Affiliate program

The affiliate program lets you set up referral partnerships where affiliates earn a commission on bookings they send your way. Each affiliate gets a unique tracking URL, and the system automatically attributes bookings and calculates earnings.

Dashboard overview

The top of the affiliates page shows summary stat cards:

Adding an affiliate

1. Click + New Affiliate.
2. Enter the affiliate's name and email.
3. Set the commission percentage (applied to the base booking amount, before taxes and fees).
4. Optionally enable pass cost to customer -- adds the commission as a surcharge on the booking rather than coming out of your revenue.
5. Save.

The system generates a unique tracking URL with a ?ref= parameter:

https://app.rentaltide.com/booking/customerId/{yourId}?ref={affiliateId}

Share this URL with the affiliate. Any booking made through that link is automatically attributed to them.

Adding an affiliate this way creates the affiliate record immediately, with its own tracking URL, without any action on the affiliate's part. If you would rather have the affiliate sign up and manage their own dashboard, invite them by email instead (below).

Inviting affiliates and the affiliate portal

Alongside adding affiliates directly, you can invite people by email to join your affiliate program. Invited affiliates sign in to a self-serve affiliate portal where they track their earnings, see the bookings attributed to them, and book directly for their own customers. Affiliates can also find your business and request to join on their own.

Sending an email invite

Click Invite affiliate (next to + New Affiliate) to open the invite form:

When you send the invite, the affiliate receives an email from RentalTide (shown under your business name) that states the commission offer and includes an Accept invitation link. They sign in to the affiliate portal with that email address using a one-time code, so no password is required.

The affiliate record is not created until the invitee accepts. Until then the invite sits in your pending list. You cannot invite an email that is already a live affiliate of your business, and you cannot send a second invite to an email that already has one pending.

Pending requests and invites

When there are outstanding items, a Affiliate requests & invites panel appears at the top of the affiliates page with a count. It holds two kinds of rows:

• Requests -- someone found your business in the affiliate portal and asked to join. Requests do not carry a commission rate, because you set it on approval.
• Invites -- email invitations you sent that have not been accepted yet. These show the commission percentage you offered and the invited email.

What the affiliate sees in the portal

The affiliate portal lives at affiliates.rentaltide.com. Affiliates sign in with their email and a six-digit code (the code expires after 15 minutes). Access is invite-only, so the email must be one you invited or registered.

Once signed in, the affiliate sees:

• Combined earnings across every business they work with: total earned, paid out, and pending payout.
• A card per business showing the commission rate and that business's earned, paid-out, and pending amounts.
• Book now -- opens your public booking page with their referral already applied, so bookings they place for a customer are attributed to them automatically.
• View bookings -- the list of bookings attributed to them, with the date, item, status, booking total, and their commission. Customer contact details are not shown to affiliates.
• Merchants -- accept pending invites, view the status of requests they have sent, and search for a business by name to request a new affiliation. A merchant sets the commission when they approve the request.

Earnings shown in the portal mirror the totals on your affiliates page. You still record payouts and manage the affiliate's settings from your side; the portal is read-only for earnings.

Affiliate table

Each row in the affiliate table shows:

Managing affiliates

Edit

Update the affiliate's name, email, or commission rate. Changes apply to future bookings only -- existing commissions are not recalculated.

Record payout

Log a payment to the affiliate to move pending earnings to the paid column:

1. Click the Record Payout action.
2. Enter the payout amount.
3. The system deducts the amount from pending and adds it to paid.

Payouts are tracked for audit purposes but the actual payment is made outside the system (via check, bank transfer, etc.).

Location restrictions

Click Manage Locations to restrict which of your business locations the affiliate can refer bookings to. By default, affiliates can refer to all locations.

Staff assignments

Click Manage Staff to assign staff members to an affiliate. Staff members linked to an affiliate can view the affiliate's performance data and manage their account.

Generate QR code

Create a QR code for the affiliate's tracking URL. The QR code opens the booking page with the affiliate's referral parameter pre-filled. Use the Download button to save the QR code image.

Marketing flyer

Generate a printable marketing flyer that includes the affiliate's QR code and booking URL. Affiliates can distribute the flyer at hotels, tourism offices, or events.

Copy URL

Copy the affiliate's tracking URL to the clipboard for sharing via email, text, or social media.

Delete

Remove an affiliate from the system. Historical commission data is preserved for reporting purposes.

Linking affiliates to promo codes

Affiliates can be linked to promo codes so their referrals receive a discount while you track the source:

1. Go to Marketing > Promo Codes.
2. Create or edit a promo code.
3. In the Affiliate targeting field, select the affiliate.
4. When a customer uses the promo code, the booking is attributed to the affiliate.

This gives affiliates two attribution paths: the tracking URL and the linked promo code.

Commission calculation

• Commission is calculated on the base booking amount before taxes, fees, and add-ons.
• When pass cost to customer is enabled, the commission percentage is added as a surcharge on the booking total, so the affiliate's commission comes from the customer rather than your margin.
• Commission is accrued at the time of booking and moves to "pending" status. It stays pending until you record a payout.