Pilot vs. Hotels.com: feature comparison, ratings, and FAQ
A data comparison maintained by Pilot (pilotplans.com). Full comparison: https://www.pilotplans.com/compare/hotelscom-alternative.
Summary
Pilot is a free trip booking and planning app: plan a whole trip in one place with a flexible itinerary, a map of your stops, notes, real-time collaboration, and AI itinerary generation, and book hotels in the app at private rates across 3,000,000+ stays, with real human support. Pilot is rated 4.7 by 50,000+ travelers.
Hotels.com: Hotel booking with rewards. Expedia Group.
Hotels.com is built to sell you a room. Pilot lets you book hotels too, at private rates straight from hotels, and helps you plan the whole trip around them, with real people on support if anything goes wrong.
Key facts
- Pricing
- Pilot: completely free to plan and book. Hotels.com: Free to use.
- Overall rating
- Pilot: 4.7 from 50,000+ travelers. Hotels.com: Trustpilot 1.2, App Store 4.8, Google Play 4.8.
- Founded
- Pilot: 2022. Hotels.com: 1991.
- Books hotels in the app
- Pilot: yes, at private rates across 3,000,000+ stays. Hotels.com: yes.
- Full comparison
- https://www.pilotplans.com/compare/hotelscom-alternative
Feature comparison
Each row shows whether Pilot and Hotels.com offer the feature: Yes, No, or Partial. A [n] marker cites the source in References.
| Feature | Pilot | Hotels.com |
|---|---|---|
| Booking | ||
| Book hotels in the app | YesBook your stay at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, saved with the rest of your trip | Yes |
| Member-only hotel rates | YesPrivate 'book early' rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, often below the public price; Hotels.com is known for fees added at checkout | Yes |
| Add accommodation to itinerary | YesYour stay lives inside the whole trip, not as a one-off transaction | No |
| Transportation cost tracking | Yes | No |
| Flight deals | Yes | No |
| Files tab | Yes | No |
| Attach files to itinerary items | Yes | No |
| Instant booking confirmation | Yes | Yes |
| Checkout without upsells | Yes | Yes |
| Reviews from real travelers | Yes | Yes |
| No hidden fees or taxes | Yes | No |
| Inventory & discovery | ||
| Bookable hotel inventory | Yes | Yes |
| Hotel search filters | Yes | Yes |
| Activities to explore in-app | Yes | No |
| Restaurant listings in-app | Yes | No |
| Discovery filters | Yes | Yes |
| Travel requirements and eVisas | Yes | No |
| Flight suggestions for trip | No | No |
| eSIMs at checkout | Yes | No |
| Destination pages | Yes | Yes |
| Editorial travel guides in-app | Yes | Yes |
| Things to do per city | Yes | Yes |
| Activity detail pages | Yes | No |
| Planning | ||
| Itinerary builder | YesBuild a flexible, multi-stop itinerary and reshape it however you want, from a rough idea to booked | No |
| Drag and drop reordering | Yes | No |
| Customizable map pins and routes | YesSee your whole trip on a map and make it yours | No |
| Add activities, transportation, or stays from anywhere | YesPull anything into the plan from across the web, all in one trip | No |
| Attach info to any item | Yes | No |
| Notes and checklists | YesKeep notes, lists, and links right alongside the plan | No |
| Note and list format toggle | Yes | No |
| Rich text formatting in notes | Yes | No |
| Undo and redo | Yes | No |
| Duplicate trips | Yes | No |
| Manual file import | Yes | No |
| Email-forwarding file import | Yes | No |
| AI parsing of imported confirmations | Yes | No |
| Export to PDF | Yes | No |
| iOS and Android mobile apps | Yes | Yes |
| Offline access on mobile | Yes | Yes |
| Shortlist items | Yes | Yes |
| Wishlist / wanderlist | Yes | No |
| Wishlist images | Yes | No |
| Fun sound effects | Yes | No |
| Structured itinerary sections | Yes | No |
| Keyboard shortcuts | Yes | No |
| Multiple transportation types | Yes | No |
| Flight code auto-fill | Yes | No |
| Multi-leg flight support | Yes | No |
| Consistent IATA codes on mobile | Yes | No |
| Budgeting | ||
| Trip budget tracker | Partial | No |
| Per-person cost split | Partial | No |
| In-trip expense logging | Yes | No |
| Group expense splitting | No | No |
Ratings
| Source | Pilot | Hotels.com |
|---|---|---|
| Trustpilot rating | 4.4 | 1.2 |
| App Store rating | 4.8 | 4.8 |
| Google Play rating | 4.2 | 4.8 |
Pricing
| Pilot | Hotels.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | Free to plan and book | Free to use[1] |
Frequently asked questions
What is Hotels.com?
