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Best Online Travel Agencies

Booking.com is our top choice for making your trip arrangements

Ligaya Malones is an editor, blogger, and freelance writer specializing in food and travel. Ligaya's work has appeared in publications including Lonely Planet and BRIDES.

Planning a trip can be easier through an online travel agency than if you handle each aspect of the planning separately. You can book hotels, air travel, rental cars, and more through a single site, and booking everything together sometimes results in discounts. By inputting a destination, a range of dates, and other preferences, you will see a list of options for each aspect of travel.

The best online travel agencies offer options from the largest number of airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, and more. Look for sites that offer discounts for combining reservations for different aspects of your trip. For example, the best sites will have lower rates if you book both plane tickets and a hotel through their services. The best sites also provide reviews from customers who actually have booked through the service. These are our top picks.

• Best Overall: Booking.com
• Best Budget: Skyscanner
• Best Price Predictor: Hopper
• Most Innovative: Kiwi.com
• Best for Eco-Conscious: Kind Traveler
• Best for Social Impact: I Like Local
• Best for Design-Forward Homestays: Plum Guide
• Our Top Picks
• Booking.com

Kind Traveler

I Like Local

• See More (4)

Final Verdict

Frequently asked questions, methodology, best overall : booking.com.

 Booking.com

This industry leader offers one of the most comprehensive trip planning platforms on the Internet.

Lots of options to choose from

Interface is easy to use

Numerous filters to customize your search

Tricky to tell whether changes/cancellations can be made with Booking.com or the vendor directly

Booking.com was founded in 1996 and has grown into an industry leader that stands out for being one of the most comprehensive trip planning platforms out there. From one website, you can compare and book accommodations, flights (including one-way and multi-city flights), sightseeing activities, and even airport taxis. The website lists more than 28 million accommodation options, from hotels, hostels, and B&Bs to vacation homes and luxury resorts—you can browse more choices per destination on Booking.com than other online travel agencies. The website also performs well on cost and typically returns lower-than-average prices for flights and hotels. 

Booking.com's interface is also easy to use. On the home page, search for a hotel by entering your chosen destination and dates. Then, use the extensive list of filters—such as price range and distance from the city center—to narrow the results down and find the best fit. You can also search for a specific hotel, or seek inspiration by clicking through options grouped by destination or property type or by topic such as the country’s best Michelin-starred hotel restaurants or the top cities for vegan travelers. The flights, car rental, and other tabs are just as intuitive. 

Best Budget : Skyscanner

 Skyscanner

You can compare prices across airlines, hotels, and car rentals.

Simple interface

Option to toggle searches between specific dates or by monthly calendars

Search Everywhere button is great for spontaneous planners

Extra clicks are required to make a final purchase

Must read fine print for changes/cancellations—may need to deal directly with the vendor

Ads on the sidebar can be distracting

Find deals on airfare, hotels, and car rentals with an aggregator site like Skyscanner , which uses a metasearch engine to compare prices from all online travel agencies and the airline, hotel, or car rental company in question. Run searches with fixed dates, opt to compare airfare prices month to month, or click “Cheapest Month.” Searches also include options for nearby airports or non-stop flights only. With hotel searches, you can choose to select only from properties with free cancellation, a cleanliness rating of 4.5/5 or higher, or 3- or 4-starred hotels only. Car rental searches include an option to select “return car to different location.”

Once you’ve found the best rate, click on the link to be redirected to the third-party site to make your booking. Feeling spontaneous? The Search Everywhere button on the homepage offers a list of the cheapest flight deals for destinations both locally and across the world—just plug in your departure airport first.

Best Price Predictor : Hopper

The company claims a 95 percent accuracy rate at predicting when flights and hotel rates will be cheapest.

Color-coded system makes it easy to determine cheapest days to buy

App is easy to use

Option to track flights and receive alerts when the best time to buy arises

Some have mentioned the app functions better as a research tool than a booking tool

Unclear whether Hopper will price match if you find a cheaper flight elsewhere

Hopper is a travel app available on iOS and Android that aims to help travelers save on airfare by usng historical data and their own algorithm to predict when flights will be cheapest. Just type in where and when you’d like to fly and Hopper will present you with a color-coded pricing calendar indicating how much tickets are likely to cost. (Green is the least expensive, then yellow, orange, and red for most expensive.) Hopper will also recommend you either buy now or wait, or you can choose to watch a trip and receive notifications on the best time to buy. In addition, the app has expanded to offer hotel and car rental price predictions, too.

Some newer features since the app’s inception in 2009 include an option to freeze a price for a limited time—for an extra fee—as well as exclusive app-only discounts. Hopper is free to download, and you can choose to book directly through the app, though some users mentioned they use Hopper as more of a research tool before booking directly with the airline or hotel. The company claims a 95 percent accuracy rate at predicting flight rates up to a year ahead.

Most Innovative : Kiwi.com

This metasearch engine scours the web to piece together the ideal itinerary using planes, trains, buses, and more.

Creative itineraries get you where you need to go, especially if you’ve got a multi-stop trip

Kiwi Guarantee offers rebooking or cancellation protections

Nomad option appeals to travelers with a lot of flexibility

Creative itineraries mean you may not fly out of the same airport you flew into

Kiwi Guarantee has an additional fee

Charges all-in-one fee for booking flights, trains, buses (though you can always purchase a la carte)

Travelers planning multi-city destinations and seeking a bargain, as well as those looking to take planes, trains, and automobiles to get there, might consider Kiwi . Kiwi is a metasearch engine that scours and pieces together itineraries from various airlines (even if they don’t have a codeshare agreement), considers multiple airports (even if your arrival airport is different from departure), and offers booking options, whether you’re looking at very specific dates or more general ones (up to 60 nights).

Some will find the ability to make multiple bookings for a particular trip more convenient than going at it manually several different times, though note that you must opt into the Kiwi Guarantee program to access rebooking and refund protections should your reservation change or be canceled. Kiwi’s Nomad option allows you to plug in a bunch of destinations you’d like to visit and the length of your intended stay, and the website will churn out the most affordable itineraries for review.

Best for Eco-Conscious : Kind Traveler

A give-and-get business model means booking accommodations with exclusive perks, a donation to environmental organizations, and more.

All participating hotels include a local give-back component

Exclusive savings and perks

Participating hotels are located in some of the most beautiful places in the world

Inventory is much smaller compared to other booking platforms

Some of the amenities mentioned are based on availability only

In 2022, Kind Traveler (an online trave agency focused on hotel bookings) announced an increase in environmentally and socially conscious hotels, charity donations, voluntourism opportunities, and additional perks like waived resort fees or a welcome amenity.

Unlock exclusive hotel rates and perks from participating Kind Traveler hotels with a minimum $10/night minimum donation to a local charity. For example, stay at the Six Senses Laamu in the Maldives and receive up to $33 off the nightly rate and perks such as a food and beverage credit and an Earth Lab or Alchemy Bar workshop when you make a donation to Manta Trust. The organization funds coastal research to protect the island nation’s large yet fragile population of reef mantas.

Select from more than 140 participating hotels from the Hawaiian Islands to Bozeman, Montana, and the Maldives. Charities include wildlife, human rights, arts, education, and environmental preservation organizations.

Best for Social Impact : I Like Local

Choose from a host of travel experiences with the peace of mind that 100 percent of the cost goes directly to local partners.

Social impact mission woven into organization’s business model

Immersive experiences led by local guides

Range of experiences offered

May not be best fit for those seeking upscale, luxury experiences and stays

Can’t sort experiences by a list of countries (though an interactive map is available)

No experiences outside of Africa and Asia

For an online travel agency with a booking platform designed to route dollars spent directly to the communities travelers intend to visit, consider I Like Local . Visit the website to browse a host of travel experiences in countries including Indonesia, Kenya, and Cambodia. Experiences include homestays and farmstays as well as wellness and culturally oriented experiences—from cooking and cycling tours to weaving classes.

To search for an experience, select from drop-down items like travel dates and experience categories, or view a global map and click on a country to view experiences that way.

The platform got its start in 2014 and has grown to 4,000 local hosts across nearly 20 countries. As a social impact organization, 100 percent of each booking fee goes to local hosts. To date, 16,000 travelers have booked with I Like Local.

Best for Design-Forward Homestays : Plum Guide

Browse and book seriously vetted, design-forward vacation homes.

Highly curated inventory of vacation rentals across the world

Design-forward

Thorough vetting process

Does not publish guest reviews

Other platforms have homes available across more destinations

When it comes to booking a vacation home, serviced apartment, or condo, travelers are spoiled for choice. Plum Guide is an online travel agency that specializes in accommodations—though not just any home makes its directory. The company claims that each potential home listed on its site must jump through 150 hoops to be included, from internet speed and mattress and pillow quality to the showers’ water pressure and the home’s proximity to dining, shopping, and attractions.

Search by a featured collection on the website such as “ pet-friendly homes ” or “one-of-a-kind homes in Palm Springs.” Scroll to the bottom of its homepage to view its top destinations, as well as a list of all destinations where Plum Guide homes are available, including Barbados, Mexico, Portugal, Switzerland, the U.S., and Turkey. Note: From the top right-hand corner of the site, use the dropdown menu to select currency of choice.

As long as you know what you value most out of your travel experience—such as affordability, social impact, or luxe accommodations—there’s an online travel agency to help plan your next trip. Be sure to read the fine print, as some agencies are third-party websites and not direct vendors. If you're not sure where to start, Booking.com is your best bet for a smooth user experience and hard-to-beat offers on flights, hotels, and other travel arrangements.

What Is the Biggest Travel Agency?

Our choice for best overall, Booking.com, is known as an industry leader with listings for all major hotels, airlines, car rental companies, and more. It boasts more choices for accommodations per destination than any other site, and we found its interface to be user-friendly.

Are Online Travel Agencies Worth It?

This depends on your needs and priorities. The best online travel agencies certainly can save time by booking everything all at once. However, if you're someone who is good at haggling and enjoys the details of planning a trip, you might be able to find better deals by reaching out to hotels or other destinations and speaking to someone personally.

Is It Cheaper to Book Online Than With a Travel Agent?

Not always. A travel agent you know and trust should have the experience and connections to find deals that can match or surpass what you'll find online. Additionally, if something goes wrong, travel agents provide you with an actual person you can use as an advocate to correct the problem . But if you don't have access to a good travel agent, online sites still provide plenty of ways to streamline planning and save money .

We considered dozens of online travel agencies and narrowed down the options based on user experience, volume and quality of inventory, unique offerings and specials, and customer reviews. We also assessed travel companies’ environmentally and socially conscious policies.

Catherine Falls Commercial / Getty Images

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Are Online Travel Agencies Safe To Use? 👨🏻‍💻 17 Best Online Travel Agencies For Seamless Journeys: Travel Like A Pro ✈️

Are Online Travel Agencies Safe To Use? Online travel agencies are generally safe to use, but it’s essential to choose reputable and well-established platforms with positive customer reviews.

The rise of online travel agencies (OTAs) has made travel planning and booking extremely easy in today’s world.

By providing passengers from all over the world with a variety of services, offers, and packages, these platforms have changed the travel business.

Online travel agents can help you with your search for flights, hotels, holiday packages, or tours.

🤔 What are online travel agencies?

4. travelocity, 5. skyscanner, 6. lastminute.com, 8. trip.com, 10. booking.com, 11. expedia, 12. tripadvisor, 14. priceline, 15. cheapoair.

• 🧐 Things To Consider While Making Reservation Through OTA's

⭐ Advantages & Disadvantages of Online Travel Agencies

Q. is it cheaper to book online or through a travel agent, q. do online travel agencies offer better deals than airlines and hotels directly, q. can i trust user-generated reviews on online travel agency platforms, q. do online travel agencies provide customer support, q. are there any hidden fees when booking through online travel agencies.

• Q. Are the Online Travel Agencies Reliable?

Q. Do Online Travel Agencies offer personalized itineraries?

Q. are online travel agencies more expensive than booking directly, q. can i book international trips through online travel agencies, 😇 conclusion, 🗨️ tell us in the comments as per you which one is the best online travel agencies.

Online Travel Agency (OTA) is the name for a website that sells travel services. It lets customers book flights, hotels, and other trips all from one place. They are like a travel agent in the digital world.

📃 List of 17 Best Online Travel Agencies at Your Fingertips

After a lot of research and considering travelers’ reviews we have shortlisted some of the best online travel companies that are operational nowadays.

• Travelocity
• Lastminute.com
• Booking.com
• TripAdvisor

A US-based internet travel company called VRBO focuses on vacation rentals. Landlords and managers can directly register their houses on VRBO, similar to Airbnb.

When booking through Vrbo, visitors may also get travel insurance. In addition to being a part of one of the largest travel companies in the world, VRBO has a reputation for being a trustworthy lodging option.

A website called Parkos.com makes airport parking stress-free. Thanks to the company’s new online platform, potential consumers can now compare various airport parking and facilities, make a reservation, and pay for it in advance of their trip day.

Both locals and visitors have provided overwhelmingly good feedback since Parkos entered the parking sector in 2014.

All technologically aided services revolve around giving automobile owners confidence that their vehicles are safe when they are away from them.

The majority of people may gain more from this comparison, but those who drive pricey high-end cars may find it interesting.

Also Read: 10 Best Places For New Year Celebration

Hotel reservations are the focus of Agoda , a multinational online travel firm located in Singapore.

Along with many other comparable OTAs on this list, it is owned by Booking Holdings, the parent company of Booking.com.

The Agoda network, which offers more than a million hotels and vacation rentals, is primarily focused on the Asian economy but has now grown into Europe and the United States.

The company’s marketing strategy is centered on giving customers affordable or reduced housing.

In 1996, Travelocity was established as an online travel agency with several services for customers. It is owned and operated by the international travel service provider The Expedia Group.

You can check for airfare and hotel bundles, choices for a rental vehicle, cruises, and more using Travelocity’s website.

Additionally, you can read travel-related articles, order tickets for well-liked attractions, and communicate your journey arrangements with loved ones.

A well-known company with a big customer base is Travelocity. They provide a huge selection of vacation packages, many of which are aimed at families.

Skyscanner is a metasearch aggregator that gathers prices for flights, hotels, and rental cars from all online travel agents (OTAs) in one location. Booking flights and hotels with Skyscanner typically results in the most affordable options.

After making your choice, you will be sent to a third-party booking form on the Skyscanner website where you can complete the transaction and reserve your flight.

Skyscanner is used by millions of people to compare rates and options for their travel arrangements. Simply said, it compiles and presents to customers all of the offers from all online travel agencies (OTAs).

Also Read: 15 Best Countries For Solo Travel 

City hopping is a popular pastime in Europe because of how close together the cities are. Among the top three booking sites is lastminute.com .

In this OTA, flight bookings are made through an aggregator website, and hotel reservations are made through an OTA, both of which we have seen before.

Finding last-minute discounts on hotels, flights, and all-inclusive holiday packages is the specialty of the website lastminute.com.

If you’re brave enough to play the chicken, Last Minute has the best travel deals. For tourists looking for a dealer who isn’t scared to wait until the last minute, there are a couple of better OTAs. We’re certain to have the flight or hotel bargain you’re looking for.

Members of Airbnb are allowed to advertise their available lodging and accept overnight reservations. However, the business has added hotels and homestays to its list of offerings.

However, Air b nb is extremely particular about the standards it must uphold when it comes to hotels that can be offered on its platform.

The majority of hotels must demonstrate their distinctive design, how the neighborhood affects their rooms, and how guests can access communal areas.

The most economical choice may be an Airbnb vacation rental. Additionally, compared to hotels, you are more likely to locate more beds in the same property on Airbnb.

