Here’s the thing about travel insurance: most people want it, but they won’t go out of their way to get it. If you’re running a travel booking website with WP Travel Engine, you’re leaving money on the table by not offering insurance right there in the checkout flow.
Research shows that 44% of travelers are more likely to complete their booking when insurance is offered. That’s almost half your potential customers who feel better about hitting that “Book Now” button when they know they’re covered.
This guide will walk you through setting up the WP Travel Engine Travel Insurance addon, from installation to actually making money from it. I’ll keep this practical and show you exactly what to do.
Why Bother With Travel Insurance on Your Site?
Before we get into the technical stuff, let me explain why this matters.
First, it’s about revenue. You’re not just making money from trip bookings anymore. You can either sell your own insurance plans or partner with insurance companies and earn commissions. Either way, it’s additional income from customers you already have.
Second, it helps with conversions. When people see insurance options during checkout, they feel more secure about booking with you. It’s that simple. They know they’re protected if something goes wrong, so they’re less likely to abandon their cart and reconsider.
Third, some destinations actually require insurance. If you’re selling trips to certain countries or organizing activities like mountain climbing or scuba diving, you might need to make insurance mandatory. This addon lets you do that.
And honestly, it just makes you look more professional. You’re not just selling trips, you’re offering a complete travel service.
What You Need Before Starting
Here’s what you need to have ready:
- WordPress version 5.0 or newer
- WP Travel Engine version 5.0.0 or later
- PHP version 7.4 or higher (your hosting provider can tell you this)
- An active WP Travel Engine premium subscription
Installing the Addon
This part is straightforward. Here’s what you do:
Get the addon file: Go to your WP Travel Engine account at wptravelengine.com/my-account/ and log in. Look for “License Key History” in your account menu. You’ll see the Travel Insurance Addon there. Download the ZIP file and copy your license key while you’re at it. You’ll need it in a minute.
Upload and activate: In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins, then Add New, then Upload Plugin. Choose the ZIP file you just downloaded and click Install Now. Once it installs, click Activate Plugin.
You should now see the Travel Insurance Addon in your plugins list as activated.
Activate your license: This is important. Premium addons won’t work properly without license activation. Go to WP Travel Engine in your sidebar, then Plugin License. Find the Travel Insurance Addon in the list, paste in your license key, and click Activate.
If the activation fails, check your internet connection and make sure you copied the key correctly without any extra spaces. Sometimes, firewall settings on your server can block the activation, too.
Setting Up Your Insurance Options
Now comes the interesting part. You have three ways to offer insurance to your customers, and you can pick what works best for your business.
Option 1: Create Your Own Insurance Plans
This is when you become the insurance provider. You set the coverage, you set the price, you keep all the money.
Go to WP Travel Engine, then Settings, then Travel Insurance. Click “Add New Plan” and you’ll see a form where you set everything up.
Here’s what you need to fill in:
Plan Name: Something clear like “Basic Travel Protection” or “Adventure Insurance Plus.” Keep it simple so customers understand what they’re getting.
Coverage Amount: This is the maximum claim value. If you’re covering medical emergencies, maybe it’s $50,000. For trip cancellation, maybe it’s up to the full cost of the trip.
Premium Cost: You can do this two ways. Either charge a flat rate (like $50 per person) or make it a percentage of the trip cost (like 8% of the total booking).
Coverage Details: Write out exactly what’s included. Medical emergencies? Trip cancellation? Lost luggage? Be specific. Customers need to know what they’re paying for.
Terms and Conditions: The legal stuff. What’s not covered, how to file a claim, and deadlines for claims. You should probably have a lawyer look at this part if you’re going to offer your own insurance.
Option 2: Partner With Insurance Companies
This is the easier route for most people. You connect with established insurance providers and earn commissions when customers buy through you.
In the insurance settings, select “External Provider” instead of creating your own plan. Then add:
Provider Name: The insurance company’s name (like “World Travel Insurance” or whoever you’re partnering with).
Affiliate Link: Your unique referral URL from the insurance company. This is how they track sales back to you.
Commission Rate: What you’ll earn from each sale. Usually, 15-30% of the premium cost.
Coverage Information: You can import their coverage details or type them in manually so customers see what they’re getting.
