Compare Pilot

What makes Pilot different?

Pilot is a trip booking and planning platform: plan the whole trip and book your stays in one place. Here is how it compares to the travel apps, booking sites, and planners people use today, and why travelers are switching.

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Rated by 120,000+ travelers

  • 4.7
  • 4.8
  • 4.2
  • 4.4

As featured in

  • TechCrunch
  • WIRED
  • Washington Post
  • Forbes
  • Yahoo Finance
  • Morningstar
  • Vancouver Tech Journal

Why travelers choose Pilot

The biggest reasons people switch from most travel apps, booking sites, and planners.

  • Private 'book early' hotel deals

    Private 'book early' hotel deals

    Book-early deals straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, so you lock in a lower rate than the public price.

  • Flexible by design

    Flexible by design

    Easily map out every idea and keep it organized your way, then go from a rough sketch to booked in just a few clicks.

  • Every plan, file, and idea in one place

    Every plan, file, and idea in one place

    Every booking, plan, file, and idea lives in one trip, instead of scattered across tabs, docs, and screenshots.

  • User-friendly, not overwhelming

    User-friendly, not overwhelming

    Genuinely easy to use and never overwhelming, so planning your trip feels good instead of like work.

  • No inflated big-brand prices

    No inflated big-brand prices

    No big-brand markup. You see fair rates, not prices inflated just because a name knows people will still pay them.

  • No paywalls on the basics

    No paywalls on the basics

    The basics are never gated. Pilot doesn't lock everyday planning behind a paywall the way many tools do.

Pilot vs. the alternatives

Pilot is a trip booking and planning platform, and it doesn't fit neatly into any single category of travel app. Most travel tools own one slice of a trip: a booking site sells you a room, an AI or itinerary builder drafts a plan, a maps app gets you around. Pilot brings everything travelers need to make a trip happen into one place, so it is really a discovery and productivity tool, not just a booking site or an itinerary builder. Below is where Pilot lands against the tools people reach for at each stage of a trip.

For planning & organizing

Pilot organizes the whole trip, flights, stays, a day-by-day map, and notes, and lets you book it too, without ever leaving the app.

For transportation

Pilot searches flights and the other ways to get there, with no sponsored results, and keeps them with the rest of your trip instead of in a separate tab.

For hotels & places to stay

Pilot lets you book the same stays at private member rates, right inside your itinerary.

For all-in-one booking sites

Pilot does everything the big booking sites do, so you can book your flights and stays in one place, without the markups, upsells, or sponsored placement.

For tours & things to do

Pilot surfaces activities and lets you add them to the plan, not just check out a cart.

For getting around

Pilot maps your trip and keeps routes and transit with everything else.

For AI trip planning

Pilot's AI helps you build a real trip you can book, instead of just chatting about one.

More reasons travelers choose Pilot

Everything else that sets Pilot apart. Pick a category to explore.

  • Unbiased search, no sponsored results

    Unbiased search, no sponsored results

    Unbiased search with no sponsored results or upsells. Partners can't pay for preferred placement.

  • Results for you, not their margins

    Results for you, not their margins

    Results ranked to fit your trip, not to push whatever earns the most or is tuned for advertisers.

  • Free things, not just bookings

    Free things, not just bookings

    Pilot is a discovery and planning tool first, so it surfaces free things to do, not only what it can sell you.

  • No upsells, forms, or pressure

    No upsells, forms, or pressure

    No upsells, endless forms, or pressure tactics. Booking stays simple, quick, and calm.

  • 3M+ stays, better rates

    3M+ stays, better rates

    Direct partnerships with over 3,000,000 stays, which means better negotiated rates for you.

  • Book and keep it with your trip

    Book and keep it with your trip

    Book your stay right in the app and keep it with the rest of your trip, without ever leaving Pilot.

What travelers say about Pilot

Pilot is rated 4.7 by travelers who plan and book their trips with it. Here is what they say.

