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

What is Wotif?

Wotif is an Australian and New Zealand travel booking site. People use it to book hotels, flights, and packages in Australia and New Zealand. 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 Wotif 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 Wotif legit?

Yes, Wotif is a real travel booking site. It launched in Australia in 2000 and is now part of the Expedia Group, and it books hotels, flights, rental cars, and package deals, with a focus on Australian and New Zealand stays it markets as 'Mates Rates'. The thing to watch is how the company treats customers after you book: Wotif rates around 1.2 on Trustpilot, with recurring complaints about charges added at checkout and refunds that are hard to get back. Pilot is an alternative for the hotel side: it lets you book over 3,000,000 hotels at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, with no sponsored results, and real people on support, and it helps you plan your whole trip around the stay for free.

Is Wotif free to use?

Wotif is free to browse and book on, like most online travel agencies; it earns from the bookings you make, marks up prices, and adds fees at checkout, and it sells sponsored placement so the top result isn't always the best deal for you. Pilot is also free, and stays free because people can book hotels through it, so we earn from hotels rather than charging you to plan. With Pilot you get private 'book early' rates straight from hotels, no sponsored results, plus the whole trip-planning suite at no cost: a flexible itinerary, a map, notes, and real-time group collaboration.

How does Wotif make money?

Wotif earns a commission on every booking and sells sponsored placement to properties that want to rank higher, which is part of why the headline price can be marked up and grow with fees added at checkout. Pilot earns from hotels when you book and doesn't sell placement, so results are ranked for you, not for whoever pays the most, and the planner stays free. You book at a private rate straight from the hotel, pushed at you during checkout.

Can you book hotels on Wotif?

Yes. Booking hotels is Wotif's main purpose, alongside flights, rental cars, and package deals, with a focus on Australian and New Zealand stays. Pilot lets you book hotels too, over 3,000,000 of them, right in the app, but at private rates straight from hotels, the kind usually reserved for travel agents, and the booking lives with the rest of your trip. The differences: Pilot lets you reserve your room instantly with its hotel partners, with a real person confirming each booking with the hotel, and helps you plan the whole trip around the stay. Wotif also books flights and cars, which Pilot does not.

Does Wotif charge fees or mark up prices?

Wotif marks up the prices it shows and is reported to add fees at checkout, like service or booking fees that weren't obvious up front, and it sells sponsored placement to properties that pay to rank higher. 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. Pilot does earn from hotels when you book, which is how the planner stays free, but you see results ranked for you rather than for whoever pays the most.

Is Pilot a good Wotif alternative?

Yes, for the hotel side, with one honest caveat. Pilot lets you book hotels like Wotif does, but at private rates straight from hotels, with no sponsored results, and with real people on support instead of an outsourced center or a bot. On top of booking, Pilot helps you plan your whole trip: a flexible day-by-day itinerary, a map, notes, and real-time collaboration with your group, which Wotif doesn't do. The caveat: Wotif also books flights, rental cars, and package deals from the Expedia Group inventory, and offers flight price and delay alerts, so if you need those in one app it still has a role. For planning a trip and booking the stay, Pilot does more, for free.

Pilot vs Wotif: 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 Wotif if you need flights, rental cars, and package deals from the Expedia Group inventory in the same app, or you specifically want its Australian and New Zealand 'Mates Rates' deals, and you are willing to accept the markups, checkout fees, and a Trustpilot score around 1.2 that tend to come with it.