Many Airbnbs provide sofas or futons to accommodate larger groups. For longer visits, many of these hotels provide kitchens and washing machines, enabling visitors to save money by preparing their meals.

The largest OTA in China, Trip.com , a Chinese firm, created Trip.com, an international OTA. Trip.com’s marketing initiatives are primarily aimed at domestic and international travelers to China.

Contrarily, Trip.com has a partnership with Booking.com that enables it to broaden its global reach.

Today, Trip.com has hundreds of millions of users worldwide. The organization wants to give both domestic and foreign travelers the best travel experiences possible.

Wotif also owns LastMinute, a website that offers last-minute discounts on lodging, transportation, and other travel essentials to Australians and New Zealanders.

This local internet travel business mostly caters to travelers from the UK and Europe. On this website, tourists can search for and buy flights, lodging, auto rentals, excursions, and package deals.

Also Read: 11 Best Ways To Become A Travel Enthusiast

The biggest hotel booking website in the world, Booking.com , also lets you book travel and a rental car. It can be used by travelers to learn about different types of lodging, locations, and offers.

However, making reservations for different types of lodging is where its true power lies. For the typical person, it serves as an all-inclusive travel agency.

Hotels and other accommodation facilities are only billed by Booking.com after a reservation is made.

There isn’t a monthly cost that must be paid. An all-inclusive internet travel firm called Bookin.com provides lodging and travel options all around the world.

Online travel agencies (OTAs) are a business model used by many E x pedia Group businesses, notably Expedia, the largest OTA.

The company was founded in 2001 and was based in Bellevue, Washington, in the US.

It is one of the most prosperous travel companies in the world, having localized websites in more than 40 nations.

Expedia has provided access to flights, hotels, and rental cars for more than ten years. They are the largest travel company in the world.

Its marketing plan places a strong emphasis on the value of providing affordable lodging options.

Expedia is an excellent option if you want to pay for your airfare, hotel, and car hire all at once.

One of the most well-known travel platforms, TripAdvisor provides a variety of user-generated information in addition to booking services.

Travelers get access to reviews, images, and ratings posted by other travelers, allowing them to plan their trips with greater knowledge.

The website also offers the ability to compare flights and book excursions and other activities, making it a complete online travel agency (OTA).

A meta-search engine called Kayak searches the internet for the finest travel offers on several platforms.

It provides full results on a single page by comparing costs for airfare, accommodation, rental cars, and other services.

Users of its “Explore” feature can find new places to go and the most cost-effective times to travel.

Budget-conscious travelers choose Kayak because of its simple UI and time-saving features.

The “Name Your Own Price” option on Priceline is known for allowing customers to place bids on hotel rooms and rental vehicles at the prices they like.

Priceline provides regular booking choices like flights, hotels, and rental cars in addition to the bidding system, which may not appeal to everyone.

Travelers who are flexible with their travel plans can take advantage of their Express Deals feature, which offers big reductions on unpublished rates.

Travelers seeking low-cost airline options without sacrificing quality are catered to by CheapOair .

The network appeals to people who are concerned about their spending because it offers exclusive deals and discounts on hotels, flights, and car rentals.

CheapOair makes arranging travel reservations simple with its user-friendly interface and round-the-clock customer service.

Flights, hotels, holiday packages, and activities are just a few of the travel options that Orbitz provides.

Orbitz Rewards, the platform’s loyalty program, enables customers to earn rewards and take advantage of special member advantages.

If customers discover lower rates elsewhere, Orbitz guarantees they will be refunded the difference with its price guarantee promise.

Hotwire is known for providing significantly lower rates for accommodation, travel, and transportation.

Partner hotels can offer lower rates without publicly undercutting their usual pricing because the platform hides the identity of specific hotels until after booking.

For tourists eager to take advantage of this method of surprise booking, Hotwire’s “Hot Rates” provide huge savings.

🧐 Things To Consider While Making Reservation Through OTA’s

When making reservations through an Online Travel Agency (OTA), consider the following:

• Price and Deals: Compare prices and look for exclusive deals and discounts offered by the OTA.
• Cancellation Policies: Understand the OTA’s cancellation and refund policies to avoid any inconvenience in case of changes in your plans.
• User Reviews: Check user reviews and ratings to gauge the reliability and quality of the service.
• Customer Support: Ensure the OTA provides accessible and responsive customer support for assistance during and after booking.
• Hidden Fees: Be wary of hidden fees or additional charges that may not be clearly stated upfront.
• Booking Security: Verify the OTA’s security measures to protect your personal and financial information.
• Travel Insurance: Consider purchasing travel insurance for added protection against unexpected events.
• Flexibility: Choose an OTA that offers flexible booking options to accommodate any last-minute changes.
• Available Services: Confirm that the OTA offers the services you need, such as flights, hotels, car rentals, and activities.
• User-Friendly Interface: Opt for an OTA with an intuitive and easy-to-navigate website or app for a seamless booking experience.

Advantages of Online Travel Agencies

• Convenience: Users can book flights, hotels, and other travel arrangements from the comfort of their homes, saving time and effort.
• Wide Selection: Online travel agencies offer a vast inventory of travel options, providing a variety of choices for different budgets and preferences.
• Price Comparison: Users can compare prices across multiple airlines, hotels, and car rental companies to find the best deals.
• User Reviews: Travelers can read reviews and ratings from other users to make informed decisions about their bookings.
• Exclusive Deals: Many online travel agencies offer exclusive discounts and promotions for their customers.
• 24/7 Access: Online travel agencies are available round the clock, allowing users to make bookings at any time.

Disadvantages of Online Travel Agencies

• Hidden Fees : Some online travel agencies may have hidden fees or additional charges that are not disclosed upfront.
• Lack of Personalized Service: Unlike traditional travel agents, online platforms may lack personalized recommendations and support.
• Technical Issues: Technical glitches or website outages can cause inconvenience and delay in making bookings.
• Limited Flexibility: Some online travel agencies have strict cancellation and refund policies, limiting flexibility for travelers.
• Scams and Fraud: There is a risk of encountering fraudulent websites or services when booking through unknown or unverified platforms.
• Overwhelming Options: The abundance of choices on online travel agency websites can sometimes lead to decision paralysis for users.

🙋🏻‍♀️ FAQs For Online Travel Agencies

There are a lot of questions that come to our mind while making reservations through online travel agencies some of the commonly asked questions are answered below.

A. Booking online often offers better deals and discounts compared to traditional travel agents.

A. Yes, online travel agencies often negotiate special deals and discounts with airlines and hotels, which can result in more cost-effective options for travelers.

A. While most user-generated reviews are genuine and helpful, it’s essential to consider multiple sources and exercise discernment when making decisions based on reviews.

A. Yes, reputable online travel agencies offer customer support via phone, email, or live chat to assist with booking inquiries and travel-related issues.

A. While some online travel agencies may charge service fees or have specific booking terms, reputable platforms are transparent about any additional costs during the booking process.

Q. Are the Online Travel Agencies Reliable ?

A. Absolutely! Online Travel Agencies are reputable and reliable. They work with established partners and have a track record of excellent customer service.

A. Yes, they do! Online Travel Agencies take your preferences and interests into account to craft personalized itineraries tailored to your needs.

A. Not necessarily. Online Travel Agencies often secure exclusive deals and discounts, making them competitive with direct bookings.

A. Yes, you can! Best Online Travel Agencies offer a wide range of international travel options and guide visa requirements.

In conclusion, online travel companies have completely changed how we organize and book our journeys.

These OTAs have evolved into crucial tools for modern travelers thanks to their user-friendly interfaces, vast inventory, and affordable prices.

The top online travel agencies included in this article can assist you in organizing an enjoyable trip, regardless of whether you are an experienced traveler or preparing for your first excursion.

Also, don’t forget to book your personalized holiday package with  Fiery Trippers . Let us make your vacation a romantic as well as a dreamy getaway.

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Rahul Siddharth

He is a dedicated travel writer with a wealth of 10 Years + experience that enriches his narratives. He holds a degree in Hospitality and Hotel Administration from IHM Dehradun, which he couples with hands-on expertise in the field. Drawing from his diverse experiences, Rahul's writings offer readers a captivating glimpse into the world of travel. Embark on a journey of exploration and inspiration with Rahul as your guide. Read More

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The 10 Best Online Travel Agencies: The Top OTAs to Connect to in 2024

Lexi DeMers

Updated: 12 Jun 2024

Online travel agencies don’t just make life easier for travelers. The best online travel agencies also offer a variety of benefits to business owners. From accessing niche markets to the billboard effect, listing your hospitality business on popular travel sites has many perks. 

These sites can help you cover low-season lulls or ensure you maximize your bookings year round. In this article, we’ll cover the best online travel agencies for hoteliers and other accommodation providers, as well as the benefits they offer. Discover how online travel agencies can help you capture your share of the $521 billion online travel market . 

The 10 Online Travel Agencies with the Highest Revenue 

Before you take the time and effort to list your business on a new channel, you’ll want to make sure that it will actually help you gain new guests. Below are the 10 best online travel agencies worldwide by annual revenue , as reported by Statista. 

Booking.com

Edreams odigeo, tripadvisor, manage all your channels with one centralized booking system, a closer look at the best online travel agencies.

All online travel agencies are not created equal. In fact, many channels cater best to specific businesses. Though listing your property on the highest earning online travel agencies is a great strategy, it is even better to understand the markets that each OTA serves.

Booking.com is a global powerhouse in the online travel agency sector. Its expansive platform includes a diverse array of property types, ranging from hostels to resorts to apartments. So it is a great OTA option for a variety of business models. Renowned for its user-friendly interface and extensive property listings, Booking.com attracts travelers from around the world. 

Hotels can seamlessly integrate with this booking engine, streamlining their reservations and room management. On average, Booking.com charges businesses a 15% commission on every booking, though this rate can vary from region to region. 

Expedia is a leading online travel agency known for its global reach and comprehensive travel offerings. This one-stop shop caters to travelers searching for accommodations, flights, car rentals, and vacation packages across the globe. 

Business owners benefit from Expedia's tools like the Partner Central platform, which aids in managing bookings, optimizing rates, and enhancing visibility. Expedia's loyalty program, Expedia Rewards, encourages repeat bookings which is why it is one of the best online travel agencies for hoteliers. However, depending on the region your business is in, Expedia charges 10% to 30% commission. 

Airbnb is a unique online travel agency that connects travelers with a wide range of accommodations, from cozy private rooms to entire homes. While it first gained fame for its home-sharing platform, it has expanded to include boutique hotels and traditional accommodations. As such, it ranks toward the top of our list of the best online travel agencies. 

Accommodation providers can tap into Airbnb's extensive network, reaching guests from around the world. While there are a few different options, most hosts on Airbnb are charged a 3% commission. Meanwhile, Airbnb charges a 14% service fee to guests on top of the nightly rate you set. 

Trivago is one of the best online travel agencies, but getting your property on the site isn’t as straightforward as the other options on this list. Trivago is a metasearch engine that scours the Internet to find the best hotel deals for travelers. It collects hotel listings and prices from various online travel agencies, hotel chains, and booking sites. 

Owners can leverage Trivago by ensuring their listings are well-optimized on other OTAs. Since it doesn't handle bookings directly, Trivago doesn’t charge business owners any commission and instead gets its revenue from other sites that advertise there. 

Despegar is one of the best online travel agencies for the Latin American market. It offers a wide range of travel-related services, including hotel bookings, flights, and car rentals. With a strong presence in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries, Despegar gives travelers a convenient platform to plan and book their trips.

Business owners looking to tap into the Latin American market can benefit from listing their properties on Despegar. It allows them to access a diverse and growing customer base while also providing travelers with options tailored to their preferences and language. Hoteliers can expect to pay 10% to 15% in commission on bookings from this site. 

Save hours each week by automating the booking process

• Accept bookings 24/7
• No commission charges
• Real human support

As one of the largest online travel agencies globally, Trip.com offers a variety of services to travelers. Formerly known as Ctrip, it has a strong presence in the Asian market but has expanded its reach to cater to a diverse international audience. Travelers can use Trip.com to book hotels, flights, trains, car rentals, and other travel-related services. 

Accommodation providers aiming to attract travelers from Asia and beyond can benefit from partnering with Trip.com. As one of the best online travel agencies, it provides access to a vast customer base seeking a variety of accommodation options. By listing on Trip.com, you can expect to pay anywhere between 10% to 25% in commission. 

eDreams Odigeo is a leading European online travel agency that serves as an umbrella for several well-known brands, including eDreams, Opodo, GO Voyages, and Travellink. It caters to travelers seeking a wide range of travel products and services. By partnering with eDreams Odigeo, accommodation providers can tap into the European market and beyond. 

Whether you run a boutique hotel or manage a large resort, listing your property on one of the  eDreams Odigeo sites allows you to reach travelers from various European countries. Depending on the exact site you list your business on, you may pay commission or your guests may pay service fees. 

As a prominent online travel agency in India, MakeMyTrip has a strong foothold in the South Asian market. It offers a range of travel services, including flights, hotels, and holiday packages. By listing your property on MakeMyTrip, you can tap into the growing Indian travel market and attract travelers looking for both domestic and international accommodation options. 

MakeMyTrip's user-friendly interface and extensive marketing efforts make it a valuable platform for reaching travelers across India and the Indian diaspora. After some controversy over excessive rates in 2019, MakeMyTrip pledged to cap its commission at 22% . However, your guests will also be charged a booking fee when making reservations on this site. 

If you're targeting spontaneous travelers or those seeking last-minute deals, Lastminute.com is the best online travel agency to consider. As the name suggests, it specializes in providing travelers with a wide array of last-minute options, from flights and hotels to car rentals and activities. 

On Lastminute.com, you can attract travelers looking for instant bookings, making it an excellent choice for filling short-notice vacancies. This is great for offering discounts during off-peak periods or showcasing special promotions. To learn more about the commission rates Lastminute charges, it's best to reach out to the company directly. 

Tripadvisor is renowned for its comprehensive database of traveler reviews. But it's also a powerful online travel agency, offering an extensive platform for accommodations, restaurants, and attractions. 

By delivering exceptional experiences to your guests, you can earn positive reviews that attract more travelers to your property. Tripadvisor offers various tools for property owners to manage their listings, showcase their amenities, and respond to reviews, ensuring your property's reputation remains stellar. Plus, Tripadvisor only charges owners a 3% commission fee. 

What Are the Benefits of Using an Online Travel Agency?

Online travel agencies have revolutionized the way the hospitality industry operates. They offer a wide array of benefits that cater to both travelers and accommodation providers. In this section, we'll explore the key advantages of collaborating with some of the best online travel agencies.

Your business. Your Bookings. Your way.

Higher Booking Volume.   Of course, the main goal of listing your property on an online travel agency is getting more bookings. These sites have large audiences, which can lead to a substantial increase in bookings. 

Market insights. The best online travel agencies provide valuable data and market insights that can help you understand traveler preferences, booking patterns, and trends. In turn, this can inform your pricing, marketing, and property management strategies.

Build an Online Reputation. Many OTAs offer a review system that allows previous guests to share their experiences. Positive reviews and ratings can build trust and credibility, encouraging potential guests to choose your property.

Easier international reach. If you have international guests in mind, the top online travel agencies can help you reach travelers worldwide. They also often support various languages and currencies, making it easier for international guests to book.

Billboard effect. The Billboard Effect describes the phenomenon in which accommodation providers gain more direct bookings on their own websites after listing their property on OTAs. It illustrates that these platforms serve as powerful marketing and distribution channels.

How to Find the Best Online Travel Agencies for Your Business 

While listing your business on all of the best online travel agencies is a smart move, you can go a step further with OTAs. If you want to find the absolute best online travel agencies for your business, you’ll need to identify sites that fit your niche. 

