car affiliate program, you must sign up for a CJ Affiliate account. Once approved, you’ll earn a 3% commission on all completed car rentals in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Unfortunately, referral cookies only last one day, which is pretty stingy. According to CJ Affiliate, the program has a three-month EPC of $89.07.
Hertz offers affiliates various promotional materials and tools, including newsletters containing regular incentives, promotions, and banners.
- URL: Hertz affiliate program
- Commission rate: 3% on completed car rentals in select markets
- Cookie duration: 1 day
9 Thrifty
Thrifty Car Rental is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, which, in turn, is owned by Hertz. Wheels within wheels, as they say. It’s a major player in the car rental game, with more than 1,000 locations across 77 countries, including 472 in the US and Canada.
As its name suggests, Thrifty’s business is geared toward budget-conscious travelers. Its rewards program, Thrifty Blue Chip Rewards, allows members to save 15% on bookings.
Thrifty has chosen Rakuten Adversiting as its preferred affiliate network partner. The company’s affiliate program pays a standard commission of 1% on all consumed rentals and has a 14-day cookie window.
- URL: Thrifty affiliate program
- Commission rate: 1% commission on consumed rentals
- Cookie duration: 14 days
10 Auto Europe Car Rentals
Last up is Auto Europe, a car rental comparison website that has long-term partnerships with big brands like Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, Europcar, National, Budget, Dollar, Buchbinder, and Peugeot. It aims to offer motorists the best rates at 20,000 pickup locations across 180+ countries.
All bookings on Auto Europe come with free cancellation up to 48 hours before pickup and include no hidden fees. The company also operates a best-rate guarantee and a 24/7 customer support hotline. To date, it has served more than eight million happy customers worldwide.
Find Auto Europe’s affiliate program on the CJ Affiliate network. It pays a 5% commission on completed car rentals and has a seven-day cookie duration.
- URL: AutoEurope affiliate program
- Commission rate: 5% commission on completed car rentals
- Cookie duration: 7 days
Conclusion: Are Car Rental Affiliate Programs Right For You?
There’s lots to like about rental car affiliate programs. For starters, the commissions are high, with some programs paying affiliates up to 40% of their car rental profit. Car rental services are also pretty expensive, with average prices for a seven-day rental reaching as high as $695. That means you can earn high payouts from each transaction.
But the car rentals niche is extremely competitive. You’re not just trying to out-rank the leading rental companies, but also the thousands of other affiliates targeting the same audiences and keywords. If you’re going to succeed, you need to build a well-optimized, high-converting affiliate website.
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