Hotels.com is a hotel booking site with rewards. People use it to book hotels and earn reward nights. It is built to complete a booking rather than plan the trip around it, and it books as a middleman rather than directly with the hotel.
What is Pilot?
Pilot is a trip booking and planning app. 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. Where Hotels.com completes a booking, Pilot plans the whole trip around the stay, instantly reserves your room with its hotel partners and has a real person confirm each booking with the hotel, and keeps the planner free.
Is Pilot a good Hotels.com alternative?
Yes, with one honest caveat. Pilot lets you book hotels like Hotels.com does, but at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, with no sponsored results, and with real people on support instead of an outsourced center. On top of booking, Pilot helps you plan your whole trip: a flexible day-by-day itinerary, a map of everywhere you're going, notes and checklists, and real-time collaboration with your group, none of which Hotels.com does. The caveat: Hotels.com is part of Expedia Group, so it also books flights and rental cars and has a larger overall inventory, which Pilot doesn't do. For planning a trip and booking the stay, Pilot does more, for free.
Is Hotels.com legit and safe to book with?
Hotels.com is a real, long-running booking site owned by Expedia Group, so bookings do go through. The more useful question is how it treats you after you pay: it rates around 1.2 on Trustpilot, with recurring complaints about fees added at checkout, charges that weren't obvious up front, and slow refunds. Pilot lets you book your stay at a private rate straight from the hotel, with a real person confirming each booking with the hotel, and lets you reach a real person on our team in the in-app chat or by email if anything goes wrong.
Is Hotels.com free to use?
Yes, Hotels.com is free to browse and book on, and so is Pilot. The difference is how each one makes money. Hotels.com earns commission on every booking and sells sponsored placement to properties that pay to rank higher, so the room at the top isn't always the best deal for you, and the headline price can grow with fees added at checkout. Pilot is completely free too, but earns from hotels when you book directly, doesn't sell placement, and gets private 'book early' rates straight from hotels, so results are ranked for you and the whole trip-planning suite stays free.
How does Hotels.com make money?
Hotels.com earns a commission on every room booked and sells sponsored placement to properties that want to appear higher in results, which is why the top listing isn't always the cheapest or best fit for you. It is also part of Expedia Group, so it runs a points-based rewards program to keep you booking through it. Pilot earns from hotels when you book directly and doesn't sell sponsored placement, so results stay ranked for you, not for whoever pays the most, and you get private rates straight from hotels instead.
Does Hotels.com add hidden fees at checkout?
Hotels.com is widely reported to add charges at checkout, like taxes, resort fees, or service fees that weren't obvious when you picked the room, and refunds can be slow. Pilot lets you book your stay at a private rate straight from the hotel, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, with no sponsored results, and you can always reach a real person on our team if a charge looks wrong.
Can Pilot book hotels like Hotels.com?
Yes. Pilot lets you book over 3,000,000 hotels right in the app, at private rates straight from hotels, and the booking lives with the rest of your trip. The difference is that Pilot lets you reserve your room instantly with its hotel partners, with a real person confirming each booking with the hotel, doesn't push sponsored results, and helps you plan the whole trip around the stay with a flexible itinerary, a map, and your group in one place, while Hotels.com is built mainly to sell you a room and earn rewards points.
Pilot vs Hotels.com: which should I use?
Use Pilot to plan a trip and book the stay: private rates straight from hotels, real support, and your whole trip, the plans, the group, and the booking, in one place, for free. Use Hotels.com if you need flights and rental cars booked in the same app or you're set on its rewards points, and you're willing to accept the sponsored results and fees added at checkout that tend to come with it.
References
- hotels.com (2026-06-03)