Many OTAs cater to specific audiences, such as Thermal for surf trips and Bookatrekking.com for trekking adventures. There are also great online travel agencies for other niches, including luxury accommodations, yoga retreats, family hotels, and more. Take some time to explore various platforms’ user base and commission rates to determine which OTAs would be best for your business. 

How Can I Manage Multiple OTAs?

While having a presence on multiple OTAs can offer big rewards, having to log into and manage several different platforms is extremely time consuming. Not to mention, you risk double-books and other errors. Thankfully, you can use a channel manager to help streamline your bookings across multiple online travel agencies. 

At Bookinglayer, we offer Channex ; a fully integrated, user-friendly channel manager that allows our clients to maximize their revenue without spending extra time on administration. Channex allows business owners to integrate with up to 35 different platforms while conveniently managing everything from one simple dashboard. 

Want to Learn More About How Bookinglayer Helps Business Owners?

Bookinglayer is an all-in-one software suite designed specifically for adventure travel businesses that have complex booking scenarios. If you want to offer accommodation and activities, Bookinglayer is the most comprehensive platform on the market.

Whether is optimizing your booking flow, automating your payment processing, or streamlining your daily reports, we can help you save time, reduce errors, and increase conversions. You can sign up for a free demo to discover if you are the right fit for our software suite. 

Best Online Travel Agencies FAQ

What is an online travel agency.

An online travel agency is a web-based platform that allows users to research and book a range of travel-related services. Also known as OTAs, these marketplaces display services from various providers. They often include accommodation, flights, rental cars, tours and activities, and more. 

How do online travel agencies work?

Online travel agencies are third-party services that offer users a convenient and easy way to plan and book travel experiences. They aggregate travel services, facilitate bookings, collect payments, and publish reviews. In return, they oftentimes earn a commission from the bookings they sell.  

How do OTAs make money?

OTAs typically make money by charging business owners a commission on the bookings they sell. These commission rates can range from 10% to 30%, depending on the platform you choose and the region you operate in. In addition, some OTAs may also charge customers a service fee to help cover the costs of running the platform. 

What is the downside of using OTAs?

The downside of using an OTA is that you will likely need to pay a commission to the platform. As such, many business owners prefer to collect direct bookings. Nonetheless, the best online travel agencies serve as a great way to advertise your property and can help you increase your revenue despite the commission charges. 

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Top online travel agencies

Based on Cloudbeds’ data gathered from thousands of customer properties between 2021 (the benchmark used in our last report) and 2023, we’ve seen a remarkable pace of recovery for OTAs. While top OTAs like Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb have held onto their spots as the highest-revenue generating OTAs, we saw China’s Trip.com rise two spots, indicating the return of Asian travelers to the market. Here are the highest revenue-generating OTAs of 2023.

Highest revenue-generating OTAs

1. booking.com.

Booking.com is one of the largest and most popular travel websites in the world, with over 1.5 million nights booked every day. Its website and mobile apps are accessible in 43 languages and feature over 50 million verified guest reviews of properties in 200+ countries. Its parent company, Booking Holdings, includes OTA brands and metasearch engines such as Priceline.com, KAYAK, Agoda, Rentalcars.com, OpenTable and more.

Expedia.com is the flagship brand of Expedia Group, which includes 200 travel booking websites, including Hotwire, Orbitz, Trivago, and Travelocity, serving 75 countries in 35 languages with over 600 million monthly visits. The website includes searches for all types of accommodations, as well as booking flights, car rentals, cruises, and vacation packages. By activating the Expedia connection, properties will broadcast their inventory on Hotels.com, Wotif, and many other channels.

Airbnb is known for providing access to unique accommodations around the world, with the vast majority of properties located outside of main hotel districts. While the company continues to expand into hotel room inventory following its acquisition of HotelTonight (known for booking last-minute lodging), its community expects a certain type of experience. Namely, something that is less cookie-cutter and more oriented to the local vibe.

4. Hostelworld

HostelWorld is a leading OTA for hostel-focused accommodations worldwide, with 12+ million guest reviews. Their inventory also includes hotels, B&Bs, and other budget accommodation types. Hostelworld aims to be a leader in social travel via its online booking options and mobile app, addressing the needs of guests who want to make connections with others as they experience the world around them. Their app and website operate in 20 different languages.

Agoda was founded in 1998 and later acquired by the Priceline Group (now called Booking Holdings) in 2007. Agoda’s website is available in 38 languages and focuses on listing all types of properties. It’s currently one of the leading online travel booking sites for the Asian market but is pushing into the US, India, and European markets.

6. Trip.com

Trip.com is China’s leading provider of travel services including reservations for accommodation, transportation, tours, and corporate travel. Founded in 1999, the company owns and operates several other OTAs and aggregators, including Trip.com, Skyscanner, Qunar, and Ctrip. 

7. Hotelbeds

By connecting to Hotelbeds, will gain unrivaled exposure to the travel industry’s largest network of B2B buyers, including more than 71,000 tour operators, travel agents, airlines, and loyalty & points schemes which can be great for business travel. 

With over 2 million bookable vacation rentals, Vrbo caters to a diverse range of needs and preferences, offering everything from cozy, intimate cabins for romantic getaways to spacious, well-appointed villas suitable for large family reunions or group vacations.

9. Traveloka

Based in Indonesia, Traveloka is one of Asia’s largest online travel agents. Traveloka lists hundreds of thousands of properties across Southeast Asia, Australia, and around the globe. The company also provides lifestyle products and services, such as tickets to attractions, activities, car rentals, and restaurant vouchers.

10. Despegar/Decolar

Despegar/Decolar is a leading online travel company in Latin America, with Despegar functioning as the global brand and Decolar representing the brand in the Brazilian market. Their marketplace operates across 20 markets and offers a broad suite of travel products in the region, including airfare, hotel bookings, travel packages, and other travel products to a large customer base.

Highest revenue-generating OTAs by country

Based on Cloudbeds data, we’ve highlighted the OTAs that are generating the most revenue for our customers in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia.

Hostelworld has moved up on the list across multiple countries, demonstrating that demand for hostels (jumping 5 spots in Thailand and the Philippines), shared accommodations, and experiences is back. In addition, we can see the return of Asian travelers as Agoda and Trip.com rise in North America and make their first appearance on Latin American lists. 

Top 10 OTAs in the U.S

• Booking.com
• Hostelworld 
• Agoda 
• HotelTonight 
• Hotelbeds 

Top 10 OTAs in Canada 

• Booking.com 
• Expedia 
• Dorms.com 
• Mrs & Mrs Smith
• Tripadvisor

Top 10 OTAs in Mexico

• Hostelworld
• Despegar/Decolar 
• PriceTravel
• Mr & Mrs. Smith

Top 10 OTAs in Spain

• Keytel 
• Mr & Mrs Smith

Top 10 OTAs in other countries 

Learn more about the top revenue-generating OTAs around the world in our Big Book of OTAs, including:

• Philippines

Highest niche revenue-generating OTAs

What are niche otas.

Niche OTAs are online travel agencies catering to specific audiences and travel needs. Many niches exist today, including OTAs for skiers, campers or glampers, adventure travelers, luxury travelers, and more.

Niche platforms can be the best online travel agencies as they are built to target more specific guest segments. Once you identify what guest segments make sense for your property, you can look into local partnerships to expand your offerings to provide a more tailored experience that complements your guests’ travel plans. For example, if you have a property close to the beach, you can find local surf instructors to partner with and offer lessons through your booking engine to attract surfers. When the guests check in, you can show them where the best surf is in town to improve the guest experience.

After a guest’s first trip is booked through a niche OTA, the guest will likely forego OTAs for their next trip in favor of booking directly on the hotel website. Niche OTAs are an essential part of any property’s online distribution strategy as they build loyalty and encourage direct bookings, helping hotels make money.

In the niche OTA market, many new channels have emerged over the past few years, especially surf & sport OTAs and luxury OTAs.

Highlighted niche OTAs surf & sports 

The global surfing tourism market is predicted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6%, from 9.5 billion USD in 2022 to 17.1 billion USD by 2032. Travelers are increasingly looking for unique experiences, many tailored to specific activities like surfing, and seek out properties that cater to their needs. Today, the top revenue-generating Surf & Sport OTAs include:

Thermal offers a handpicked collection of the best surf trips in the world, with a focus on amazing guides who create one-of-a-kind, authentic experiences.

Good Story has an inventory of surf hotels and internationally recognized surf schools and camps for both novice and experienced surfers. 

Surf Holidays provides unique places to stay with quality local surf instruction to deliver the surf holiday of a lifetime on some of the best breaks in the world. 

Luex Surf & Snow Travel connects travelers with operators/ suppliers of once-in-a-lifetime sports travel experiences and products.

KiteSurfHolidays.com specializes in kitesurfing holidays, including accommodations and kitesurfing schools.

Highlighted niche OTAs luxury

In May 2023, Deloitte reported that the luxury travel industry had rebounded to pre-pandemic levels and is currently thriving, with a global market value of 1.2 trillion USD. Bookings at five-star hotels rose 19% over the first three quarters of 2021, and luxury travelers are more keen than ever to experience “Instagram-worthy” experiences in unique and remote locations. 

The following OTAs cater to travelers looking for luxury accommodations:

Mr & Mrs Smith includes a collection of carefully curated hotels that are first anonymously evaluated and visited by staff. This exclusive OTA works on an invitation-only basis. 

Prestigia is made up of hand-selected quality and unique hotels from all over the world. This OTA offers the best price guarantees, promotions, and exclusive offers. 

icastelli.net luxurious, historical, and unique high-level hotels are the property types found on this OTA. Collections include exclusive boutique hotels, golf hotels, spa hotels, and more.

i-escape provides unforgettable travel experiences, including eco-retreats, safari lodges, and boutique hotels. Also included is an award-winning booking system with a direct dialogue between guests and property and free advice from travel consultants. 

Tablet Hotels the official hotel selection of the MICHELIN Guide. This OTA showcases hotels that provide meaningful experiences to guests, regardless of budget. 

Spotlight – LGBTQIA+ OTAS

The global LGBTQIA+ travel market is valued at over $568.5 billion USD annually . While many countries have become increasingly welcoming to the queer community, discrimination is still prevalent today. A Booking.com study revealed that 58% of LGBTQ+ travelers face discrimination while traveling, and 41% canceled a trip within the past year after seeing their destination wasn’t LGBTQ+ friendly. 

 OTAs like ebab have emerged to offer safe and friendly accommodations to the LGBTQIA+ community.

Top OTAs by property type

Our data shows that while the top global OTAs dominate across almost all property types, some OTAs offer more opportunities for specific property types.

Channels such as Hostelworld have traditionally been popular for searching for hostels, while channels such as Vrbo and Airbnb have catered to vacation rentals. However, we’ve seen that our hotel customers are increasingly adopting Airbnb as part of their channel mix. Airbnb welcomes hotels that have a unique, independent environment and style.

Download our Big Book of OTAs to see the list of the five most popular channel connections by property type, including:

• Most popular channel connections for Hotels & Boutiques
• Most popular channel connections for Hostels
• Most popular channel connections for Vacation Rentals
• Most popular channel connections for Bed & Breakfasts

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Reviewing the most popular online travel agencies

• Flight Hacking

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Check out this travel tip from Jack`s Flight Club

https://jacksflightclub.com/travel-hub/undefined

Here at Jack’s Flight Club, we’re always on the lookout for awesome flight deals. Airline sales and Black Friday promos are great, but sometimes, it’s the discounts you get through online travel agencies (OTAs) on Skyscanner or Momondo that really get us excited. 

The thing is, JFC members often tell us that they’d rather pay more to book directly with an airline and avoid the risk of getting scammed. After all, how do we know that Skyscanner is legit ? Our article on OTA safety explains how these flight aggregators work and what you need to keep in mind when using them.

In short - Skyscanner and Momondo are genuine companies, and using them to find cheap fares won’t put you at risk. It’s actually the OTAs they redirect you to that you need to be savvy about. That’s where this article comes in. So, now we’re going to take a deep dive into how individual online travel agents stack up against each other. 

The OTAs listed here are a selection of the best-known names and the ones that appear most frequently in our deals. We’ll weigh in with stories from experienced JFC members and colleagues (watch out, eDreams), as well as taking a good look at consumer reviews and ratings on popular platforms like Trustpilot and TripAdvisor. 

But firstly, we’re going to examine how the OTA aggregators we use every day - Skyscanner and Momondo - rate the companies they advertise. So, is there actually any quality control, or do we have to rely on articles like this to tell us what’s up?

Quick reference

Do skyscanner and momondo rate their otas, how do other websites rate otas.

• Lastminute.com / Bravofly

CrystalTravel

Final thoughts.

In short - yes. Skyscanner reviews seem more transparent than Momondo’s, but both have a quality control system in place.

When someone makes a booking through Skyscanner, they’re invited to leave feedback and rate their booking. When you’re redirected to the OTA on Skyscanner, a short survey will appear asking you to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on your experience.

The data collected here all goes towards the star ratings Skyscanner gives its OTAs - you’ll see them when you click on a Skyscanner search result. 

Skyscanner reviews the feedback weekly and only takes into account feedback from the last three months. On one hand, it’s good to know you’re seeing up-to-date information reflecting recent experiences. On the other, a load of complaints 4 months ago might still put you off if you knew about them.

Their rating is based on:

• accuracy of the prices you see in search results, 
• clarity about extra fees (for bags, insurance, etc.),
• how good the OTA’s customer service is, 
• how easy the booking process is,
• and any other feedback they receive.

One of the main issues we find with the Skyscanner rating system is that you can’t read the feedback or reviews left for individual OTAs. There’s also no way of searching through all the OTAs they work with to check for the Skyscanner rating, so it all depends on which ones show up for the route you search.

Momondo are even less up front with their ratings - in fact, they don’t really rate them at all. Well-reviewed OTAs get a little medal symbol next to their names on the results page, with a pop-up box showing the areas they’re particularly good in. 

Unfortunately, even that doesn’t happen across all domains - momondo.com displays very few approval medals for OTAs in comparison to the European domains. For the purposes of this article, we’ll use the approvals on momondo.co.uk.

Both Skyscanner and Momondo let you sort results by cheapest, fastest, and best. While Skyscanner’s “best” category is decided by a combination of price and flight time, Momondo reviews sometimes factor into what shows up under “Best”- and apparently, so might the commission they receive from sales via that OTA.

As part of a wider umbrella of companies that includes familiar names like booking.com, kayak and cheapflights.com, Momondo also uses ratings and reviews gathered from its partner sites. While that’s no biggie on the face of it, their little medal symbols may have been awarded based on a completely different booking experience.

Consumer review sites like Trustpilot let anyone leave a review of their experience with a company. All you have to do is give the business a star rating out of 5 and leave a comment in the box below. Trustpilot balances its ratings to ensure the fairest score possible, giving priority to the most recent experiences.

The downside of these sites is that it’s hard to know if reviews are genuine, plus people are far more likely to leave a review if they are unhappy. The best way to get an overall picture is to check sites similar to Trustpilot, like sitejabber, or consumer review sites like Which?. Otherwise, you may find yourself spending hours trawling travel forums on TripAdvisor or Quora. Good news is, we’ve done it for you!

And that brings us to the juicy bit - our online travel agency reviews.

What we’ve heard: Our members have a LOT to say about eDreams, and we keep hearing the same complaint over and over again - hidden fees.

One member told us that after making his booking, he noticed an extra charge from eDreams on his bank statement. After some back and forth with eDreams’ customer service, he discovered they’d subscribed him to their prime membership without his permission. As compensation, he was offered a €20 discount off his next booking with them, but they completely ignored his refund requests until he threatened to open a fraud case via his bank.

