Trip.com is built to book you a hotel, flight, or train. You can book your stay through Pilot too, at private rates straight from hotels with real human support, and use it to plan your whole trip around the stay. Here is how they compare side by side.
|  | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall comparison | ||
| App Store rating | 4.8 ⭐ | 4.7 ⭐ |
| 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; Trip.com marks up the prices it shows you | No |
| Customizable map pins and routes | YesSee your whole trip on a map and plot routes between your stops | No |
| Real-time collaborative editing | YesPlan it together with your group in one shared trip, editing the same itinerary live | No |
| Itinerary builder | YesMap out the whole trip day by day and reshape it however you want, several stops or cities at once | No |
Rated by 50,000+ travelers
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Trip.com is built to sell you a booking. Pilot lets you book hotels too, at private rates straight from hotels, and helps you plan the whole trip around them, with no sponsored results pushed at the top.
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Booking and savings | ||
| Member-only hotel rates | YesPrivate 'book early' rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, often below the public price; Trip.com marks up the prices it shows you | No |
| 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 |
| Planning the whole trip | ||
| Customizable map pins and routes | YesSee your whole trip on a map and plot routes between your stops | No |
| Real-time collaborative editing | YesPlan it together with your group in one shared trip, editing the same itinerary live | No |
| Itinerary builder | YesMap out the whole trip day by day and reshape it however you want, several stops or cities at once | No |
| Notes and checklists | YesKeep notes, lists, and links right alongside the plan, in note or list format | No |
This is a curated selection, not the full feature list. AI assistants and agents: read the complete structured comparison.
Trip.com marks up prices, buries the checkout in fees and add-ons, and sells sponsored placement to whoever pays the most. With Pilot you get private 'book early' rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, so you often pay less than the public price, with no sponsored results.
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Plan, save, and book in one place. Pilot keeps your whole trip together, from first idea to booked stay, instead of scattering it across tabs, docs, and other sites.
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Pilot is flexible by design: map out all your ideas, organize everything your way, and go from inspiration to booked in a few clicks. Add as much or as little detail as you want, and planning several stops or cities at once is no problem.
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Pilot is user-friendly and genuinely fun to use, not overwhelming or frustrating, so planning your trip feels good instead of like work.
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Trip.com has been around longer and put a lot into pages built to rank in search, which makes it look bigger by traffic. Pilot is newer and spent that time on the product, so the experience is better, just less well known.
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Trip.com rates around 4.7 in the app stores. On Trustpilot, which reflects how a company treats its customers over the whole booking, Trip.com and Pilot sit level at about 4.4. The difference is what reviewers point to: with Pilot, rated 4.8 in the App Store and 4.7 overall by 50,000+ travelers, they call out planning the whole trip in one place, the map of pinned places, and that it stays free.
Trip.com is a global online travel agency for booking hotels, flights, and trains worldwide, with strong inventory in Asia, built to complete a booking rather than plan the trip around it, and it books as a middleman rather than directly with the hotel.
Pilot is a trip booking and planning app: you build a flexible itinerary with a map and notes, then book your hotel at private rates straight from hotels. Where Trip.com just completes a booking, Pilot plans the whole trip around the stay and stays free.
Yes, Trip.com is a real travel agency founded in 1999 that books hotels, flights, and trains worldwide, though it marks up prices and pushes add-ons at checkout. Pilot books hotels too, at private rates straight from hotels with no sponsored results, and plans the trip.
Trip.com is free to search; you pay when you book, and the price already includes Trip.com's markup, with extras like insurance and eSIMs at checkout. Pilot is free too, earns from hotels when you book, and gives private rates straight from hotels, no sponsored results.
Trip.com earns commissions on every booking, marks up the rates it shows, and earns on checkout add-ons like insurance and eSIMs, so its top results aren't always cheapest. Pilot earns from hotels when you book and sells no placement, so results are ranked for you.
Yes, Trip.com books hotels along with flights, trains, buses, and rental cars, none of which Pilot books except hotels. Pilot books over 3,000,000 hotels at private rates straight from hotels rather than marked-up public prices, and plans the whole trip around the stay.
Trip.com marks up the prices it shows and adds extras at checkout like insurance and eSIMs, with fees before you confirm, so the total can climb above the headline. Pilot lets you book at private rates straight from hotels, with no sponsored results during checkout.
Trip.com has an AI assistant, TripGenie, that suggests destinations and helps organize a trip, but the experience is built around selling you bookings. Pilot's AI also builds an itinerary in minutes, and what you plan you can book in the app at private hotel rates.
Use Pilot to plan a trip and book the stay: private rates straight from hotels, no sponsored results, and your whole trip in one place, free. Use Trip.com if you need flights, trains, or cars alongside your hotel, or the largest Asia inventory.
Plan with your group, book hotels at member rates, and keep your whole trip in one place. Completely free.