The benefit here is that you don’t handle claims, you don’t deal with customer service issues about coverage, and you’re working with brands people already trust. You just make the introduction and collect your commission.
Option 3: Offer Both
You can mix it. Maybe you have your own basic plan that’s simple and cheap, and you also offer a partnership with a major insurance company for comprehensive coverage. Giving customers options usually works well.
Configuring Insurance for Individual Trips
Not every trip needs the same insurance setup. A weekend city tour is different from a two-week mountain expedition. Here’s how to customize it for each trip.
Open any trip in your trip editor. You’ll see an insurance section where you can configure specific settings for that trip.
Making Insurance Mandatory
For trips where insurance is legally required or just makes sense (high-risk activities, expensive tours, international destinations with specific requirements), you can make it mandatory.
Toggle on “Make Insurance Mandatory” and select which insurance plans are required. When customers book this trip, they can’t complete checkout without selecting one of the required insurance options.
Making Insurance Optional
For most standard trips, insurance is optional but recommended. Enable “Optional Insurance” in the trip settings.
Here’s a tip: you can set a default selection. When the booking page loads, one of the insurance options is pre-selected. Customers can uncheck it if they don’t want it, but having it pre-selected increases the percentage of people who end up buying it. It’s subtle, but it works.
You can also configure how the pricing displays. Do you want to show the insurance cost as a separate line item, or include it in the total from the start? Test both ways and see what converts better for your audience.
Setting Up Pricing That Works
Pricing insurance is tricky. Too expensive and nobody buys it. Too cheap and you’re either losing money or customers wonder if it’s worth anything.
Here are three approaches that work:
Flat Rate Pricing: Charge the same amount regardless of trip cost. This works well for similar types of trips. For example, all your domestic weekend tours could have a $50 insurance option. It’s simple for customers to understand.
Percentage-Based Pricing: The insurance cost is a percentage of the trip price. If someone books a $1,000 trip with 8% insurance, they pay $80 for coverage. This scales automatically and makes sense for trips with varying prices.
Tiered Options: Offer multiple levels like Basic, Standard, and Premium. Basic might just cover medical emergencies. Standard adds trip cancellation. Premium includes everything plus adventure activity coverage. Different prices for different coverage levels.
What should you actually charge? Look at what competitors are offering. Factor in your costs if you’re self-insuring (customer service time, potential claims, administrative work). If you’re doing affiliate partnerships, your commission is already set by the provider, so you just need to price it competitively.
Making It Look Good in Checkout
The insurance options will automatically appear during checkout, but you can customize how they look.
Go to WP Travel Engine, then Settings, customize the display options.
You can show insurance as:
Radio buttons if customers can only pick one option. This works when you have different tiers (Basic, Standard, Premium) and they need to choose one.
Checkboxes if multiple insurance types can be combined. Maybe they can add medical insurance plus equipment insurance for adventure trips.
Dropdown menus if you have many options and want to save space on the page.
Test these on mobile devices. Most bookings happen on phones now, so make sure the insurance selection is easy to tap and read on small screens. Use touch-friendly buttons, readable text without zooming, and keep the loading time fast.
Setting Up Email Confirmations
When someone books a trip with insurance, they should get all the details in their confirmation email.
Go to WP Travel Engine, then Settings, then Emails. Edit your booking confirmation template to include insurance coverage information.
Add:
- What insurance plan did they purchase
- Coverage amount and what’s included
- Contact information for the insurance provider
- How to file a claim if needed
- Emergency contact numbers they can call while traveling
You can also set up automatic PDF certificates that customers can download or print. These should have coverage details, a reference number, and QR codes so they can access their policy information on their phone.
Advanced Setup: Multiple Locations and Currencies
If you’re running trips in different countries, you’ll need location-specific insurance configurations.
Set up different insurance requirements based on destination. European trips might need Schengen insurance. Adventure trips in Nepal need different coverage than beach resorts in Thailand.
For currency handling, make sure insurance pricing displays in the customer’s local currency if you’re using a multi-currency setup. The addon supports this, but you need to configure it in your general WP Travel Engine settings first.
You can also adjust which insurance providers you show based on the customer’s location. Some insurance companies only operate in certain regions, so there’s no point offering them to customers who can’t use them.