Another member had a similar situation, where eDreams claimed the extra cash they charged her was for luggage fees, and she too was refused a refund. Someone else had an even weirder issue, when the company booked them on the wrong flight with the airline and refused to fix it. They claimed that his booking was for the flight he’d selected, and he’d have to pay again to change to the flight he originally wanted.

These stories are no exception - TripAdvisor is full of threads dedicated to slating eDreams for poor customer service, extra fees, and unexplained cancellations. As one unsatisfied customer put it on Yelp, “One could get more service out of a bunch of penguin juggling monkeys than eDreams”.

What Skyscanner says: Skyscanner rates eDreams at 2/5 stars based on over 10.5k reviews. Since two of their main criteria are customer service and fees, we think we can work out why.

What Momondo says: Unexpectedly, Momondo gives eDreams the seal of approval . Either Momondo customers have been really lucky, or the search engine is just a bit out of touch, since they mention eDreams’ reliable pricing and good customer service.

What Trustpilot says: eDreams.com currently has a Trustpilot rating of 3.6/5 stars , though it’s worth noting that the majority of reviews there either leave a 5-star or 1-star rating. Another important point here is that many regional websites have a different rating, for example the Spanish website (where they’re based) only gets 2.1 stars, while Germany gets 3.5.

A common theme among the Trustpilot reviews is eDreams not refunding customers after their flight has been cancelled. Several people mention struggling to get through to customer service and waiting for months without any sign of getting their cash back. 

On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that there are more positive eDreams reviews on Trustpilot than negative. Several 5-star reviews say they got great customer service and had their problems resolved quickly.

Our verdict: Honestly, they wouldn’t be our first choice. Even when eDreams comes up cheapest, we’d hesitate due to the risk of being booked on the wrong flights or being hit with hidden fees like our members.

What we’ve heard: One Quora thread describes Kiwi.com as “legal scammers”, using loopholes and fine print to take advantage of customers. Multiple posters mention that they’ve been denied a refund for cancelled flights purchased through Kiwi, then being told by their customer service that buying a new flight is the only option.

We also came across stories of being issued fake tickets for cheap connecting flights. When the unsuspecting passenger arrived at the airport, they were told their name wasn’t even on the flight. Even if you put this down to human error on Kiwi’s side, you’d expect the passenger to have received a full refund instead of the 60% they actually got.

With that in mind, you can’t blame us for being a little sceptical when we read about Kiwi’s recent dispute with Ryanair, who accused them of issuing fake boarding passes . Kiwi claimed that there’s “no such thing as a fake boarding pass”, stating that Ryanair were just grumpy with them for selling their tickets for less than they cost on the Ryanair website. Either way, it’s not a good look.

Those are just the highlights. We found a lot more like that, including countless articles about families losing out on thousands of dollars due to Kiwi bookings falling through.

What Skyscanner says: With over 23.5k reviews on Skyscanner, the surprising 3.5/5-star rating is pretty decent. 

That means most people leaving a Kiwi.com review on Skyscanner find that the fares they’re quoted match what they end up paying, and any extra fees are clear. Customer service experiences may have been alright as well, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been problems - it just means that they’ve been resolved.

What Momondo says: Once again, we can’t really get more from Momondo than what you see in the image below. They’ve awarded Kiwi a medal , and state that their customers have confirmed reliable pricing and good customer service.

What Trustpilot says: At just 1.7 stars out of 5 , Kiwi reviews on Trustpilot look a lot more like what you’d expect after the horror stories we’ve seen.

The most common complaints are problems getting through to customer service agents (and not just a bot), and refunds taking ages - sometimes years - or not being honoured in full. 

You’ll also find more stories about the cancellation of a single flight in a multi-leg journey that ruined a whole trip. Because Kiwi is the airline’s customer, the airline contacts Kiwi to notify them of the change, rather than letting the passenger themselves know directly. 

Several people report that this information wasn’t passed on to them, and are then forced to pay excessive prices for a last-minute alternative. In the situations where they were notified about the cancellation, Kiwi had already requested a refund for that leg from the airline, instead of giving the customer the option to reschedule directly with the airline. That leaves the customer having no choice but to book a replacement flight (again, for crazy money) through Kiwi. 

On the other hand, like with eDreams, there are a few really positive reviews on there too. People who have genuinely had no problems and say they’re glad they didn’t read all the negative reviews before booking.

Our verdict: Generally speaking, people are much more likely to leave reviews when they’re angry than when things go well, which could explain the difference in rating between Trustpilot and Skyscanner. 

That said, you could be taking a chance by going with Kiwi - especially if you’re booking an expensive multi-leg trip for the whole family. This seems like a prime example of why paying more to book directly with the airline is worth it for security alone. 

What we’ve heard: Back in 2011, Opodo was bought out by eDreams, which kind of sets the tone for us. On top of that, Which? rates Opodo among the worst flight booking sites out there. 

News websites are full of headlines complaining about Opodo ignoring customers following flight cancellations, passengers being booked on the wrong flights, and huge fees to make changes or cancellations.

Like eDreams, we’ve heard of customers automatically being signed up for a Prime subscription without consent. Given that we rarely see Opodo coming up as the cheapest OTA, we can’t imagine choosing to tie yourself to their services would ever be worth it.

TripAdvisor’s forums are not so full of brutal Opodo reviews, though there are still enough to make you think twice. These mostly relate to long waiting periods for refunds after flights that were cancelled due to the pandemic, which shouldn’t be so surprising, really.

What Skyscanner says: Skyscanner gives Opodo a very average 3/5 stars . That figures, given that most complaints we’ve seen relate to airline cancellation issues and fees for reimbursement. What else can we really expect from a third-party company who makes money by doing the legwork for us (or not)? 

Based on many Opodo reviews that we found on Trustpilot (more on that below), we can actually believe that their customer service isn’t all bad. It seems likely that customer ratings here were either really positive or really negative, landing them firmly in the middle.

What Momondo says: Surprise, surprise, Momondo think Opodo are alright too, with another award for reliable pricing and good customer service. We kind of believe it this time, though!

There are very few average Opodo reviews, with most either leaving a damning one star or a congratulatory five stars. The most common complaints include charging customers for flights without sending confirmation emails, and applying large service fees when issuing refunds.

On the other hand, the numerous 5-star reviews sing the praises of customer service staff, saying problems were solved efficiently, and the agents were very friendly. It seems like once Opodo customers manage to reach a human instead of a bot, things often go okay.

Our verdict: In the unlikely event that Opodo comes up cheapest on Skyscanner or Momondo, we wouldn’t automatically discount them. Just know that if your flight is cancelled, it’ll take at least six months to get a refund - and that you will not be refunded the full amount. Reading the Ts & Cs of your booking will be well worth the time and effort, so you can make an informed decision.

We’d also suggest that when you’re going through the booking process, double check that no boxes are automatically checked to sign you up for their Prime membership. Uncheck everything and start again from the top, just to be sure!

What we’ve heard: This one is kinda fun for us, since our team has personal experience of a fairly common scam we’ve heard going around. Head Flight Finder Tristan booked a cheap flight from Mexico City to Orlando via trip.com. Luckily, he was still sitting by his computer when he got a message saying that the initial payment hadn’t gone through, and he had to call up to confirm his details within 15 minutes, otherwise the fare would increase.

This tale made us question whether trip.com is legit , but we couldn’t find other reports of this happening with trip.com. In fact, the greatest issue most people report with their bookings is confirmation emails containing incorrect dates or missing information. But since trip.com is a Chinese company, they have no obligation to offer 24-hour free cancellation like in the US and Europe. You’re then faced with no other choice but to pay a hefty change or cancellation fee.

A more unusual story that kept popping up actually happened once people had successfully received their ticket confirmation and airline booking reference. Upon logging into the airline portal to check all the flight details were in order, customers were able to see the names and credit card details of the people who booked the ticket on their behalf. 

In one instance, the trip.com agent had booked a passenger’s plane ticket using the name of a famous German tennis star (we just want to know which one!), a credit card with a name that didn’t match, and a fake email address. Thankfully, this didn’t cause any problems for the passenger, but had the card been reported as stolen, for example, they’d have been out of luck.

We also found out that trip.com and Skyscanner are actually owned by the same parent company. It would be naive to think that won’t have some impact on their ranking or position in the results.

What Skyscanner says: Trip.com gets lots of reviews on Skyscanner, despite being a fairly young company based in China - perhaps that’s down to their relationship with Skyscanner, perhaps they just know how to offer a good deal.

It’s another solidly average 3.5 stars , which reinforces the mixed bag of experiences out there. From what we’ve read, they don’t seem to go in for hidden fees, and the booking process seems easy enough (at first, at least). We reckon those lower ratings are probably down to weird experiences like Tristan’s, as well as unorthodox booking practices and unhelpful customer service.

What Momondo says: In the words of Ronan Keating, “You say it best when you say nothing at all”. Not only does Momondo not give trip.com a medal, it doesn’t even show up in any of the results we’ve seen - and that applies across all the domains we checked.

What’s the beef here? We need to know… Could it be that whole parent company/Skyscanner thing again?

What Trustpilot says: Trip.com does okay on Trustpilot, with 3.5/5 stars . Sifting through the reviews reveals a pleasant mixture of positive 5-star ratings and angry 1-star ratings, stating that they would have given it 0 stars if that were even possible.

The common thread in most one-star trip.com reviews is poor customer service. But when you look a little closer, that’s often coupled with customer errors - forgetting to include middle names during booking, choosing trips with layovers that are really short - and there’s very little the customer service agents can do other than charge fees to change them.

There are still plenty of mentions of familiar complaints as well, though, like trip.com issuing tickets for the incorrect flights, delayed email responses, and genuine surprise that OTAs don’t offer the flexibility you might get from an airline.

We also found one review with a similar story to Tristan’s. This person didn’t receive a booking confirmation within 24 hours, so when they followed up, trip.com denied that the booking existed and requested an extra $165 from them. When the customer checked the airline website, fares had increased by $100 since they tried booking, so they knew trip.com had messed up and wanted someone else to pay for it.

Our verdict: We don’t love the tricks they try to pull - they don’t seem to happen frequently, but once is enough to leave a sour taste. Otherwise, trip.com seems okay around 50% of the time. It’s a gamble, but if the price is right...

What we’ve heard: GotoGate frequently show up with nice OTA discounts, so we’re quite relieved to say we haven’t heard too much on the negative side. In fact, we’ve had way more positive GotoGate reviews from JFCers booking deals than we have negative.

The most common complaint we’ve had from our members involves delayed refunds on tickets affected by COVID cancellations, and this seems to be the case across travel forums like TripAdvisor as well. 

Understandably, nobody wants to wait 6+ months for a refund, or argue that they’re due their money back. This is definitely a situation where you need to be up to speed with the Ts & Cs of your booking.

Their customer service team does take a beating online, with several posts questioning whether they even exist. Customers who do manage to get through have apparently had waiting times of upwards of one hour - that definitely doesn’t sound appealing.

What Skyscanner says: Oh dear, it seems like most passengers booking via Skyscanner haven’t been so lucky, since GotoGate are rated at a measly 2.5/5 stars .

We’re confident this comes down to poor customer service and the issues many people have faced when trying to get a refund. There’s nothing to suggest that GotoGate fail on Skyscanner’s other criteria, like hidden fees and ease of booking, at least.

What Momondo says: As we’ve seen with other OTAs, it doesn’t take much to get a slice of the Momondo medal pie. That’s maybe why GotoGate get Momondo approval , along with a little highlight for reliable pricing and good customer service.

Maybe customers booking through Momondo have just been really lucky?

What Trustpilot says: GotoGate is another one with multiple Trustpilot listings depending on your domain, but most of them seem to agree that it’s not a winner. Gotogate.com gets 2/5 stars , while gotogate.co.uk gets 2.4/5 stars . Looks like you’ll have to book via gotogate.pt if you want a decent experience.

The comments say exactly what we’d expect after reading other forums - refunds haven’t been paid out to customers, despite the airlines refunding the OTA. You’ll also find several people slating them for charging lots for changes and extras, but this is fairly standard for OTAs. 

A little more worryingly, there are a few reports of people buying their COVID insurance package to cover flight cancellations and still having these issues. One customer had to pay extra for the refund to be processed and then waited 6 months to receive their cash.

Our verdict: Don’t rule them out, despite the negative reviews. If they’re offering a great discount off the airline price, it’s worth booking your flights with them. Just do yourself a favour and check that all your information (names, birthdays, etc.) is entered correctly, and choose a route with feasible layovers. 

What we’ve heard: Somehow, Expedia seem to have avoided major scandal when it comes to flight sales (though they might have made a few mistakes on their hotel side…). They are the biggest travel agency in the world and also own a few other familiar names, including Trivago, Hotels.com, CheapTickets and Vrbo, so they probably know what they’re doing by this point.

Where we have seen complaints, they’re all surrounding cancelled flights and problems contacting customer service. A familiar story at this point. Many people on forums said they used to use Expedia religiously but never would again, so things may be going downhill here. 

What Skyscanner says: Skyscanner reviews of Expedia clearly reflect the recent trend, leaving them with only 2/5 stars . This rating seems very poor to only be the result of customer service issues and old COVID-related cancellation problems, so there must be some lasting issues.

What Momondo says: Expedia does show up on Momondo, however they don’t get any medal of approval. This could be down to the poor customer reviews, or it could be down to Momondo being owned by Expedia’s biggest rival, Booking.com. 

We love a bit of drama, so we’ll assume it’s the latter.

What Trustpilot says: Wow, we didn’t quite expect it to be this bad - Expedia scores just 1.1/5 stars in the US and 1.2 in the UK on Trustpilot.

Every recent review we saw gave them one star and said to avoid due to cancellation problems. These were likely down to the post-pandemic flight chaos and not Expedia's fault, but most flight-related complaints make it seem impossible to get a refund from them. Or where people managed to change their itinerary, they generally had to pay a big fee. 

One passenger mentioned that they were told they’d be charged £250 (approx. $290) to adjust their flights. Instead, they were charged the full fare again and had to wait 8 weeks for the difference to be refunded. Not exactly ideal if you don’t have the spare cash just lying around in your account. 

It’s worth mentioning that since Expedia are also one of the largest hotel booking sites, there are several complaints relating to problems with accommodation reservations too. Usually we’d say this could skew the results, but we’ve not seen much evidence to back that up.

Our verdict: It just goes to show that digging a bit deeper is always worth it - Expedia may not have the bad headlines, but they sure know how to anger their customers. In short, we’d be cautious about booking with Expedia wherever possible unless you have some back-up cash. 

Lastminute.com/Bravofly

What we’ve heard: Latminute.com has been on the scene for a long time, and in some ways we thought of them less like an OTA and more like TUI or another travel agent. But recently we’ve heard some complaints that make us see them in a different light. We also learned that another OTA, Bravofly, acquired the lastminute brand in 2015, so if you’re buying from one, you’re buying from them both - sneaky.

In 2021, Which? Travel published an article saying lastminute.com should be your last resort. The major complaints they cited were failing to refund customers within the legal timeframe, as well as charging a £25 fee for carrying out said refunds.

Pandemic cancellations definitely caused flight chaos, so we checked to see how reviews were looking these days - spoiler alert: it ain’t great. Continued cancellation chaos and un-refunded flights get frequent mentions like other OTAs, but there was also one particularly weird story we found.

A customer made her booking through lastminute.com, but when she looked at the payment on her bank statement, it said lastminute.kiwi.com. It turns out that at some point during the payment process, she’d been redirected to a domain giving away the fact that lastminute and kiwi are in cahoots. 

