10 Best Sites for Hotel Booking, Comparison & Reviews 2024

The Hotel's Own Website

There are lots of times when it makes sense to just keep things simple and book on the hotel’s own website, whether it’s Marriott, Hilton, IHG or any other. If you’re a member of a hotel’s loyalty program and are trying to earn or maintain elite status, you will most likely want to book direct.

By booking direct, you can take advantage of discounted member rates and will be sure to earn loyalty points and elite night credits. Many hotel chains offer promotions that allow you to earn lots of bonus points.

If you don’t book direct, the hotel may not recognize your elite status!

For example, if you have Marriott Gold Elite Status and you book your room through Orbitz, you could easily miss out on your lounge access (and free breakfast) perk.

1. Booking.com – The Best Hotel Booking Site Overall

Keywords: best prices, great discounts, most reliable, easiest to use.

Booking.com is one of the world’s largest e-commerce companies, and the number one destination to book any type of accommodation. It is a website that primarily manages a collection of lodging reservations but also offers vacation packages, flights, car rentals, and airport taxis. It is also known as an Online Travel Agency (OTA).

Basically, you can book thousands of accommodations on the website booking.com.

Booking.com, originally formed in 1996, went through several transitions over the years and hit its stride by 2011. The first Booking.com mobile app launched in late 2010 and is now available for Android, iPhone, Microsoft Windows, and Kindle Fire available for download from Amazon.

Pros:

• Reviews on Booking.com are from verified guests (people that actually booked a room through the website at that hotel). Every hotel is graded on friendliness, comfort, location, facilities, staff, value for money, and wifi-quality. We have found a score of 8.8 and above means the hotel will be excellent (pretty much 5 star or exceptional value for money). 8.0 and above is basically a 4 star. 7.0 and above is a good quality 3 star hotel. 

• Booking.com has the clearest descriptions of the idfferent rooms. Though it’s still far from perfect so additional research is often required to be sure you’re getting the exact room you want.

• Booking.com has nice large pictures so you can see what the hotel is like. Also has lots of photos of individual suites and room types (but you need to enter potential dates to see these room pictures).

Cons: 

• You must enter travel dates before you can see the prices. For someone just shopping around, it makes it a little inconvenient when you don’t know your exact travel dates. You can see the types of rooms they offer, however, right away. Input some dummy dates to see what rooms are available and at what price.

How to save more money when you book hotels on Booking.com?

When you book hotels on Booking.com, and don't forget to sign up at Extrabux (What is Extrabux?), then you can get  4% super cashback from Extrabux! Sign-Up Bonus: Free to join it & get $20 welcome bonus!

2. Hostelworld – Best Booking Site for Hostels

Keywords: great for hostels and budget hotels.

Hostels are becoming a more common choice for travelers, not only for those who are on a budget but also for those who would simply like to meet new people as they explore new places.

Hostelworld is the world’s largest website for booking hostels and budget accommodations. If you’ve researched about hostels in the past, chances are you’ve already come across their website. Their impressive list includes 36,000 properties in 170 countries.

Pros:

• When you search for accommodations on Hostelworld, or any booking portal really, you will only be shown available places for your dates. Which makes sense, obviously, since you cannot book a hostel that is already full.

• Hostelworld is mostly used by budget travelers between 18 and 25 years old and backpackers souls. The reviews and comments are from a more backpackers perspective. That is absolutely great as a backpacker, obviously.
  

• Best price guarantee. If you find a booking cheaper on any other website, Hostelworld will refund you the difference.

• Support variours payments: Visa, Visa Delta, Visa Electron, Mastercard, Switch, JCB and Laser.

Cons: 

• Although Hostelworld have a great list of hostels, it still doesn't list ALL hostels in the world. And truth be told, no website has captured all hostels.

• Generally does not show hotels, so not necessarily usable in certain destinations/countries, especially rural areas.
  

How to save more money when you book hotels on Hostelworld?

You can go Hostelworld through Extrabux, then you can get 25% super cashback .

3. Agoda.com – The Best Site for Booking Hotels in Asia

Keywords: good for hotels in Asia.

Agoda is a hotel booking site that offers a massive inventory of hotels available to book directly through the website. Agoda has a fast loading website and offers a large amount of search functionality and sort options for refining the hotels you are searching for. We found it extremely easy to use, roughly on par with Booking.com as one of the best hotel booking sites in 2019.

