Pilot vs. Lastminute: feature comparison, ratings, and FAQ

What is Lastminute?

Lastminute is a European last-minute travel booking site. People use it to book last-minute flights, hotels, and packages in Europe. 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 Lastminute 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 Lastminute alternative?

Yes, with one honest caveat. Pilot lets you book hotels like Lastminute 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 every stop, notes and checklists, and real-time collaboration with your group, none of which Lastminute does. The caveat: Lastminute also sells flights, trains, buses, rental cars, and bundled vacation packages, so if you need those booked in one place it still has a role. For planning a trip and booking the stay, Pilot does more, for free.

Is Lastminute legit and safe to book with?

Lastminute (lastminute.com) is a real, long-running travel company founded in 1998 that sells hotels, flights, trains, buses, car rental, and vacation packages, mostly in Europe and Canada. That said, it rates around 4.0 on Trustpilot across roughly 206,000 mixed reviews, with recurring complaints about extra fees added at checkout, support that is hard to reach, and slow refunds, so it is worth reading the terms before you pay. Pilot lets you book hotels at private rates straight from hotels, and real human support you can reach in the in-app chat or by email, and it keeps your booking together with the rest of your trip.

Is Lastminute free to use?

Lastminute is free to browse and book on, the same as most travel sites; it makes its money on the bookings themselves through markups, fees, and commissions rather than a subscription. Pilot is free too, but in a different way: the full trip-planning suite, the itinerary, the map, notes, and group collaboration, is free with no paywall on the basics, and Pilot earns from hotels when you book, so it never has to charge you to plan. Pilot also lets you book your stay at private rates straight from hotels, with no sponsored results.

How does Lastminute make money?

Lastminute earns on the bookings it sells: a markup on the price, service and booking fees added at checkout, commissions from hotels and airlines, add-ons like insurance and pay-later financing, and sponsored placement for properties that pay to rank higher, which is why the top result is not always the best deal for you. Pilot earns from hotels when you book through the app and does not sell placement, so results are ranked for you, not for whoever pays the most, and the planner stays free.

Can you book hotels on Lastminute?

Yes. Lastminute lets you book hotels directly, alongside flights, trains, buses, car rental, and vacation packages. Pilot also books hotels, over 3,000,000 of them, right in the app, but at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, with no sponsored results, and the booking lives with the rest of your trip. The difference is that Pilot also helps you plan the whole trip around the stay, reserves your room instantly with its hotel partners rather than through a middleman, while Lastminute is built mainly to sell you a booking or a package.

Does Lastminute add extra fees at checkout?

Lastminute is widely reported to add service fees, booking fees, and optional add-ons on the way to payment, and the headline price can climb before you pay, which shows up in its 4.0 Trustpilot reviews. 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 something needs sorting.

Pilot vs Lastminute: 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 Lastminute if you need flights, trains, buses, rental cars, or a bundled vacation package booked in one place, and you are willing to accept the markups, fees, and 4.0 Trustpilot support that tend to come with it.