To be fair, they don’t try to keep it secret - if you go to lastminute.kiwi.com, it’s there in plain sight. It’s pretty unclear whether they’re lastminute or kiwi or both, or if this is some weird scam, but it all makes us want to avoid them even more.

What Skyscanner says: Skyscanner reviews make lastminute.com seem much less scary. There are a lot of them, and with 3.5 stars , it feels like there’s a good chance you won’t lose all your money. The same goes for Bravofly, who get 3/5 stars .

According to Skyscanner’s rating process, you’d expect most people found the fees and booking process fairly clear. And if we had to guess what let them down, we’d assume it’s the curse of the OTA customer service. What we read on Trustpilot only backed that up…

What Momondo says: Momondo gives lastminute.com one of their medals and the standard reliable pricing and good customer service shout-outs. Strangely, Bravofly doesn’t get the same recognition despite them being one and the same.

What Trustpilot says: It’s not great for lastminute over on Trustpilot, at 2/5 stars . There are several complaints calling their customer service unprofessional, while others say they just never receive a reply to their emails. On top of that, many are finding it virtually impossible to get a refund for their cancelled flights.

If that doesn’t put you off, these stories will. One customer says that they bought their luggage upgrade along with their flights through lastminute, who then cancelled the bags but not the flight. The customer was then left with flights they couldn’t take because they needed their luggage too.

Another person reports paying extra for priority boarding and seat selection, only to discover when their boarding passes arrived that their group had been given randomly allocated seats anyway. Of course, they then had to pay extra to the airline at the check-in desk to make sure they could sit together.

Unfortunately for Bravofly , the story is much the same, with 2.3/5 stars . We found more reports of customers buying extras that didn’t pay off, like one who purchased the “flex package” so they could change their flights without a fee. Despite requesting a change, they never got any confirmation until Bravofly said they’d tried calling about the change and couldn’t reach them. The customer then called up and was told it would cost more than double what they’d originally paid to change their booking.

There are some positive reviews there to balance things up, though. Easy booking experiences, timely check-in info and boarding card delivery, and smooth transfers are all mentioned, so perhaps they’re not all bad?

Our verdict: We’ll pass on lastminute.com and Bravofly. From the weird kiwi payment story to ignoring the overpriced extras people have purchased from them, they just don’t feel like the good guys. 

What we’ve heard: We’ve only heard suspiciously good things about TravelUp. We say suspicious because at this point, we just can’t believe there’s an OTA that doesn’t have at least some complaints. Everything we found on the TripAdvisor forum was pretty dated and always regarding cancellations or change fees. No surprises there.

We checked out consumer review page sitejabber to see what the angry mob had to say there, and instead we found people singing the praises of customer service agents and complimenting the website’s ease of use and “calming background colors”. It all sounds pretty great, to be honest.

That is, until we stumbled upon some (unfortunately private) Facebook groups with names along the lines of ‘TravelUp Unfair Fees’ and ‘Travelup ripoff’. One of the groups has 1.4k members and has been active for the last two years, so it’s clearly not all sunshine and roses. 

And the Yelp reviews agree. There aren’t many, but they all say to steer clear of TravelUp. As well as the expected complaints about change and cancellation fees, there were some reports of the company changing flight itineraries without passengers’ permission, which had a knock-on effect for entry visas into certain countries. Not cool, TravelUp.

What Skyscanner says: Travelup reviews on Skyscanner echo the more positive vibes with 3.5/5 stars . It’s not all singing and dancing, so there clearly are some less-than-happy customers out there. But when the rating is based on nearly 22k pieces of feedback, we’d say that’s pretty good going.

What Momondo says: We’re not shocked to see Momondo giving the seal of approval , either. It would be more surprising if they didn’t, honestly. We kind of believe the reliable pricing and good customer service shout-outs this time, mostly because we don’t think they have a “good colour scheme” option.

What Trustpilot says: It’s really something to see a company rated ‘Great’ with 4/5 stars on Trustpilot. There are lots of reviews posted there to back this up, too, saying how fast and efficient the booking process is and how helpful the customer service agents were. 

Many of those posts included the words “so far”, or mentioned that they’d not yet taken their flights. We only hope that there actually is one for them to take when they arrive at the airport, unlike one incredibly unimpressed customer reported in her one-star rating.

Scrolling down, we found some more negative reviews. There were familiar stories, including changing itineraries and huge cancellation fees, as well as complaints about long waiting times to reach their call centre. That said, the percentage of 1-star and 2-star reviews they receive is still much lower than the number of 5-star reviews. 

Our verdict: Weighing everything up, it really seems like TravelUp are fairly reliable. The vast majority of reviews are positive, and where there are complaints, it’s often to do with change fees. There are a few causes for concern, but that certainly doesn’t seem to be the norm here. We’d use them - but only after reading the cancellation policy thoroughly, and we’d make sure to check for any itinerary changes regularly.

What we’ve heard: CrystalTravel seems kind of like a tale of two extremes. We’ve seen them offer really nice prices and read positive comments about booking experiences, but we’ve also seen the wrath of angry customers plastered all over forums and review sites.

There are multiple posts on TripAdvisor and sitejabber that report “ghost fare” tactics - that’s when you’re offered a price that doesn’t really exist. It might go up when you click through to the booking page, or they might contact you once you think the deal is done and dusted to let you know that the price is no longer available. That’s usually when they’ll try and up-sell whatever more expensive fares are still going.

Lots of people also complain that they’ve not received any booking confirmation, even months after booking. The question is, have CrystalTravel even booked the flights with the airline, or are they playing roulette and waiting to make a bit of extra cash when fares go down?

And to add insult to injury, it seems that they don’t answer their phones or emails either.   

What Skyscanner says: We couldn’t actually find CrystalTravel on any Skyscanner results, which seemed pretty unusual. So we contacted CrystalTravel through their website chat to ask them if they advertise through Skyscanner.

The customer service agent got back to us very quickly (nice work) to say that they were sorry, Skyscanner is not one of their business partners. They then very quickly followed up with, “If you want to make a booking cheaper, I can do that for you”. 

5/5 stars from us on that offer, but unfortunately we weren’t in the market for any holidays at the time of writing.

What Momondo says: Good news, Momondo likes them ! We don’t feel like it means much, though, especially when we see so many reviews elsewhere reporting shady behaviour.

What Trustpilot says: Unbelievable to the point of real suspicion, CrystalTravel score 4.8/5 stars on Trustpilot. We’re not sure how they did it, but the reviews are glowing. Everyone says how quick and easy the website is and how great the communication was with the customer service agent. 

Interestingly, lots of the reviewers seem to know the full name of the person they spoke to in customer service, and most of them have the surname Smith. We’re not sure whether we’ve ever had a customer service agent give us their full name before, but it does make the following point seem more plausible.

When you sift through to find the negative reviews, there are lots of accusations claiming the positive reviews are fake and that they are scammers. Most complaints again include ghost fares and itinerary changes that were apparently not initiated by the airlines.

Our verdict: The shiny reviews make it look good, but we have a couple of big questions. Why aren’t they on Skyscanner? And why are they changing customer bookings when the airlines haven’t changed anything? 

We wouldn’t want to entertain the idea of fake reviews on Trustpilot, but we’re just not sure what the truth is here… One thing we would say in their defence is that their webchat communication was really fast, so if you’re just looking for a chat and potential holiday discounts, go for it. 

After diving deep into the world of OTAs, it’s fair to say that we’ve been left a little jaded. You can never have full confidence in any third-party booking site, especially when even the highest-rated online travel agencies still manage to get slated so hard.

Seeing all the details Skyscanner considers when awarding a rating, we find their star ratings much more believable than Momondo's medals. As we've seen here, there's no customisation to tell you what the individual OTA is great at, and you can't actually see how positive or negative customer feedback has been.

However, there are a few OTAs in there that we think are worth giving a go, no matter whether you get there via Skyscanner or Momondo. TravelUp and Gotogate in particular have a fair balance of good and bad reviews, which we find much more realistic than ratings that seem too good to be true. 

Most of the negative feedback for all the OTAs we've looked here at comes as a result of human error - typos in names, wrong dates of birth, incorrect flight dates - or cancellation issues. So long as you actually read the Ts & Cs and cancellation policy (and can stomach the amount you’ll have to pay if you do need to make a change), you should be alright.

Just don’t get lured in by any of their extras, and make sure to uncheck every box and recheck only the things you need before paying - especially if you find yourself on eDreams.

Katy is a seasoned budget traveller living in Scotland with her husband and two cats. She has already been to every country in the EU and is now working on grand plans to conquer the rest of the world. When she’s not writing up travel inspo for The Detour, she’s usually researching her next trip.

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Booking.com, Expedia, TripAdvisor - A Look at the Best Online Travel Agencies of 2023

With travel restrictions slowly being lifted, tons of people are turning to online travel sites to plan out their next getaway. I love these travel sites because they make planning your entire vacation seamless, taking care of everything from the minute you leave your home until the second you come back (they book airport transfers now!). In fact, I can’t remember the last time I used a travel agent to book a trip. Travel agents have become a thing of the past like Walkmans and 25¢ bottles of Coke. Online hotel booking sites have changed the travel industry forever, bridging the gap between the consumer and airlines, hotels, and much more. They’ve made it easier by merging all aspects of your vacation, from booking a cheap flight ticket and hotel room to renting cars and buying excursion tickets. You could do it all with the click of a few buttons, often saving you time and money with any combination of tailor-made vacation packages. And that’s important because a vacation can be so expensive; when making a significant purchase as such, it’s good to have the best travel booking site on your side.

We’re going to take an in-depth look at the best online travel agencies of 2022: Booking.com, Expedia, and TripAdvisor, to see how they’re the same, how they differ, and which one you should go with for your next getaway.

What is Booking.com?

If you haven’t heard of Booking.com, what rock have you been living under? The small Dutch startup hit the online travel scene in 1996 and took the world by storm. What was once a complicated transaction between consumer, middle man travel agent, airlines, hotels, and car rental companies have been seamlessly integrated to directly connect the consumer with a range of companies all on one platform.

For more details look at our review of Booking.com .

What is Expedia?

Using state-of-the-art technology, Expedia reaches customers all over the world with one of the broadest offerings in the travel industry. They are one of the most trusted brands out there and rightfully so; Expedia aims to provide consumers with the best deals on hotel bookings, flights, car rentals, vacation packages, excursion tickets, and even cruises. You can mix and match any variation of what you need from the ever-expanding conglomerate.

For more details look at our review of Expedia .

What is TripAdvisor?

TripAdvisor is an online travel company that started in 2000 as somewhat of a guidebook – an online version of what you would expect from the print editions of Lonely Planet, etc. The basis of it was for readers to have quick and easy access to the information they would need, but the feature that really shot them to fame was the user-generated reviews. This way people could know what to look for and what to expect based on the experience of other actual travelers who have been there. TripAdvisor is now much more than just travel forums and has become a platform for hotel bookings, vacation rentals, attraction tickets, flight tickets, cruise tickets, and more.

For more details look at our review of TripAdvisor .

Is Booking.com better than Expedia? Or is TripAdvisor the best travel booking site? What is the best booking site?

At a glance, it seems that TripAdvisor has more features than Expedia and Booking.com. They offer services in all categories except airport taxis. Booking.com is the only one that does let you book airport taxis, though they do not have restaurant suggestions/ online ordering nor do they sell cruise tickets. Expedia may not have restaurant suggestions/ online ordering and airport taxis but they do have everything else that is commonly booked through an online travel website. Let’s take a look at each of the features and which booking website is the easiest to use for it.

Which website is the best to book hotels? How do you book a hotel on Booking.com? How do I book a hotel room online?

Which website is the best to book hotels How do you book a hotel on Booking.com How do I book a hotel room online

Expedia, Booking.com, and TripAdvisor all have the facilities to book a hotel room. I found Expedia and Booking.com the easiest to use when searching for a hotel room because they had the search engines prominently displayed right on the home page. You input your destination, check-in/ check-out dates, and the number of travelers directly on the homepage search engine. On the TripAdvisor website, you have to choose ‘Hotels’ and then put in your location; it’s not much of a difference, but it is an extra step.

Once you get to the page of results, you’ll find your search requirements as well as additional filters you can apply. The layout is basically the same for all three websites but the filters do differ slightly. After you pick a hotel room that best suits your needs, the payment and confirmation process is pretty much the same across the board.

Filter breakdown:

While no one hotel booking site has all the filters available, TripAdvisor seems to be lacking the most.

Are hotels on Booking.com cheaper than Expedia? Is TripAdvisor the cheapest website to book a hotel room?

Before we dive into finding the online travel site with the best hotel deals, it’s important to note that TripAdvisor does not have its own hotel booking system and instead redirects customers to either Booking.com or Expedia. Because of this, I’m not even going to include them in this category since it’s irrelevant.

I decided to test out the remaining two online travel sites to see if any one of them would be cheaper than the other. Using the same criteria and no additional filters (Baltimore, July 1st – July 2nd, two adults in one room), I found that Booking.com had 66 properties while Expedia listed more properties but didn’t say exactly how many results there were. Most of the hotels remained almost the same in price per night; for example, the Royal Sonesta Harbor Court Baltimore came to a total of $198.58 with taxes on Expedia and was $198.57 with taxes on Booking.com.

I did find that Booking.com had some room options that weren’t always available on Expedia – and sometimes they were cheaper. For example, when looking at Tru by Hilton Baltimore Harbor East for the same dates, the cheapest room Expedia had was $106.66 while Booking.com had a room for a total of $94.12. They both had the same check-in/ check-out times and they were both listed as a room with two queen beds so I’m not really sure why Expedia’s was $12.54 more.

Looking at it, whether it’s saving you one cent or twelve dollars and fifty-four cents, Booking.com seems to be the cheapest website to book a hotel room. Both companies do have a price match guarantee and will refund you the difference if you find the same room at a lower cost – but why go through the trouble if you’re getting it at a lower cost on Booking.com anyway?

Which website is the best to buy flight tickets? How do you buy plane tickets on Expedia?

Which website is the best to buy flight tickets How do you buy plane tickets on Expedia

Expedia, Booking.com, and TripAdvisor all have the facilities to buy flight tickets through their website. While Expedia and Booking.com have technology built into their website, TripAdvisor scans prices on partner sites such as JustFly.com, FlightHub, Priceline, and more.

The actual website is very easy to use; you just plug in the details under the relevant tab and a list of results pop up for you to filter through and choose from.

Expedia has a majority of the filters you may need when searching for a flight, while TripAdvisor ranks second and Booking.com comes in last. All three have basics such as filtering results by an airline, number of stops, departure time, and arrival time. Those last two are especially helpful if you’re like me and try to avoid an early morning flight at all costs.

I think the filter for nearby airports offered only by TripAdvisor deserves a special shout out. A lot of people don’t realize that you could save hundreds of dollars by just flying to a less popular airport twenty minutes away. It’s a great option to have if you’re not very picky about where you land as long as it’s in the general vicinity of your destination.

Are flights on Expedia cheaper than TripAdvisor? Is Booking.com the cheapest website to buy a plane ticket?

To get a better idea of their pricing, I did a search from Baltimore (BWI) to Las Vegas (LAS) from July 1st to July 8th. I didn’t add any additional filters but did toggle it so that the cheapest options were at the very top. The cheapest flight was on Expedia which showed a flight from Frontier Airlines for $314.78 including taxes and all applicable fees. There were layovers each way but my main focus was the price point.

The second cheapest flight for the same departure and destination on the same dates was from TripAdvisor. They scanned several partner sites and found me a ticket on JustFly.com for $339 including all taxes and fees. That happens to be the same exact Frontier Airlines flight that Expedia found with the same layovers and everything so I’m not sure why the flight was $24 more.