Tracking Performance and Making More Money
Once everything is running, you need to know what’s working.
Pay attention to these numbers:
Insurance uptake rate: What percentage of your bookings include insurance? If it’s below 30%, something’s not working. Maybe the price is too high, or the value isn’t clear, or the option isn’t visible enough in checkout.
Average insurance revenue: How much extra are you making per booking? Track this over time and compare it to your total trip revenue.
Provider performance: If you’re offering multiple insurance options, which ones do customers actually buy? Cut the ones nobody wants and focus on what sells.
Abandonment points: Use your analytics to see if people are dropping off when they see the insurance options. If they are, you might need to adjust pricing or make the value clearer.
Common Problems and How to Fix Them
Insurance options not showing up: Check that the addon is activated with a valid license. Look at the trip-specific insurance settings to make sure insurance is enabled for that trip. Verify that you actually created and configured at least one insurance plan.
Payment processing fails: Make sure your payment gateway is set up correctly in WP Travel Engine. Test that the insurance cost is being added to the total properly. Check the browser console for JavaScript errors that might be breaking the checkout process.
License won’t activate: Double-check that you copied the license key correctly with no extra spaces. Verify your internet connection. Some server firewalls block connections to the WP Travel Engine licensing servers. Contact support if you think that’s the issue.
Pricing displays wrong: If you’re using percentage-based pricing, make sure the trip price is set correctly. For multi-currency sites, verify that currency conversion is working properly. Check your caching settings because aggressive caching can show outdated prices.
Actually Making Money From This
Here’s how to turn this into a real revenue stream:
Affiliate partnerships with established insurance companies typically pay 15-30% commissions. The insurance company handles everything; you just make the introduction. This is recurring income if policies renew, and you don’t have to deal with claims or customer service issues.
Direct insurance sales let you keep all the money, but you need to price it right. Research what competitors charge, factor in your administrative costs and time, and build in your profit margin. Just don’t go so high that nobody buys it.
Volume discounts work well. Offer better rates for group bookings (5+ travelers), loyalty program members, or early bookings. This encourages higher insurance uptake and rewards your best customers.
Clear communication about insurance value is critical. Don’t hide it in fine print. Use simple language, visual aids like icons and comparison tables, and customer testimonials if you have them. Show real examples of how insurance helped travelers in bad situations.
Mobile Optimization Matters
Most of your bookings probably happen on phones. The insurance selection needs to work perfectly on mobile devices.
Use collapsible sections for coverage details so people can read what they need without endless scrolling. Make buttons big enough to tap easily. Keep the text readable without zooming. And test the entire checkout flow on actual phones, not just in your browser’s responsive mode.
Progressive disclosure helps here. Don’t dump all the information on the screen at once. Show a summary, let them tap for more details, and give them a clear final confirmation before they complete the purchase.
A/B Testing What Works
Once you have everything running, start testing variations to see what increases your insurance sales:
Test different pricing approaches (flat rate vs. percentage vs. tiered options). Try different placements in the booking flow (should insurance come early or late in checkout?). Experiment with pre-selecting insurance by default versus making it opt-in. Test different visual designs and copy.
Run these tests properly. Change one thing at a time, give each test enough traffic to be meaningful, and actually implement what works.
The Bottom Line
The WP Travel Engine Travel Insurance Addon is worth setting up. It takes a few hours to configure properly, but then it runs automatically and adds revenue to every booking.
The 44% increase in booking completion rates is real. People feel better buying from you when you offer protection. And whether you’re earning commissions from partnerships or selling your own plans, it’s additional income from customers you already have.
Start simple. Pick either affiliate partnerships or your own basic plan, get it working on a few trips, and expand from there. You don’t need to build everything at once.
Make sure it works on mobile devices, write clear coverage descriptions, and price it competitively. Track your numbers and adjust based on what actually happens, not what you think should happen.
And if you get stuck, WP Travel Engine has good documentation and support. They respond to questions, and there’s a community of other travel businesses using the same tools.
This isn’t complicated, but it does take some time to set up correctly. The payoff is worth it, though. More completed bookings, higher revenue per customer, and you position yourself as a professional travel service instead of just another booking website.
