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

What is Priceline?

Priceline is a discount travel booking site. People use it to book discounted hotels, flights, and cars, including opaque deals. 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 Priceline 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 Priceline legit?

Yes, Priceline is a real, long-running booking site owned by Booking Holdings, and millions of people book hotels, flights, rental cars, and packages through it. Being legit is not the same as being the best deal, though. Priceline marks up prices, adds fees at checkout, and sells sponsored placement to properties that pay to rank higher, and its Trustpilot score sits around 2.8, with recurring complaints about checkout fees and refunds that are hard to get. 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 goes wrong.

Is Priceline free to use?

Priceline is free to browse and book on, the same as Pilot, but free to use is not the same as cheap to book. Priceline's prices include a markup and can grow with fees added at checkout, and its top results aren't always the best deal because properties can pay for placement. Pilot is also free to use, with the whole trip-planning suite included, and it lets you book at private 'book early' rates straight from hotels, with results ranked for you rather than for whoever pays the most. So with Pilot you get the planner free and the booking without sponsored results.

How does Priceline work?

Priceline is a discount travel booking site: you search for a hotel, flight, rental car, or package, and book it through Priceline, which acts as the middleman between you and the property. It's known for Express Deals and Name Your Own Price, where you commit to a discounted rate before you see the exact hotel or its name. Pilot works differently: it lets you book hotels directly, at private rates straight from hotels, so you always see exactly what you're booking, and it helps you plan the whole trip around the stay with a flexible itinerary, a map, notes, and your group in one place. The honest difference is that Priceline also bundles flights and rental cars, which Pilot doesn't book, while Pilot lets you book the hotel directly and helps you plan the rest of the trip.

How does Priceline make money?

Priceline earns a markup or commission on every booking, adds fees at checkout, and sells sponsored placement to properties that want to rank higher, which is why the top result isn't always the best deal for you. It also runs Express Deals and Name Your Own Price, where the gap between the discounted rate you pay and the rate Priceline secures is part of the margin. Pilot earns from hotels when you book directly and doesn't sell placement, so results are ranked for you, not for whoever pays the most, and the whole planner stays free.

Can you book hotels on Priceline?

Yes, hotels are one of Priceline's main products, alongside flights, rental cars, and bundled packages. Pilot lets you book hotels too, over 3,000,000 of them, right in the app, but at private rates straight from hotels rather than a marked-up public price, pushed at checkout, and the booking lives with the rest of your trip. The difference is that Priceline is built mainly to sell you a room (or a bundle), while Pilot lets you book the room and helps you plan the whole trip around it. The honest caveat: if you specifically want flights or a rental car in the same booking, Priceline does that and Pilot does not.

Is Priceline worth it?

It depends on what you want. If you only need a cheap room and you're willing to bid blind on Express Deals or Name Your Own Price, Priceline can surface a low rate, as long as you accept the markup, the fees that can appear at checkout, and a Trustpilot score around 2.8. If you want to see exactly what you're booking, book at a private rate straight from the hotel with no sponsored results, and plan the whole trip in one place with real support behind you, Pilot is the better fit, and it's free.

Priceline vs Pilot: which should I use?

Use Pilot to plan a trip and book the stay: private rates straight from hotels, results ranked for you instead of for advertisers, real support, and your whole trip, the plans, the group, and the booking, in one place, for free. Use Priceline if you need flights, rental cars, and hotels bundled in one booking, which Pilot doesn't do, and you're comfortable with the markups, the checkout fees, and bidding blind on a discount to get one.