Best Hotel Booking Sites 2024

There are a wide range of hotel-booking platforms to choose from: Online Travel Agencies (OTA), Aggregators, Direct Bookings and Metasearch Engines etc. With so many hotel sites to pick from, how do you decide? Read on to decide for yourself the sites that are most likely to get you the hotel stay you want for yourself and your family.

The holidays are coming, and the world is slowly healing from travel restrictions. Some of us are yearning for the chance to travel again. Yet when you search “best hotels in [insert destination here]”, you are met with a bombardment of information.

As you click through every website and platform, you are suddenly unable to move to the next step. How do you compare? Which platform is the best for what? And which is the safest?

In this article, we want to compare nine well-known hotel booking sites to look at the pros and cons of each site and provide you with the knowledge for you to make the best decision in booking the best hotel deals for you!

Types of Hotel Platforms

There are three types of online hotel platforms: Online Travel Agency (OTA); Aggregators/Metasearch Engines; and Direct Hotel Booking Sites, aka websites from the hotel chain themselves. In this article, we will be focusing on two categories of hotel booking platforms.

Online Travel Agencies are websites that provide a platform for all things travels related. They can range from flight booking to hotel booking to even booking tickets for tourist attractions. There are usually overlaps in what kind of services they offer, and some OTA platforms provide bundles (Agoda has flight & hotel bundles; KKday has hotel & attraction packages etc.)

The pros about OTAs, in general, are that they are the direct middlemen between you and your hotel chain. This means that transactions are much easier to make as all you have to do is use their platform to checkout instead of redirecting. They also tend to offer membership perks that allow you to save up on accommodation costs via deals, discount codes, reward nights, and more.

The cons of OTAs, in general, are that they only provide one price on that platform, and it is usually the price they set, which can be a hassle if your priority is to look for the best price in the market for that specific room. They may also not have the hotels or even rooms available on their platform, which can be deceiving if you could have gotten that dream room you wanted if you searched on another site.

Online Travel Agencies are websites that provide a platform for all things travels related. They can range from flight booking to hotel booking to even booking tickets for tourist attractions. There are usually overlaps in what kind of services they offer, and some OTA platforms provide bundles (Agoda has flight & hotel bundles; KKday has hotel & attraction packages etc.)

The pros about OTAs, in general, are that they are the direct middlemen between you and your hotel chain. This means that transactions are much easier to make as all you have to do is use their platform to checkout instead of redirecting. They also tend to offer membership perks that allow you to save up on accommodation costs via deals, discount codes, reward nights, and more.

The cons of OTAs, in general, are that they only provide one price on that platform, and it is usually the price they set, which can be a hassle if your priority is to look for the best price in the market for that specific room. They may also not have the hotels or even rooms available on their platform, which can be deceiving if you could have gotten that dream room you wanted if you searched on another site.

Aggregators, or metasearch engines, are websites that compare hotel deals from different OTAs and direct booking websites to show you what is the lowest price or the best deal. What they do have in common with OTAs is the details they provide about the hotel information. Examples of aggregators are Trivago, Skyscanner, TripAdvisor, Kayak, HotelsCombined, and Google.

The pros of aggregators, in general, are that they are not restricted to the pricing of one platform, making it easier for you to compare prices between different places. They also do not restrict themselves to OTAs as they can offer rooms that are only available via direct booking from the hotel website.

The cons of aggregators are that they will just redirect you to another website. Making the transaction process even longer (Except for HotelsCombined). Since their business model is different, they also do not have any membership/rewards perks and incentives like OTAs or direct booking from hotels.

Since there is not much difference between aggregators other than the amount of information given for a hotel, or which OTA/hotel websites they are pulling in to get the best price, we will not be comparing them in the article.

Aggregators, or metasearch engines, are websites that compare hotel deals from different OTAs and direct booking websites to show you what is the lowest price or the best deal. What they do have in common with OTAs is the details they provide about the hotel information. Examples of aggregators are Trivago, Skyscanner, TripAdvisor, Kayak, HotelsCombined, and Google.

The pros of aggregators, in general, are that they are not restricted to the pricing of one platform, making it easier for you to compare prices between different places. They also do not restrict themselves to OTAs as they can offer rooms that are only available via direct booking from the hotel website.

The cons of aggregators are that they will just redirect you to another website. Making the transaction process even longer (Except for HotelsCombined). Since their business model is different, they also do not have any membership/rewards perks and incentives like OTAs or direct booking from hotels.

Since there is not much difference between aggregators other than the amount of information given for a hotel, or which OTA/hotel websites they are pulling in to get the best price, we will not be comparing them in the article.

Price Comparison Between Different Hotel Booking Platforms & Booking Directly From The Hotel

We will use Hotel G as a control variable to show the different cost structures between each OTA vs the price via direct booking. The room we will be booking will be the “Good Queen Room” from Hotel G for two people over the weekend (Check-in: 25 June Sat; Check-out: 26 June, Sunday). No breakfast included. Do note that prices will vary from hotel to hotel when it comes to different platforms, and that different platforms can have a lower price than others compared to what is shown here.