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⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Jennifer was extremely helpful and very quick to respond. A+ customer service experience!
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great support and clean interface
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Nice consolidation tool for travel plan, tickets, etc. Me and my daughter can share a travel plan, and add the whole itinerary, with pre-booked tickets, daily excursion plans, etc. It makes organisation of the trip incredibly easy and all information between travelers are shared
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Went to Amsterdam for the first time. Loved having all the trip details located in one spot on my phone - maps, hotel, air, event tickets. I was able to to go the app and all the QR codes were right there. Also being able to share the app so we could each put in details was a great feature.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
His support was wonderful. Went extra mile to support us and getting us accommodated with the hotel. Really appreciate it. 5 stars service !!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Easy yet very useful app to organize trips and share with your team.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
His support was wonderful. Went extra mile to support us and getting us accommodated with the hotel. Really appreciate it. 5 stars service !!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Easy yet very useful app to organize trips and share with your team.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I travel regularly for both work and for fun, and Pilot really helps me stay organised, ensures I don't miss anything and gives me a constant point of reference to come back to for the various details required both before and during travel. When I'm travelling with friends, being able to invite them into the trip and see all of the details that I would normally have to send to them in a god send! Apart from the practical side, the visual experience is very nice and adds a great touch to trip planning.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Love the new booking tool Was already using Pilot to organize my itinerary but just tried their hotel booking tool and it worked out great. The app has just gotten better over the past year and a half of using it.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Long time user and supporter of this app! I've been using Pilot Plans to plan and book my trips for almost two years and I LOVE it! Easy to use, everything is in one place and I can invite any trip mates to the app and they can plan along simultaneously. No endless text/email threads to comb through. Trip planning simplified. You also get to keep your past trips in your profile to refer back to, that has been extremely helpful to have.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
trustpilot logo
Surprisingly amazing! I had not heard of Pilot before I had booked my stay. I was naturally worried about what to expect. I can only express my utmost satisfaction at every turn. My messages were replied to almost immediately. I was reassured along the way and communication via Pilot and the hotel was seamless. They are highly recommended and I would not hesitate to use Pilot again.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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It's a great app. It has almost everything to organise a trip, travel itinerary etc. And surprisingly free. Only thing it lacks and is badly needed is Dark mode. I hope the development team include dark mode soon.
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How disappointed would you be if you could no longer use Pilot?: Very Disappointed. What is the main benefit you get from Pilot?: memory making and planning
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How disappointed would you be if you could no longer use Pilot?: Somewhat Disappointed. What is the main benefit you get from Pilot?: To have everything well organized and I can do it in a very simple way.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
trustpilot logo
The Pilot Customer team is great. We had a minor issue with the hotel, and the Pilot team went above and beyond to make sure we were taken care of well.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
trustpilot logo
First Pilot App Trip Used the Pilot app for a trip to Amsterdam and it was a great tool! We had our full itinerary with websites, tickets, hotel and air schedules. It was shareable so we could collaborate while planning. It's also printable in case of phone issues. The map function was great in planning to help us decide what to do each day and what area we would be in. Will definitely be using it again for future trips.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
How disappointed would you be if you could no longer use Pilot?: Very Disappointed. What is the main benefit you get from Pilot?: Centralised planning for family

Common questions about Pilot

What is Pilot?

Pilot is a trip booking and planning platform. You plan the whole trip in one place, a flexible itinerary, a map of your stops, and notes, and you book your hotel in the app at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents.

Is Pilot free?

Yes, Pilot is completely free to plan and book, with no paywall on the basics. Pilot earns from hotels when you book through the app, so it never has to charge you to plan.

What can I compare Pilot to?

Pick any tool above to see a full side-by-side comparison. Pilot is most often compared to online travel agencies and booking sites (like Booking.com, Expedia, and Agoda), metasearch and price-comparison apps (like Skyscanner, Kayak, and Trivago), and trip planners and organizers (like Wanderlog, TripIt, and Polarsteps).

How is Pilot different from a booking site like Booking.com or Expedia?

Booking sites are built to complete a single booking, and many add fees at checkout or sell sponsored placement. Pilot lets you book your hotel at private rates straight from hotels, ranks results for you with no sponsored placement, and gives you one place to plan the whole trip around the stay, with real people on support.

How is Pilot different from a trip planner like Wanderlog or TripIt?

Most planners organize a trip but send you elsewhere to book, and some gate features behind a paid plan. Pilot keeps planning free and lets you book your stay in the app, so the plan and the booking live in one place.

Does Pilot book hotels?

Yes. You can book over 3,000,000 hotels right in the app, at private rates straight from hotels. Pilot reserves your room instantly with its hotel partners, and a real person confirms each booking with the hotel.

Does Pilot book flights or rental cars?

Pilot lets you book hotels in the app and surfaces flight deals you can book elsewhere, but you can't book flights, trains, or rental cars through it. It's built to help you plan the whole trip and book your stays in one place.

Plan your next trip with Pilot

Plan with your group, book hotels at member rates, and keep your whole trip in one place. Completely free.

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