Surprisingly, Booking.com happened to have the most expensive option when looking for the cheapest flight between Baltimore and Las Vegas for the same dates. That flight cost $533.36 and is a Spirit Airlines flight with layovers both ways; that makes it almost $220 higher than the cheapest ticket I found.

In the end, Expedia seems to be the cheapest website to buy a plane ticket but TripAdvisor is a close second.

Which website is the best to book a cruise? How can I book a cruise on TripAdvisor?

Booking a cruise through an online travel service is fairly new compared to hotels and flights but I’m glad that they introduced the option. Why shouldn’t we be able to compare cruise prices and track itineraries in the palm of our hand as we do with other aspects of our travel?

Booking.com is already out of the running because they do not have the facilities to compare and book cruises. Both Expedia and TripAdvisor are very easy to use to find a cruise; you just choose the destination and the time frame right on the home page. A page full of results comes up with the filters on the side.

Based on the extensive filters available, TripAdvisor might be the best option when booking a cruise – especially if getting a good deal or sticking to a budget is important to you.

Are cruises on TripAdvisor cheaper than Expedia? What is the cheapest website to book a cruise?

To identify whether TripAdvisor or Expedia had the cheapest cruises available, I did a search for a cruise to the Bahamas during the month of September for two people sharing one room. TripAdvisor had nearly 20 results while Expedia had over 30. When I sorted the results by the cheapest price, the exact same cruise (MSC Cruises) from Port Canaveral to Nassau and back for the same dates came up. After choosing the most basic of plans and staterooms, the total came to $538 including taxes and fees on both Expedia and TripAdvisor.

While I liked that Expedia had more cruises to choose from, I appreciate that TripAdvisor lets me have more flexibility by using the filters for special deals. I also like that you don’t book the cruise directly through TripAdvisor (they don’t have the software built into their website) but instead they scan partner sites and redirect you there; this way, you can also get reward points if you’re already a member on cruise lines such as the Royal Caribbean or Carnival.

Both online booking sites, TripAdvisor and Expedia, offer equal pricing for cruises. You can pick either or based on what filters you need or whether reward points are important to you.

Which website is the best to rent a car? How can I rent a car on Booking.com?

Which website is the best to book a cruise How can I book a cruise on TripAdvisor

Finding a car to rent isn’t usually a difficult process, especially if you’re looking for something in your local area and are already familiar with most of the major companies. Enterprise, Hertz, and Avis are some of the largest car rental companies in the United States, and though I’m familiar with them, I usually book through Booking.com, Expedia, or TripAdvisor because they make the process easy. They automatically scan for all the best deals and apply them for me when I make the reservation; they’ll even match the price if I find the exact same rental from someplace else for cheaper.

I especially use one of these sites if I’m looking to rent a car internationally. I don’t know what rental car companies are popular in Venezuela and I don’t need to know the details when using one of these three. You can search over 60,000 locations worldwide and find the perfect car for you at a price you’re happy with. Even better, most of these offer free cancelations and no hidden booking charges just in case your plans change.

Based on the extensive filters available, Expedia might be the best option when renting a car through a travel booking site.

Are car rentals on TripAdvisor cheaper than Expedia? What is the cheapest website to rent a car?

I searched for a car to rent on all three travel booking sites using the same pick-up location, number of days, etc. to get an idea if one was cheaper than the other (BWI Airport, July 1st to July 2nd). I then filtered the results by price (lowest to highest). The first result for all three websites had the same exact price ($93 total including all taxes and fees).

For that price, TripAdvisor offered a Hyundai Accent or similar. Booking.com offered a Nissan Sentra or similar. And Expedia offered a Toyota Corolla or similar. There’s no guarantee to exactly which vehicle you’ll get with any of the companies but I like to pick one based on availability and my needs in that particular instance. For example, I use Expedia when traveling with a group because they’re the only one that will let me filter my results by the number of passengers. When I feel like splurging, I use TripAdvisor because they can filter results by ‘luxury’ vehicles and they have better options in the luxury category than Expedia.

Which travel booking site has the most unique features? What makes Expedia, Booking.com, and TripAdvisor really stand out?

Which website is the best to rent a car How can I rent a car on Booking.com

In writing this article, I had to really look into the nitty gritty details of Expedia, Booking.com, and TripAdvisor. Each of them stands out in their own way and here’s what I found most unique about each:

Expedia: Expedia is a wonderful option when looking for domestic and international flights. They have partnered with several airlines to get the best deals and pricing available, and have proven to be cheaper than their competitors. By using Expedia, I can find the best plane ticket for me based on my combination of needs such as seat choice or a specific departure time, which isn’t possible with Booking.com or TripAdvisor.

Expedia has another section devoted to travel guides for popular tourist destinations. This Las Vegas one, for example, includes a guide video and suggestions on where to stay, top hotels, the best places to visit, the best things to do, how to get around, a look into the weather throughout the year, and so much more. It’s very helpful if you’re just starting to put your trip together and can give you some great ideas on which hotel is most family-friendly, etc.

Booking.com: Booking.com is renowned internationally, and while Expedia and TripAdvisor are getting there, the company has established relationships with all sorts of properties all over the world. Do you want to stay in a beachside villa in Portugal? Booking.com has you covered. What about a treehouse in South Africa? They got you covered there too. The sheer expanse of rental properties across the globe that can be found on Booking.com is immense and I love that you can find whatever you need.

Booking.com is also the only travel site out of the three to offer ‘ Airport Taxis ’. This service makes airport transfers easy, letting you book and confirm your taxi before your trip. Your driver will be waiting for you upon arrival to take you to your destination. You don’t have to try and book an Uber in a crowded airport or wait in line for public transport. It’s just a hassle-free way to get to where you need to go. I found this especially useful when traveling to countries where English isn’t the first language. I don’t have to worry about using a translator app to communicate with a cab driver as soon as I land and I can rest easy knowing that a vehicle is waiting to take me to my hotel.

TripAdvisor: TripAdvisor really took me by surprise with all of their filters and facilities available when booking a cruise, especially since they had more options than their competition. But what still stands out about TripAdvisor is what shot them to fame in the first place: their user-generated reviews of everything from restaurants to destinations. It gives people such an in-depth look at what they could expect from the experiences of real people who have been there already.

TripAdvisor also has a fun tab called ‘ Road Trips ’ which highlights some of the most popular road trips in the US. It takes you through the most scenic driving routes and points out hotels and attractions along the way. It’s a great tool and includes tons of tips and tricks to planning the perfect road trip.

Another unique feature that I only found on TripAdvisor was their ‘ Restaurants ’ tab. This awesome feature gives you a list of restaurants in any particular location you choose. I use it for multiple things; one, I have dietary restrictions so this lets me see what restaurants are in the area I’m visiting so I have a general idea of where to eat. Two, they have reviews that other TripAdvisor users (real travelers like me) have left so I can get a good idea of what to expect instead of restaurant-promoted hype. Third, I can browse the menu, get an idea of the approximate cost, and get any contact details (address, phone, etc.) that I may need right off of the TripAdvisor page. And lastly, it’ll link me to one of their delivery options (if it’s available). So, I can browse a restaurant’s page and immediately connect to GrubHub or UberEats to place my order within minutes.

Does Booking.com have the best customer service? How do I reach customer service at Expedia? What about TripAdvisor’s customer service?

From personal experience, I’ve found customer service at Booking.com , Expedia , and TripAdvisor to all be outstanding. I’ve never had a problem reaching them and if you read all the fare rules before purchasing, you shouldn’t have any problems with changes or cancelations to your hotel booking, flight, etc. Since most of what you find on TripAdvisor redirects you directly to their partner, you usually contact the hotel or airline directly for any changes you need to make.

Which travel booking site has the most unique features What makes Expedia, Booking.com, and TripAdvisor really stand out

Which travel booking site has the best reviews? Do customers prefer Expedia, Booking.com, or TripAdvisor?

Sites like ConsumerAffairs, Trustpilot, and the Better Business Bureau are systems that have been established to protect consumers from fraud and to give them a platform to voice their experiences and concerns. A majority of the time people post on these websites because they’ve had a problem and want to share their experiences with others, so reading the reviews could help you make a decision.

ConsumerAffairs – 3.7/5

Trustpilot – 1.2/5

Better Business Bureau – 1.05/5

While being one of the more popular online travel sites, Expedia ranked last compared to TripAdvisor and Booking.com. There are tons of great reviews on how wonderful people’s experiences were booking hotel rooms, buying plane tickets, renting cars, and more. Some of the more common complaints were long wait times to talk to an agent and difficulty using previously issued credits. Another odd complaint made on several reviews was that Expedia changes the dates you book your hotel for in the middle of the reservation process – so always double check before adding your payment details and confirming.

Booking.com

ConsumerAffairs – 3.8/5

Trustpilot – 1.5/5

Better Business Bureau – 1.03/5

Booking.com ranked second best compared to the other two travel booking sites. They also had tons of positive feedback from people who used the site or app for their travel needs but there were some not-so-great ones as well. A lot of their complaints are relative to car rentals; either the car rental service wasn’t where they said it would be (in the city versus in the airport upon landing) or that the car they reserved wasn’t available and they had to get a different model or style. People also had difficulty changing or canceling their reservations so they suggest being very sure about your plans before using Booking.com.

TripAdvisor

ConsumerAffairs – 4/5

Trustpilot – 3.4/5

TripAdvisor ranked best on ConsumerAffairs, Trustpilot, and the Better Business Bureau compared to Expedia and Booking.com. I think one of the reasons that they do so well in terms of ratings and reviews is because they don’t process a lot of the bookings on their own platform. Instead, they scan the internet and find the best deals and then redirect customers to the actual website of the airline, hotel, cruise line, etc. So any changes or cancelations you have to make would be directly with the company. There are many complaints of hotel bookings not being confirmed but there are even more complaints about excursion tickets; for example, one customer made a jet skiing reservation and showed up at the location to find that the company had closed over a year ago. I think this particular instance is a one off event but buying excursion tickets on TripAdvisor does have a range of other complaints as well.

Expedia, Booking.com, and TripAdvisor have made it simple to plan your next vacation with one of the best online travel sites – whether you’re going abroad or staying in the US. Each travel booking site has its share of ups and downs and to be fair each person’s experience is different. We’ve identified the pros and cons of using each of these services. If you’ve used any of them yourself, share your experiences with us in the comments below.

Also, read our very interesting travel blog post about Turkey and Greece travel comparison .

Short infographic about Booking.com, Expedia, TripAdvisor – A Look at the Best Online Travel Agencies of 2022

Booking.com, Expedia, TripAdvisor – A Look at the Best Online Travel Agencies of 2022

Cancel reply

Orbitz was awful. I got their Orbitz Visa so I could get 10% back on hotels by using their Visa phone app, and 6% back on flights by using Orbitz.com. T’hey owed me $532 from a few trips and I called customer service and after two hours on the phone, and multiple transfers, they said my money was credited and would appear in my Orbucks acct but never arrived.

So I called back and they hung up on me! In short their customer service sucks and they can’t deliver. I’ll never use their website, phone app or their Visa again.

The Complete Guide to Booking Travel Online

What is an online travel agency, and what are the best sites and apps to use to search for hotels and flights we break it all down for you..

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There’s a lot to navigate when researching and booking travel online.

Photo by Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

My first travel adventure was to Venezuela. I booked the ticket with a travel agent over a pay phone. The agent searched a dozen flight itineraries over a few days, all so I could save $15.

Times have changed. Today, flight searches start online , often on your mobile device. Passengers book either directly with the airline or hotel or with online travel agencies. Rarely do we get on the phone. In fact, American Airlines and United Airlines charge $25 to make a domestic flight booking by phone. And pay phones hardly exist anymore.

So, what is the best way to book online? Here is our complete guide to online travel agencies, search tools, and the variety of booking options available on both mobile devices and desktops.

What is an OTA?

An online travel agency, or OTA, is a website or mobile app that allows users to search for and book travel services such as flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, and activities. The booking is made directly with the online travel agency but confirmed by the service provider, such as an airline or a hotel. As a customer, your relationship is with the OTA.

What are the main OTAs?

Many online travel agencies nowadays are owned by two main companies: Expedia and Priceline. The Expedia Group is the largest online travel agency in the United States with 70 percent market share, according to travel data firm Phocuswright. Expedia Group operates Expedia.com , Orbitz, Hotels.com , Trivago, CheapTickets , Hotwire , Vrbo , and Travelocity .

Priceline is a major competitor to Expedia, with global revenues larger than the Expedia Group. The company owns Priceline.com, Booking.com, Cheapflights, Momondo, and Kayak—the latter two being metasearch engines (more on that below).

There are also independent newcomers such as Hopper (a mobile-only booking tool) and Kiwi.com (which allows you to book flights on air carriers that don’t normally have a commercial relationship).

Are OTA fares lower than booking directly?

Generally, no. The fares that are displayed by an OTA will be similar if not slightly more expensive when compared to an airline’s website. They’re usually only a few dollars higher or lower. The OTAs charge a booking fee to the airlines, and often that fee is passed directly to consumers. For example, Lufthansa tacks on an additional $18 to any booking made through an OTA for Lufthansa flights. The same flights are exactly $18 cheaper on the airline’s website.

Where you can score a good travel deal through an OTA is when booking a last-minute hotel and flight package. Many OTAs have cut agreements with airlines allowing last-minute travelers to access lower rates than are typically available when passengers book a flight alone.

Are all airlines available to be booked through OTAs?

No. Many OTAs do not display flights from some of the low-fare leaders. For example, Southwest and Allegiant flights are not available through OTAs; the same goes for Ryanair in Europe. And, earlier this year United Airlines threatened to pull out of Expedia altogether, only recently signing a multi-year agreement to stay in. The airlines would rather not lose any margin to online travel agencies in an already low-margin industry and would rather maintain a direct relationship with the customer.

Are smaller OTAs safe to use?

Expedia and Priceline are the two largest players in the online booking space, but there are dozens of independent OTAs, such as CheapOAir, OneTravel, JustFly, and SmartFares. Confusingly, you might actually stumble on ads for these OTAs while using Expedia or Priceline sites. That’s because the larger OTAs earn revenue through advertising, sending passengers to smaller OTAs and charging those OTAs for the favor.

Buyer beware: some of these lesser-known OTAs are masters at hidden fees. For example, a flight search on JetBlue allows for free seat selection in many instances. If you perform the same search on FlightNetwork, an independent OTA, and select a seat, you will be charged an additional $25—despite the fact that JetBlue doesn’t charge a seat selection fee if you book directly.

What if you need to change your itinerary?

Itinerary changes are often a pain. If your plans change, it won’t matter whether you’ve booked directly with an airline or with an OTA—you’re going to pay fees for the privilege, if you can even change your ticket at all.

For example, CheapTickets.com, which is part of the Expedia Group, charges $25 to change or cancel a ticket if that change is requested after 24 hours of making the booking—it is free if you do so within 24 hours of booking. However, the fees go up from there. JustFly, an independent OTA, charges a $75 fee for changes to domestic flights in addition to airline change fees, plus the difference in fare, for tickets that can be changed. For an international trip, the fee rises to $200. That means to change an international flight with Delta (which charges a $100 change fee) booked through JustFly, you’ll be assessed $300 in fees, plus the difference in fare. At that rate, you may as well book a new flight. FlightNetwork indicates in its terms of service that changes may incur a change fee but doesn’t specify what those fees are. That hardly makes the few dollars you saved by booking with the OTA in the first place worth it.

What is an OTA price match policy?

To assure travelers that they are getting the lowest fare possible, many OTAs have a price match policy. The rules vary and so do the benefits.