In Asia, Agoda often has the best prices. It’s obvious that Agoda has held a significant focus on the Asia region since its inception.  If you are looking for a hotel anywhere in Asia then Agoda is most likely your best bet.

Pros:

• Great filtering options in its hotel search engine.

• Flexible payment options and cancellation policies.

• Insider deals for members can yield significant savings – remember to make an account.

• Great prices for members, especially in Asia where it has earned a reputation as the cheapest hotel booking site.

• Good rewards program – about 4-7% of your booking value.

• Great customer service.

Cons: 

• Can’t filter price to the nearest dollar.

• Sometimes the results page takes a little while to load.

How to save more money when you book hotels on Agoda?

You can go Agoda through Extrabux, then you can get 6% super cashback .

4. HotelsCombined.com – Best Aggregator Hotel Booking Site

Keywords: cheap hotels and last minute deals.

HotelsCombined is a hotel search engine which offers travelers the most comprehensive collection of hotel choices on one site. Unlike other hotel sites, travelers can easily compare supplier inventory and pricing which saves time and money.

HotelsCombined promises to search across multiple booking sites, taking more than 5 Million deals into account, all in one easy search. They also offer a best price guarantee should you find a better deal elsewhere.

Pros:

• The volume of results and deals!
  

• Easy to use interface, loads quick.

• Good map feature.

Cons: 

• Final price can sometimes increase from original list price.
  

• Very biased ordering of hotel prices – doesn’t show the lowest first.

• Filters could be improved – in particular, you cannot filter price down to the nearest dollar.

How to save more money when you book hotels on HotelsCombined.com?

You can go HotelsCombined.com through Extrabux, then you can get up to 6% super cashback .

5. TripAdvisor – Widest Selection of Hotel Reviews

Keywords: good for hotel reviews but not great for finding the best rates.

TripAdvisor is the world's most popular, largest and most trusted travel community. They provide customers with comprehensive travel planning experience. Not only are there 100 million true traveler reviews, but there's also a powerful flight search engine that compares hotel prices, vacation rental searches, and restaurant ratings and reviews around the world. 

TripAdvisor is also a hotel metasearch engine.  It offers search-engine-like functionality and the extensive filtering and sort options.  It is a great tool for finding hotels you may like to stay at, as well as for comparing prices between different hotel booking sites.

Pros:

• TripAdvisor has the largest network of reviews, plus they often go into significant detail.

• Great filtering and sort options, including the ability to filter by price to the nearest dollar.

• TripAdvisor forum is amazing.

Cons: 

• You can often find better prices through special offers and memberships with other sites, or by booking direct.
  

  
  

How to save more money when you book hotels on TripAdvisor?

You can go TripAdvisor through Extrabux, then you can get up to 4% super cashback .

6. Hotels.com – Best Website for Large Hotel Chains

Keywords: good for large hotel chains.

This hotel booking site features both independent and major chain hotels and offers users more than 25 million reviews from actual hotel guests. You can compare prices on other dates around the time of your desired trip to see if making a shift would save significant money. Listings offer drilled-down details on important extras for travelers with young kids in tow, like whether rooms have blackout drapes/curtains and if there’s a bathtub in the bathroom or just a shower. Join the Hotels.com reward program to “unlock secret prices” and earn a reward night after 10 nights booked through the site. (Users do pay taxes and fees for their reward night.)

Best feature for families: You can filter searches by family-friendly properties, and reviews and ratings from other families who’ve stayed at the hotel are easy to access. Listings also spell out why the hotel is great for families, everything from whether it offers cribs to whether connecting rooms are available.

Pros:

• Great rewards program – one free night for every 10 nights you book.

• Price tracker notifies you if the prices change.

• Good price match guarantee.

Cons: 

• We usually don't find the best prices at Hotels.com.

• User experience is not quite as good as others on this list.

How to save more money when you book hotels on Hotels.com?

You can go Hotels.com through Extrabux, then you can get up to 4% super cashback .

7. Priceline – Best When Flexible

Priceline is a world leader in travel deals. Priceline offers exclusive discounts on hotels, flights, alternative accommodations, rental cars, cruises and bundled trips. They offer more than a million lodging properties, helping travelers find the right accommodation at the right price. With free cancellation for many rates, 24-hour customer assistance and the option for both pre-paid and pay upon arrival reservations, Priceline helps millions of travelers be there for the moments that matter.

