Originally Posted by
Raffles
I’ve always been careful about ultra high end reviews (I am typing this in a £1,000 per night hotel for which I’ve paid cash, x2 rooms - I won’t be reviewing it) because of how they fit with our audience.
I’d say £500 is our luxury sweet spot for us, but we do a lot below that. This is for an audience of London professionals so not exactly hard up.
However, I know a (non points) blogger who is an agent who makes £1m per year in commissions on bookings from his readers. Ben won’t be at that level but I suspect Ford is doing nicely. 10% commission on $20,000 bookings adds up.
Re video, I think you miss the point slightly. Miles and points blogs can get dull and flight reviews in particular liven it up. It helps you get regular daily reader who will makes you money somewhere down the line. No-one one makes a penny on flight reviews - at least hotels pay high commissions.
Just to comment on
"No-one one makes a penny on flight reviews - at least hotels pay high commissions," as a Luxury Travel Advisor I can speak to the fact that some of my best revenue comes from booking premium airline tickets, air service and support fees and 24/7 fees. Much of the premium long-haul ex-USA (also including transcons and some domestic routes) is commissionable 8% to 20% (fare, not taxes). Of course, we have to deal with oddities and certain airlines that won't commission (I'm looking at you B6 at the $3700 MINT JFK-LAX flights) -- but, air is big business. Heck, I know some advisors who make a substantial amount of their money from air. Complex air, VIP service, RTW tickets, nobody really wants to deal with it and/or are not great with Sabre/Amadeus -- so it's a niche for sure. But, you can make nice commissions from air, as much as you can from hotels. It just has to be the "right" air, and you have to have the "right" fee structure. We've done a good job with that, very transparently on our dot travel website.