For example, if you book with Orbitz and find a less expensive flight, car rental, or activity on any U.S.-based website within 24 hours of your booking, Orbitz will refund you the difference you paid. And it works: I have personally found a flight in the same class, on the same airline, for the same origin and destination cities, and requested Orbitz to refund the difference of around $35. Within a few weeks, I received a check in the mail. A similar program applies for CheapOAir, but there’s a catch—the price difference must be found on a major OTA such as Expedia or Travelocity.

Expedia has a particularly good price match policy, but you have to pay extra for it at the time of booking. Expedia offers the price match option as an add-on that costs between $5 and $30 when you book. With the price match applied, if the airfare on Expedia drops between 120 days of the flight and up to six hours before the flight, Expedia will automatically refund you the difference in fare. Unfortunately, fares generally do not drop substantially as the travel date approaches, so while this might give you peace of mind, it’s probably not worth the expense.

How do Google Flights and other travel metasearch engines work?

Frequent fliers are likely familiar with websites such as Google Flights, Kayak, Momondo, or Skyscanner. On these websites, passengers search on the site but are redirected to the service provider to complete the booking, such as an airline, rental car company, or hotel.

Metasearch started with a product called ITA Matrix, which is a tool for searching airfares online but not for actually booking online. ITA Matrix allows for multi-city searching, such as setting two different departure or arrival airports, and for offering a calendar view of fares for easier comparison. That company was acquired by Google in 2011, and savvy travelers swear by it to help find the least expensive fares online. Most consumers are more familiar with Google Flights, which has gained traction more recently not least because it has the benefit of being displayed first in search results on Google.

Metasearch engines receive distribution fees from the airlines for sending traffic to the supplier websites. There are no additional hidden fees for using a metasearch engine because you’re booking directly with the airline or hotel.

A major benefit of the metasearch engines is their price tracking tool, which lets users know whether the displayed fares are low, average, or high for the flight, allowing travelers to make a more informed decision on whether to book a flight or not . Google Flights and Kayak, for instance, both have price tracking tools.

Why not just book directly?

The airlines would definitely much rather you book directly with them. Over the past five years, they have gotten much better at marketing and selling their product directly to consumers online and through mobile sites and apps. But in the past, they weren’t so good at it. In fact, Delta, Northwest, United, American, and Continental got together to invest $145 million to launch Orbitz in 1999 to counter the threat from Expedia. Now Orbitz is owned by Expedia.

The airlines also try to encourage customers to book directly so that they can maintain a closer relationship with them. It allows carriers to connect bookings with loyalty programs and create special offers and discounts catered to individual passengers.

There is another benefit to booking directly. The U.S. Department of Transportation requires carriers to hold a reservation at the quoted fare for 24 hours without payment or allow a reservation to be cancelled within 24 hours without penalty, so long as the booking is made at least seven days before travel. The law applies, however, only to U.S. and foreign air carriers that have websites marketed to U.S. consumers. This means that, in theory, an online travel agency does not have to offer such a policy, although most OTAs do.

What are the options for booking on your mobile device?

Airlines and the major OTAs all have apps to help you book and manage your trip on your mobile device, but their functionality is lacking compared to these websites’ desktop editions. For example, Expedia’s app doesn’t allow you to view flights on a month-view calendar. Kayak has an app with more bells and whistles and a better user interface, including a month-view calendar with color-coded pricing. It also has a handy “augmented reality” function to help you see if your carry-on bag will fit in the overhead bin (a feature originally developed by KLM). Point your phone’s camera at the luggage, and it’ll give you the dimensions.

While apps are improving and gaining in popularity, you still might find it easier to locate the best deals on flights and hotels by using your desktop, where you can have multiple tabs open and have all the available search tools at your disposal. Apps are fine for booking directly with an airline once you know which flights you want to book.

If you’re determined to use your mobile device, you may want to look into Hopper. Hopper is a mobile-first flight booking tool that has a solid price prediction tool. You can research travel options and book directly on the app. Another benefit of Hopper: Of its team of 300 employees, nearly half are dedicated to customer support and are based in Canada versus some OTAs and airlines that outsource much of their customer service further afield.

The bottom line?

Like many travelers, I enjoy a flight deal as much as the next person, but I also don’t like any added hassle. I typically start my travel searches using the ITA Matrix or Google Flights to get a general sense of the fares. It helps to know what is a good deal and what is expensive for a particular route. I do my research, typically on a desktop computer. When I’m ready to book, I’ll book directly with the airline. I’ve found that customer service is better when booking directly with the service provider. But I’ve also saved money by using OTAs and have booked with them, too. Whichever way you choose to book, you can be safe in the knowledge that finding and purchasing travel online is a lot easier today than searching for a deal with a travel agent on a pay phone.

>> Next: How to Get the Best Last-Minute Travel Deals

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The Pros and Cons of Booking Flights on Kayak

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Table of Contents

The pros of booking flights with Kayak

The cons of booking with kayak, kayak flights, recapped.

When looking for the lowest airfare and best routes, searching individually for each airline is time-consuming and tedious. Likewise, quickly comparing multiple results across several websites can be a significant challenge. That’s why online travel agencies, like Kayak, are so popular: OTAs provide booking options for numerous airlines in one spot, saving you time and minimizing tab fatigue.

In this Kayak.com review, we’ll look at booking on Kayak versus airline websites to help you decide if it’s the best place to search for flights.

» Learn more: The best travel credit cards right now

Flights from multiple airlines can be viewed in one spot

Searching for flights on various airline websites is annoying. Kayak makes it easy to compare prices between numerous airlines with a straightforward search.

Provides price trends for cities

Once you enter which cities you want to travel between, Kayak shows the price trends between those cities. The trends are based on how many days you want to travel, and the easy-to-read graphs highlight which dates are cheapest — or cost the most. This is a significant advantage when booking on Kayak versus airline websites.

» Learn more: Laptop Lugging: Should you mix work and travel with a workcation?

Suggests possible destination options to consider

Based on your travel dates and departure city, Kayak offers a map-based search that suggests different cities that you can travel to based on price. Travelers can find possible destinations within the U.S. and across the globe using this feature. This is an ideal solution when you know you want to travel (and which dates) but aren't sure where to go.

Hacker Fares can save you money

Some airlines offer excellent prices one-way, but the return flight can be expensive. By booking on Kayak, you can take advantage of "Hacker Fares," which use different airlines to service departure and return flights. These split-airline fares can often lead to the lowest price available, which is not readily apparent when booking directly with the airlines.

» Learn more: How to shop for flights

Price alerts when fares change

While searching for options between two cities, you can click to receive email alerts when prices change for that route. In addition, travelers who aren't yet ready to book can be notified as prices change so that they can secure the flight when the tickets meet their budget.

Offers 'fee assistant' for carry-on or checked bags

When you fly on some airlines, you may be surprised by checked bag fees at the airport. Kayak offers a "fee assistant" that incorporates checked bag fees into your search results so that you're not hit with an unexpected cost. The downside is that you cannot add your elite status or credit card benefits when comparing. Either of these might eliminate baggage fees, which would keep the price down.

» Learn more: The airlines with the best (and worst) fees

Search by airline alliance

For travelers who prefer to stick with one airline alliance , you can filter results by your preferred alliance. This makes it easier to use alliance benefits when flying with a participating airline and enables you to pick a flight you can credit towards earning elite status .

Filter searches by aircraft type

For true aviation geeks searching for specific planes to fly on, Kayak search results allow you to filter by the type of aircraft. By choosing this filter, you can ensure a particular seat configuration, in-flight experience, and other features.

Southwest is included in search results

For many years, flights on Southwest Airlines were not available in OTA search results. Kayak is one of the few OTAs that includes Southwest flights for you to compare against other airlines. However, this feature is only available with a Kayak business account — which is free and easy to sign up for.

» Learn more: The pros and cons of booking through online travel agencies

Limited flights are booked on Kayak.com

When you've chosen your ideal flight and are ready to book, there are limited options to book your flight directly on Kayak.com. Most often, Kayak takes you to the airline's website (or another OTA) to book the flight. This can confuse travelers and make it hard to know who to contact when something goes wrong. Plus, if you're sent to a website you don't recognize, you may be fearful of having your credit card and personal information hacked.

No loyalty program

Other OTAs, including Expedia and Priceline , offer loyalty programs recognizing their most valuable members. Kayak does not. As a result, users can't earn points towards discounts, complimentary rooms, or other benefits. This reduces the incentive for booking on Kayak versus airlines or other OTAs offering loyalty programs.

Sponsored flights appear first in search results

As you review your flight options, keep in mind that the first flight in the search results is a sponsored ad. While this flight's route and pricing may be appealing, it isn't always the best deal.

Might not qualify for credit card bonus categories

Savvy travelers use credit cards that offer bonus categories for airline purchases when booking flights. However, some travel credit cards don't offer bonus points when booking through third parties, such as Kayak.

Some cards require you to book your travel directly with the airlines or through its own portal. For example, The Platinum Card® from American Express requires you to book through the AmEx Travel portal in order to receive 5x points on your flight. However, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® does include flights purchased through OTAs in its bonus category. If Kayak sends you to the airline's website to book your flight, you are in the clear. But, if it sends you to another OTA, like Priceline or JustFly, you may not be. Terms apply.

» Learn more: How to earn airline miles when booking through online travel agencies

Kayak provides numerous benefits and makes it easy to compare the cost of airfares across multiple airlines. However, you can't always book directly with Kayak. Instead, you may be sent to the airline's website or another online travel agency to complete your reservation.

In addition, depending on which credit card you use to pay for your flight, you may or may not receive bonus rewards or qualify for elite status credit.

How to maximize your rewards

You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are some of the best travel credit cards of 2024 :

Flexibility, point transfers and a large bonus: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

No annual fee: Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card

Flat-rate travel rewards: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

Bonus travel rewards and high-end perks: Chase Sapphire Reserve®

Luxury perks: The Platinum Card® from American Express

Business travelers: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

on Chase's website

1x-5x 5x on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3x on dining, select streaming services and online groceries, 2x on all other travel purchases, 1x on all other purchases.

60,000 Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 when you redeem through Chase Travel℠.

1.5%-5% Enjoy 5% cash back on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3% cash back on drugstore purchases and dining at restaurants, including takeout and eligible delivery service, and unlimited 1.5% cash back on all other purchases.

Up to $300 Earn an additional 1.5% cash back on everything you buy (on up to $20,000 spent in the first year) - worth up to $300 cash back!

on Capital One's website

2x-5x Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day. Earn 5X miles on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, where you'll get Capital One's best prices on thousands of trip options

75,000 Enjoy a one-time bonus of 75,000 miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel.

Ranking the best online travel agency rewards programs

When I was in graduate school, I would book conference lodging for other students. In doing so, I collected thousands of dollars of rewards through online travel agency (OTA) programs. But, even if you're only booking for yourself, you may find value in booking through OTAs .

Many travelers use OTAs to compare prices and book travel and although OTAs are easy to use, you won't always get the best price. You may not even get elite night credits and perks at hotels when you book through OTAs. So, it's best to compare what you find through an OTA against booking directly with the travel provider.

However, not all OTAs offer rewards programs and some programs provide only minimal value. So, today I'll describe and rank the best OTA rewards programs.

Get the latest points, miles and travel news by signing up for TPG's free daily newsletter .

What to know before booking through an OTA

First off, know that booking through an OTA may not be the best option. You won't find some travel providers, such as Southwest Airlines , on most OTAs. And, you may find a lower price when you book directly.

Besides, you usually won't earn hotel points and perks when you book through an OTA . Instead, you usually must book directly with the hotel loyalty program to get elite earnings and perks. On the other hand, you'll usually earn airline miles when you buy your ticket through an OTA . But, the airline might classify your ticket as bulk or consolidated. And, this may yield fewer miles.

Finally, if things go wrong, you might find yourself caught in the middle of a finger-pointing match. Specifically, the OTA and travel provider may blame each other if your flight is canceled or your hotel is overbooked . So, both parties may claim the other needs to rebook you or provide compensation. Unfortunately, some travelers have learned this the hard way when trying to cancel travel during the coronavirus pandemic .

So, it's important to realize the potential pitfalls and consider the benefits of booking directly with the airline or hotel . But, if you decide to book through an OTA, you might as well choose one that earns plenty of rewards.

Related: Online travel agency vs. booking direct: Your guide to the best way to book your next hotel

Ranking the top OTA rewards programs

• Hotels.com Rewards : Best return on hotel bookings
• Orbitz Rewards : Best perks for frequent users
• Booking.com Genius : Best for easy to earn status that can provide confirmed upgrades and breakfast
• Expedia Rewards : Best for redeeming for a wide variety of travel
• Trip.com Rewards : Best for onsite perks when you need them

Now, let's take a closer look at each of the programs and options for maximizing your bookings.

Hotels.com Rewards

Hotels.com's loyalty program is called Hotels.com Rewards . And, in addition to being one of the most straightforward OTA rewards programs, it offers substantial value. Plus, you can book many top hotels through Hotels.com , including hotels perfect for a summer vacation or family vacation .

Earning and redeeming

The Hotels.com Rewards program offers you a reward night for every ten nights you stay. The value of your reward night is equal to the average rate you paid across the ten nights. However, this calculation doesn't include any taxes and fees. So, let's assume you:

• Stay seven nights in a hotel with a nightly rate of $100 before taxes and fees
• Stay three nights in a different hotel with a nightly rate of $200 before taxes and fees

In this case, you'd earn a reward night worth $130. However, you'll still need to pay taxes, fees and other incidental costs on your reward night. And, there's a $5 redemption fee if you redeem your reward night using the desktop or mobile web site. But, you can avoid paying the $5 redemption fee if you use the mobile app when you redeem.

Some strategy is helpful when using your reward night. If you use your reward night for a stay that costs more than the value of the reward night, you must pay the difference. But, if you use the reward night for a stay that costs less than the reward night, you'll forfeit the difference. So, you'll want to use your reward night on a stay with a nightly rate just slightly higher than the reward night. When you do, you'll get an almost 10% return on hotel spending through this program.

Related: 7 of the most interesting Hotels.com properties

Elite status

Hotels.com Rewards offers basic status and two tiers of elite status. Specifically, the base level status is called Rewards. And, Rewards status provides the following perks:

• Secret prices
• Earn and redeem as described in the previous section

You can earn Silver status by staying ten or more nights within a membership year, which is based on the date you created your account. Silver perks include the following:

• Priority customer service
• Hassle-free guarantee: Hotels.com will help minimize property charges or cancellation fees if you need to change or cancel a reservation.
• Price Guarantee Plus : If you find a better price on exactly the same stay, Hotels.com will match it and refund the difference.
• Guaranteed Wi-Fi at VIP access properties
• Extra perks at select properties

Once you reach 30 nights in a membership year, you'll earn Gold status in the Hotels.com Rewards program . Gold elites enjoy all the same perks as Silver elites, along with complimentary room upgrade, early check-in and late checkout subject to availability at VIP Access properties.

As you can see, Hotels.com Rewards elite status has few tangible benefits. So, the main reason to use this program is earning and redeeming. After all, getting a reward night after every ten nights is pretty sweet.

Related: Can you earn elite status and benefits when booking through Hotels.com?

Orbitz Rewards

Orbitz launched its Orbitz Rewards loyalty program in October 2013. And, like Hotels.com Rewards , Orbitz Rewards aims to be simpler than the average OTA rewards program.

Whenever you book travel through Orbitz, you'll earn Orbucks based on the kind of purchase you make:

• 1x on flights and packages (1% return)
• 3x on hotels, vacation rentals and activities (3% return)
• 5x on hotels and vacation rentals booked on the Orbitz app (5% return)

Orbitz deposits Orbucks into your account when you book. Then, you can cash in Orbucks toward hotel stays at more than 385,000 hotels worldwide. When you do, one Orbuck equals $1 off your hotel stay.