Where Priceline excels is in its Express Deals  This is where you can achieve massive discounts on unknown ‘mystery’ hotels.  The catch is, you don't know the name of the hotels so you can't read reviews.

Pros:

• Priceline Express Deals can offer huge discounts on good hotels.

• Often easy to guess the hotel before booking.

• Find a four or five-star hotel at a more affordable price.

Cons: 

• Although significantly discounted, express deals are non-refundable and non-transferrable.

• Not all deals are significantly better than the original price.

• Less popular destinations returned zero results for Priceline Express.

How to save more money when you book hotels on Priceline?

You can go Priceline through Extrabux, then you can get up to 5% super cashback .

8. Hotwire – Best When Flexible

Hotwire is built for people like you because they know that when it's easy to book trips and save money, you'll travel more often and get more out of the trips you take. It's why they were one of the first online travel sites to offer deep discounts through their specially negotiated Hot Rate deals. It's why they developed the best travel app for smart phones and tablets and why they're always hunting down and offering to you a variety of exclusive deals. Whether you need a rental car for a road trip this weekend, a last-minute hotel near friends or family, or simply the best price in an amazing neighborhood you want to explore, Hotwire's got you covered.

Hotwire is the ultimate mystery hotel booking website right now.  In case you don’t know what this is, you select where you want to stay and Hotwire serves up a series of hotels at often significantly discounted prices in this area.  

Your actual options are significantly reduced when booking mystery hotels on Hotwire when compared to the thousands of hotels you could choose from with Booking.com or Expedia. But Hotwire seems to have the best inventory of these sorts of deals that we could find.

Pros:

• We have always found the prices on the mystery hotel rooms to be competitive and lower than the full price.

• The really good map tool.

Cons: 

• Sometimes the hotels you get have very poor reviews, but they do show you the average rating before booking.

• Misrepresenting the actual, full price of the rooms .

• No rewards program.

How to save more money when you book hotels on Hotwire?

You can go Hotwire through Extrabux, then you can get up to 4% super cashback .

9. Trivago – Good Price Comparison Website

Trivago is another hotel booking site that helps you compare prices across sites like Agoda, Hotels.com, and Booking.com. There are lots of photos and reviews to access while making your decision, along with full details on hotel amenities and location. When choosing dates for your search, the calendar shows what nights are cheaper or more expensive so you can make the best picks for your budget.

Pros:

• A lot of hotel booking sites are listed on Trivago, including some smaller ones.

• Special offer prices are often included.

Cons: 

• The best deals aren't always at the top, so you will still need to hunt around for them.

• Direct booking deals and members only prices are often excluded – if you are after the best deal, don’t end your hotel search with Trivago.

• A lot of small, less well-known hotels don't return prices on Trivago.

10. Expedia  – Best When Flexible

Expedia is a direct competitor to Booking.com and the entire Priceline group.  Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz all aggregate a huge inventory of hotels and offer full booking functionality through their respective websites.  

The data used and website interfaces are almost identical across these three websites.  They are essentially the same booking website.

Expedia offers a great rewards scheme called Expedia Rewards.  Each time you stay somewhere you earn points that can be used to book more hotels with Expedia in the future.

As you earn points, you also move into higher membership tiers.  Silver and Gold tiers give access to exclusive travel offers, bonus points and priority customer service.

Expedia's rewards scheme is the best out of all of the hotel booking sites on this list.  This is the best feature of Expedia, but the rest of the platform works efficiently and would be a good alternative to Booking.com.

Pros:

• Best rewards program which rewards you with points for each hotel stay.

• Huge inventory.

Cons: 

• No price match guarantee.

• Can’t filter by a specific price range – sometimes the price ranges were guide-wide.

How to save more money when you book hotels on Expedia?

You can go Expedia through Extrabux, then you can get up to 6% super cashback .

When should you book hotels? 

The earlier the better. Rates almost always go up (not down) and I rarely save money by waiting. Advanced booking is even more important for kid-friendly hotels and boutique hotels.

What days have the best hotel rates? 

Generally big cities (that are popular with business travelers) will have cheaper rates on the weekend. Resorts and holiday destinations (that are popular with tourists) will have better prices on weekdays. Airport hotels will have great rates on weekends.

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