Here is the cost comparison for each hotel site via OTA booking vs Direct from Hotel.

Comaparison Table
Price Comparison between different OTAs

Best Hotel Booking Platforms in Singapore 2022

Agoda

Agoda
Agoda
Best Platform for Solo Travellers and Flight Bundle Deals
Promotions:

Features

  • 12% on Single Travellers
  • Flights+ Hotel Bundles
  • Free Cancellation

Agoda's homepage features a minimalistic search design that allows you to search according to your travel requirements. If you are a solo traveller looking for your own, Agoda will enable you to save up to 12% per booking.

Agoda’s bundle deals make Agoda an attractive website if you want to save more on big-ticket expenses like air travel and accommodation, freeing up your expenditure to enjoy your destinations more. Agoda also has one of the best price-matching guarantees, as they will match the price of the same room and condition if you find a cheaper rate on another website.

Available filter options include a secret deal listing to view highly discounted hotels and insider deals. You can enjoy hidden deals that do not appear on the search engine unless logged in. Meaning if any aggregate website shows Agoda as the best value for money for that hotel, you best believe they have more discounts up their sleeves for members. Agoda provides tiered membership (AgodaVIP) packages the more you book for travel services using their platform. Each membership provides you with up to 25% off VIP deals for the highest tier.

Many rooms available offer the flexibility to pay now or later, with a free cancellation policy. You can also search for hotels that do not require a credit card to book. Essential features such as Cleanliness, Location, Value for Money, Facilities and Service are also given ratings by users.

Agoda
Agoda
Best for Solo Travellers and Flight Bundle Deals
Promotions:

Features

  • 12% on Single Travellers
  • Flights+ Hotel Bundles
  • Free Cancellation

Agoda's homepage features a minimalistic search design that allows you to search according to your travel requirements. If you are a solo traveller looking for your own, Agoda will enable you to save up to 12% per booking.

Agoda’s bundle deals make Agoda an attractive website if you want to save more on big-ticket expenses like air travel and accommodation, freeing up your expenditure to enjoy your destinations more. Agoda also has one of the best price-matching guarantees, as they will match the price of the same room and condition if you find a cheaper rate on another website.

Available filter options include a secret deal listing to view highly discounted hotels and insider deals. You can enjoy hidden deals that do not appear on the search engine unless logged in. Meaning if any aggregate website shows Agoda as the best value for money for that hotel, you best believe they have more discounts up their sleeves for members. Agoda provides tiered membership (AgodaVIP) packages the more you book for travel services using their platform. Each membership provides you with up to 25% off VIP deals for the highest tier.

Many rooms available offer the flexibility to pay now or later, with a free cancellation policy. You can also search for hotels that do not require a credit card to book. Essential features such as Cleanliness, Location, Value for Money, Facilities and Service are also given ratings by users.

AccorPlus

AccorPlus
AccorPlus
Best Platform for Big Hotel Chain Promotions
Promotions:

Features

  • Cheapest rates for big hotel chains
  • Attractive membership perks (Up to 50% off hot deals)
  • Additional dining and drinking discount with memberships

If you are the type of person who likes to stay in well-known hotel chains, such as ibis, Hilton, Carlton, Conrad, Westin, and so much more, AccorPlus provides one of the best promotional prices if you sign up as a member for free.

AccorPLus provides a 10% discount on hotel rates for all their members on top of their already lower prices compared to other hotels; hot deals can range from up to 50% off. A night’s stay at Fairmont Hotel Singapore (since they do not have hotel G) during the weekend would cost S$5526 on all other platforms but S$447.20 on AccorPlus without a membership discount.

You can also enjoy up to 50% off dining and 15% off drinks when you book a hotel at over 1,400 restaurants worldwide, which provides an excellent package for dining and staying!

If you are planning to stay in a non-chain hotel or a smaller chain that is not as well known usually due to cheaper hotel rates or a different experience, AccorPlus might not be the best platform to use.

AccorPlus
AccorPlus
Best Platform for Big Hotel Chain Promotions
Promotions:

Features

  • Cheapest rates for big hotel chains
  • Attractive membership perks (Up to 50% off hot deals)
  • Additional dining and drinking discount with memberships

If you are the type of person who likes to stay in well-known hotel chains, such as ibis, Hilton, Carlton, Conrad, Westin, and so much more, AccorPlus provides one of the best promotional prices if you sign up as a member for free.

AccorPlus provides a 10% discount on hotel rates for all their members on top of their already lower prices compared to other hotels; hot deals can range from up to 50% off. A night’s stay at Fairmont Hotel Singapore (since they do not have hotel G) during the weekend would cost S$5526 on all other platforms but S$447.20 on AccorPlus without a membership discount.

