Network

When you first get started as an affiliate on Wink, you find some stuff you want to sell on the platform and share it on social media, your travel blog, app etc. At some point, you feel that you’ve become quite proficient with our tools and you have some bookings under your belt. The next thing you can do to level up your selling game is to seek out direct relationships with suppliers.

This article covers when and how to ask a supplier for a direct relationship that could be beneficial to both of you.

When to ask

Keep in mind, for most affiliates, it doesn’t make any sense to connect directly with a supplier. Most suppliers already offer up their best deals and upsells to everyone on the platform. However, we recommend that you do attempt to initiate a direct connection with one of our suppliers when any of the following conditions are met:

You have a large audience of potential bookers that fit particularly well with a specific supplier. E.g. You’re a ski bum with some sick powder, back country, ski content and all your followers are ski bums. Connecting with a ski lodge to ask for a unique mid-week deal or similar is smart.
You bring your own group of travelers with you to a destination. E.g. You organize yoga retreats and a group of 20 yogis are confirmed. With a direct connection, the retreat could give you a unique promo code you can share with your fellow practitioners that entitles them to a group discount.
You’re a travel agent or corporation dealing with a large volume of bookings. Both travel agents and corporations are considered to be affiliates on Wink but they also have their own dedicated sites

Requirements

You have to have at least 5 past bookings on Wink under your belt before being able to initiate a request. We set this requirement to avoid having suppliers be inundated with messages. We recommend that you first focus on establishing a track record on Wink. Then suppliers will come to you.

How it works

When you’ve found a supplier you’d like to work with (see Search) and you want to initiate a relationship request, here’s what happens:

You click on Request a direct connection on any of the supplier’s search results that came up for you.
A form is presented to you that lets you introduce yourself to the supplier. We ask that you please be courteous and stick to the point. Tell them who you are and why you are reaching out. Why you think you can be of service to them and any specifics around the ask that you have at this time.
Submit the form and then you wait for their response. This could take anywhere from one day to a week. Suppliers are busy so please be patient. You cannot initiate another request to the same supplier while you are still waiting for a response.

The supplier will respond with:

Accept Your request was accepted and a direct sales channel between them and you is created that can be configured in many different ways.
Reject Your request was rejected and you have access to the same inventory as before. You can send another request, at the earliest, two months after the rejection.
Non-responsive For whatever reason, the supplier does not respond at all. At this point, you should consider looking for another supplier.

Benefits

Once you’ve been accepted, the supplier is able to the following to your, newly created, sales channel.

Set a different membership discount for your audience to enjoy.
Set a different commission level for you to earn more.
Add unique deals that are only available to your audience.
Add unique inventory and upsells that are only available to your audience.

API

Developers who want to manage their network can head over to Developers > API > Sales Channel.