The new ebookers commission structure went live last month on TradeDoubler, shortly followed by our other networks, Commission Junction and Affiliate Future.

The response has been extremely positive (well, who can say anything negative about higher commissions?)

If you haven’t heard about this yet, please take a look at our commissions page for all the details.

In summary, we’ve simplified and increased commissions on most products. We have also removed our permanent commission tiers and now make affiliate payments based on the current month’s activity.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask us or your network.

Our new-and-improved booking platform is making advances into our European markets at long last! 

You may recall that ebookers UK switched to a new platform and website in July 2007. The new platform (codenamed “Austin”) has provided a much improved user experience, leading to higher overall conversion rates.

The new technology has also given us many other benefits in terms of new product integration and better SEO structures.

Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands have joined us on the new platform in the last month. All of our European sites will follow suit by the end of 2008.

So what does this mean for you? This means all our European sites are working with the same technology and deep-link structures, making it simpler for affiliates to join programmes from our European sites.

Take a look at the sites:
www.ebookers.nl, www.ebookers.at and www.ebookers.be.

The new ebookers API has successfully launched across a number of our European markets. Our first UK-based partner is due to switch to the new API this week, to be followed by all other partners over the next 2-3 months.

For the technically minded, our new API (called PWS – Platform Web Services) uses a standard request/response over SSL HTTP, using the POST method.

We have full technical specification available so please contact us if you have any concerns or are interested in using our feed.

Those affiliates using our current feed will all have been contacted to gather traffic estimates. The ebookers development team will then plan the UK rollout based on each affiliates requirements. You will be consulted to determine the best time to make the change.

Prices for a flight to Cape Town start at £515, with Johannesburg for only £475.

These are market-leading prices and we expect to see great conversions (for us and our affiliates of course!)

Based on analysis of current booking and search trends, we've pulled out a list of our predicted top selling destinations for the next month. The numbers in brackets indicate the destinations' position in the previous month.

Hotel Destinations:
1. London (3)
2. New York (1)
3. Las Vegas (2)
4. Edinburgh (10)
5. Paris (5)
6. Barcelona (7)
7. Dubai (4)
8. Liverpool (--)
9. Dublin (8)
10. Amsterdam (--) 

Flight Destinations:
1. Bangkok (1)
2. New York (2)
3. London (3)
4. Dubai (4)
5. Sydney (5)
6. Johannesburg (8)
7. Los Angeles (6)
8. Delhi (--)
9. Las Vegas (9)
10. Orlando (5) 

Car Hire Destinations:
1. Faro (1)
2. Palma Mallorca (6)
3. London Heathrow (3)
4. Orlando (2)
5. San Francisco (8)
6. Los Angeles (4)
7. Malaga (7)
8. Ibiza (--)
9. Alicante (10)
10. Paphos (--)