You can use Orbucks to pay for part or all of a stay. If you use Orbucks, the Orbucks you redeem will be subtracted from the total amount due. Unfortunately, you can't redeem Orbucks for anything besides hotel stays and vacation rentals.

Related: How do you cancel airline tickets issued by a travel agency?

Orbitz Rewards offers elite status to frequent bookers. You'll get Silver status just for signing up, which gets you the following perks:

• Access member-only prices
• Earn Orbucks when you book flights, hotels and packages
• Access to Rewards customer service line

You'll earn Gold status by staying four nights in a calendar year. On top of the perks provided to Silver elites, Gold elites also get unique amenities at VIP Access properties.

And, you'll get Platinum status after staying 12 nights in a calendar year. In addition to the perks available to Gold elites, Platinum status unlocks the following perks:

• Up to $50 Orbucks in reimbursement for travel expenses each calendar year
• Seat assignments and upgrades, bag fees , in-cabin pet fees and inflight Wi-Fi all count
• Apply for TSA PreCheck for free every five years
• Get free room upgrades and early check-in when available at VIP Access properties

Earning Platinum status could be worth it if you can use the $50 Orbucks credit for eligible travel expenses. This is especially true if you don't already have one of the top credit cards for TSA PreCheck .

Related: 5 reasons to get TSA PreCheck now

Credit card

If you're looking to boost your earnings with Orbitz, you could open the Orbitz Rewards Visa Credit Card. This no annual fee card earns Orbucks at the following rates:

• 10x on Pay Now properties booked on the Orbitz app (10% return)
• 8x on Pay Now properties booked on Orbitz.com (8% return)
• 6x on all flights booked on Orbitz.com (6% return)
• 5x on all other Orbitz.com purchases (5% return)
• 2x on all other purchases (2% return)

However, remember that you can only redeem Orbucks for hotel stays and vacation rentals booked through Orbitz. But, if you use Orbitz frequently, this card may be a good choice. The card also comes with lost and stolen baggage coverage . Plus, as a cardholder, you'll get a 6-month CLEAR trial membership and $60 off automatic renewal.

Related: Should you get TSA PreCheck or CLEAR — or both?

Booking.com Genius

The Booking.com Genius loyalty program is a bit different than most of the other programs described in this guide. Specifically, there aren't any chances to earn or redeem rewards within this program. And, there's no cobranded credit card for this program. But, you can earn elite status. And, best of all, it's easy to do so and lasts for life.

The Booking.com Genius loyalty program has two elevated Genius levels. And, once you earn these levels, you'll keep your status for life.

To earn the first level, Genius Level 1, you must stay twice within two years. But, this level only provides one perk: a 10% discount at select hotels.

But, Genius Level 2 isn't much more difficult to earn. To earn Genius Level 2, you must stay five times within two years. And, Genius Level 2 provides the following perks:

• 10% and 15% discounts at select hotels
• Free breakfast at select hotels
• Complimentary room upgrade at select hotels

You can see which hotels offer discounts, free breakfast and room upgrades when you search.

So, as a Genius Level 2, you can ensure an upgrade. After all, you can book into an upgraded room at select hotels for no extra cost. And, this gives much more value than a space-available upgrade.

You won't earn any rewards within the Booking.com Genius program . But, if you're looking for a deal or upgraded room , you may find it sorting by hotels with Genius perks.

Related: Booking.com makes a big move against resort fees

Expedia Rewards

Expedia's rewards program, named Expedia Rewards , provides a loyalty program that's similar to Orbitz Rewards . However, with the Expedia Rewards program, you can redeem for a wider variety of travel.

When you make travel purchases through Expedia, you'll earn points based on the kind of travel purchased:

• 2 points per $1 spent on hotels, cars, packages, things to do and cruises (1.4% return)
• 1 point per $5 spent on full-service airlines (0.14% return)

Also, you'll earn double points on all bookings made through the Expedia app. Plus, as we'll discuss in the next section, elite members can earn points faster.

When you're ready to redeem, simply sign in to your account and start the booking process. Once you get to the checkout page, select "Use my points" under the payment section. If you don't want to use all your points on this booking, enter the amount you wish to use.

However, if you are booking a hotel, you'll need to "Pay now" if you're using points. And, if you're booking airfare, you'll need enough points to cover the entire cost. For every 140 Expedia Rewards points you redeem, you'll save $1. So, each point is worth about 0.7 cents. But, points are worth double when you book a VIP Access hotel.

Related: The complete guide to the Expedia Rewards loyalty program

There are three membership tiers in the Expedia Rewards program . You'll earn Blue tier status simply for joining Expedia Rewards. And, at the Blue tier, you'll get the following perks:

• Save an extra 10% or more on select hotels with member prices
• Earn Expedia points
• Hotel price guarantee (Expedia will match any lower price you find until midnight before your stay)
• Early access to sales and other exclusive member offers

You'll move to Silver status if you spend $5,000 on eligible bookings or stay seven nights within a calendar year. In addition to the perks available at the Blue tier, Silver elites get the following perks:

• 10% more points when you book
• Extra perks at VIP Access hotels , including 250 bonus points just for booking
• 24/7 expedited customer service via the Silver member number

And, you'll earn Gold status if you spend $10,000 on eligible bookings or stay 15 nights within a calendar year. On top of the perks available at the Silver tier, Gold elites get the following perks:

• 30% more points when you book
• Free room upgrades when available at VIP Access hotels
• 24/7 expedited customer service with specialized Gold agents via the Gold member number

The perks provided by the Expedia Rewards program aren't all that impressive, nor is the earning. I'd recommend giving this program a pass unless you have a compelling reason to book through Expedia.

Related: Why points and miles are a terrible long-term investment

Credit cards

If you are all-in on the Expedia Rewards program, you may want to consider one of the following cards:

Expedia® Rewards Card from Citi

• 3x points on eligible Expedia purchases and 1x points on everything else
• Automatic Silver status
• Earn one elite-qualifying hotel night toward Gold status for every $2,500 in purchases on your card each calendar year
• No foreign transaction fees
• No annual fee

Expedia® Rewards Voyager Card from Citi

• 4x points on eligible Expedia purchases, 2x points at restaurants and on entertainment and 1x points on everything else
• Automatic Gold status
• $100 annual air travel fee credit
• 5,000 bonus points if you spent $10,000 in the prior cardmember year
• $95 annual fee

The information for the Expedia Rewards Voyager and Expedia Rewards Card from Citi has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Related: Battle of the mid-tier hotel cards: Which card outshines the others?

Trip.com Rewards

Trip.com's rewards program, named Trip.com Rewards, is similar to Expedia Rewards and Orbitz Rewards . In particular, you can earn and redeem rewards on flights and hotels. And, you can earn elite status based on your activity within the program.

When you make travel purchases through Trip.com, you can earn points in three ways:

• 25 Trip Coins per $100 spent on flights
• 80 Trip Coins per $100 spent on hotels
• Up to 140 Trip Coins per hotel review

But, as I'll discuss in the next section, members with elite status can earn 10% or 30% bonus Trip Coins.

When you're ready to redeem your Trip Coins, you have options. You can exchange Trip Coins for flight and hotel promo codes, instant savings on hotels and hotel perks. But, if you redeem for instant savings, 100 Trip Coins are worth $1. To use Trip Coins for instant savings, simply select "Save with Trip Coins" during the booking process. However, some bookings may not have this option.

It's unclear how much value can be obtained from Trip Coins when you redeem for promo codes and hotel perks. But, based on the instant savings redemption rate, I wouldn't place too much value in Trip Coins.

Related: Why you might not get housekeeping service during your next hotel stay

There are four membership tiers in the Trip.com Rewards program. And, to advance to higher levels, you must earn tier points by booking flights and hotels. Specifically, you'll earn tier points as follows:

• Flights : Earn 25 tier points for every $100 spent
• Hotels : Earn 80 tier points for every $100 spent

Now, here's what you need to know each membership tier.

Interestingly, membership tiers are adjusted each month based on the tier points you've earned in the last 12 months. As such, it requires a fair bit of spending to reach the Platinum and Diamond tiers in this program.

Additionally, members at higher tiers in the program get additional perks. You can exchange zero Trip Coins for these perks when booking hotels marked with "Trip Coin Benefits":

• Gold members : One free breakfast, room upgrade, late checkout and free cancellation
• Platinum members : Two free breakfasts, room upgrades, late checkouts and free cancellations
• Diamond members : Four free breakfasts, room upgrades, late checkouts and free cancellations

However, you must select perks at the time of booking. Perks are provided on a limited, first-come-first-served basis depending on hotel availability. Especially since the high membership tiers require a lot of spending to reach, I wouldn't put too much value in these perks.

Related: The best credit cards to jumpstart elite status

Earn airline miles with OTAs

Finally, some OTAs allow you to earn airline miles for hotel bookings. Three of these OTAs are Agoda (through its PointsMAX program), Points Hound and RocketMiles .

Some of these programs advertise up to 10,000 airline miles per night in earnings. But, in practice, I've yet to find a good enough value to use any of these programs. However, these OTAs can be a good option if you want to earn more miles in a program you already use. Likewise, you may be able to use these OTAs to generate account activity in little-used programs. And, this activity may allow you to keep your points and miles from expiring .

Related: Using Rocketmiles to earn points and miles on hotel stays

Maximize your OTA booking

When booking through an OTA , you may be able to quadruple-dip on rewards. Specifically, you may be able to earn all of the following:

• OTA rewards
• Online shopping portal rewards
• Credit card rewards on the purchase amount
• Travel provider rewards

However, there are some caveats. You can still earn airline miles when you book through an OTA . But, most hotel loyalty programs won't offer elite earning or benefits on OTA bookings . And, some OTA rewards programs may not provide rewards when you click through an online shopping portal. So, be sure to read the fine print for your OTA and travel provider.

Related: TPG reader question: Which credit card should I use in shopping portals?

Bottom line

Although I regularly used OTAs when I traveled less frequently, now I usually book directly with major airlines and hotels . After all, elite earning and perks matter at hotels now that I live on the road as a digital nomad . And, it's often easier to deal with flight cancellations or changes when you book directly with the airline.

But, I do still use OTAs in some cases. I'll book through an OTA when I stay at a hotel that isn't part of a major hotel loyalty program . And, I'll book flights through an OTA if it offers a much lower price. Plus, I often book through Priceline when I use AutoSlash for cheap car rentals .

Several OTAs offer strong rewards programs. Hotels.com Rewards earns the top spot on my list, but Orbitz Rewards and Booking.com Genius also offer solid value propositions. So, if you decide to book through an OTA, it may be worth using one that provides rewards and perks.

Additional reporting by Nick Ewen.

Online Travel Agencies

Legitimate online travel agencies (bbb accredited websites).

Wish to save time and money, plan your ideal trip, compare deal prices and book your preferable airline tickets, hotel room or car rental online? Booking from legitimate and trustworthy travel websites is the best way to avoid the risks of being exploited, overcharged, scammed or ripped off. This list provides information about online travel agencies approved by the Better Business Bureau , after being thoroughly reviewed by the national consumer organization and successfully meeting all their strict requirements.

Wish to save time and money, plan your ideal trip, compare deal prices and book your preferable airline tickets, hotel room or car rental online?

Booking from legitimate and trustworthy travel websites is the best way to avoid the risks of being exploited, overcharged, scammed or ripped off. This list provides information about online travel agencies approved by the Better Business Bureau , after being thoroughly reviewed by the national consumer organization and successfully meeting all their strict requirements.

Found inaccurate or outdated information on this page? Has the BBB accreditation of a listed business been revoked?

Thanks for helping us keep this page up to date.

Recommended Reading

Consumer tips, how-to’s and articles that you may find interesting..

• Checklist: How to Find Out If a Website Is Legitimate or Not?
• The Effects of Falling Victim to a Scam
• Heads Up: 3 Common Online Scams to Be Aware of
• Profile: What is The Better Business Bureau?
• What Is a BBB Accredited Business?
• What is the Importance of BBB Accreditation for Consumers?
• Tips: What Should I Do After Being Scammed Online?
• The Sad Truth behind the Trustworthiness of Online Reviews

The mainstream travel industry is dominated by gigantic e-commerce websites that enable users to complete all their trip or vacation arrangements in one convenient place. Online travel agencies (OTA) are middleman-style companies that offer travelers the ability to book either each trip component (such as flights, hotel stays, cruises or car rentals) separately – or order bundled packages that include everything. The major players on this market provide convenient research tools that help consumers compare different features, find the best travel options for their specific schedule, destination, budget or style and enable them to mix and match various aspects of their trip. Due to their enormous size and massive market reach on a global level, OTAs have the power to offer very competitive prices, discount package deals, and even last-minute bargains. Moreover, to encourage travelers to book with them repeatedly, some of the largest travel booking sites operate loyalty programs that provide substantial benefits.

Consumer Tips: How Book Safely and Avoid Online Travel Agency Scams

Just like any other sector that involves consumers, businesses, and money that switches hands, the online travel market also has its fair share of scammers, fraudsters and cybercriminals that operate online and look for potential victims. Scammers use many illegal, unethical or dishonest ways to trick and take advantage of unsuspecting travelers, who want to find a good deal. Criminals are constantly creating and promoting fake travel agencies on the internet that work for a short time, harvest as many victims as possible and then move on to the next fraudulent booking site – which carries a new name, logo, and URL. To be effective, these bogus travel websites are often professionally designed, look like legitimate platforms and advertise phony dirt-cheap deals to lure as many consumers as possible and steal either their identity or hard-earned money. In a different variation of this type of scam, con artists build duplicate websites of the most popular online travel services in the industry. They use their official trademarked brand assets, like logos, pictures, and unique graphic design and advertise low prices to attract more travelers and then viciously defraud them. Other shady companies use illegal or unethical business practices that may come in hidden charges and undisclosed fees, unjustified penalties, arbitrary flight time changes by the agency, booking ‘mistakes’ that cost much money to repair or unresponsive customer support that never provides actual help. Taking these steps will help you find credible and reliable online travel sites and complete your purchase in a safe, secure and satisfactory way:

Be Skeptical

Always suspect too-good-to-be-true bargains and overly low rates inconsistent with average market prices. These are often the strongest telltale signs of an upcoming scam.

Avoid Using Unfamiliar Agencies

If you use a third-party reservation provider for an upcoming trip, choose a well-known, trustworthy and reputable company.

Investigate the Online Travel Agency’s BBB Record

Check the website’s record on the Better Business Bureau’s website. What you’ll find there, will help you evaluate whether it’s a legitimate business that deserves your money and trust or if you must look elsewhere. Look for current BBB rating, customer reviews, complaints, warnings and alerts on their business profile. In addition, learn how long it has been in business – a potential indicator of experience and reputation. If the company is not even listed with the BBB, this is a bad sign. On the other hand, if the travel booking site is certified as a BBB Accredited Business , it’s an important positive signal.

Pay Close Attention to Red Flags

Learn how to protect yourself better when ordering goods and services on the internet, to avoid scammers and keep safe in general. Knowing how to check if a website is legitimate or not is the first line of defense.

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eLegitimate.com was established in 2013 with the goal to provide categorized information about BBB accredited businesses across a variety of industries, sectors and market niches.

When you are searching for legitimate, reputable and honest companies that are safe to do business with, treat customers with fairness and respect and offer reliable customer service – be sure to check out our website for companies that have passed the BBB’s test.

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Best in Travel Agencies

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What does sorting by relevance mean? Read more

Sorting by relevance shows all companies that are best in a category, ordered by TrustScore and review count. To be eligible, they must actively ask for reviews and have received 25+ in the last 12 months.

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