You can also enjoy up to 50% off dining and 15% off drinks when you book a hotel at over 1,400 restaurants worldwide, which provides an excellent package for dining and staying!

If you are planning to stay in a non-chain hotel or a smaller chain that is not as well known usually due to cheaper hotel rates or a different experience, AccorPlus might not be the best platform to use.

Trip.com

Best Platform for The Widest Hotel Variety in ASEAN & APAC
Promotions:

Features

  • Huge variety of Hotels in Asia
  • Competitive Pricing for Asian (Especially Chinese) Hotels
  • Great features for mobile app (Price Alert & Flight Details)

Trip.com is owned by a Chinese company named cTrip, and it has the most users in China. As Chinese middle-class tourism is rapidly growing, trip.com has to accommodate their needs by providing a huge variety of accommodation, with over 1,200,000 hotels in more than 200 countries. This target audience of Chinese tourists frequently visits the most, and they tend to be highly competitive in pricing rates for accommodations in Asia, especially China.

Trip.com has a price alert feature that will notify you via email or app if the hotel rate has dropped below the price you set for the alert. For example, if hotel A is current at $150, and you set the price alert at $135, trip.com will notify you will the price goes below $135. No other OTA platform does this.

Their app also provides exclusive deals of up to 50% off, a travel reminder, and automatic flight alerts.

Best Platform for The Widest Hotel Variety in ASEAN & APAC
Promotions:

Features

  • Huge variety of Hotels in Asia
  • Competitive Pricing for Asian (Especially Chinese) Hotels
  • Great features for mobile app (Price Alert & Flight Details)

Trip.com is owned by a Chinese company named cTrip, and it has the most users in China. As Chinese middle-class tourism is rapidly growing, trip.com has to accommodate their needs by providing a huge variety of accommodation, with over 1,200,000 hotels in more than 200 countries. This target audience of Chinese tourists frequently visits the most, and they tend to be highly competitive in pricing rates for accommodations in Asia, especially China.

Trip.com has a price alert feature that will notify you via email or app if the hotel rate has dropped below the price you set for the alert. For example, if hotel A is current at $150, and you set the price alert at $135, trip.com will notify you will the price goes below $135. No other OTA platform does this.

Their app also provides exclusive deals of up to 50% off, a travel reminder, and automatic flight alerts.

Expedia Group (Expedia & hotels.com)

Expedia Group
Expedia Group
Best Platform for Customised Trips & Usability
Promotions:

Features

  • Intuitive and smooth User Experience
  • Flights/Car + Hotel Bundles (For Expedia)
  • Reward Nights (For hotels.com)

Both hotels.com and Expedia are under the Expedia Group. They offer the most intuitive platform to customise your booking. While most platforms tend to separate non-refundable options and breakfast options for the same room type, Expedia and Hotels.com put them together. Both platforms provide comprehensive details about the hotel and room amenities.

Expedia provides a free rewards program to earn and redeem points as you book and travel. Hotels.com, on the other hand, Hotels.com provides a more specialised incentive, such as earning one reward night for every ten nights you stay, as well as providing a 10% when you register to the rewards programme for free or download their app and log in.

Expedia Group
Expedia Group
Best Platform for Customised Trips & Usability
Promotions:

Features

  • Intuitive and smooth User Experience
  • Flights/Car + Hotel Bundles (For Expedia)
  • Reward Nights (For hotels.com)

Both hotels.com and Expedia are under the Expedia Group. They offer the most intuitive platform to customise your booking. While most platforms tend to separate non-refundable options and breakfast options for the same room type, Expedia and Hotels.com put them together. Both platforms provide comprehensive details about the hotel and room amenities.

Expedia provides a free rewards program to earn and redeem points as you book and travel. Hotels.com, on the other hand, Hotels.com provides a more specialised incentive, such as earning one reward night for every ten nights you stay, as well as providing a 10% when you register to the rewards programme for free or download their app and log in.

Booking.com

Booking.com
Booking.com
Best Platform for The Largest Variety of Hotels Worldwide
Promotions:

Features

  • Huge variety of hotels
  • Free cancellation
  • Reliable price matching guarantee
Booking.com is the world’s oldest site to book hotels. Since it has the first movers advantage of having a more established online presence and branding than other platforms, it boasts the largest variety of accommodations, with over 28 million listings in 200+ countries and over 50 million verified guest reviews. Booking.com, like Agoda, also has one of the best reputations in terms of price matching guarantee, as they will refund you the difference if you find a cheaper deal elsewhere.

Booking.com also provides free cancellation that is not common on other platforms, making it suitable for last-minute unforeseen circumstances. They also have the best hotel reviews because they are well known.

Booking.com
Booking.com
Best Platform for The Largest Variety of Hotels Worldwide
Promotions:

Features

  • Huge variety of hotels
  • Free cancellation
  • Reliable price matching guarantee

Booking.com is the world’s oldest site to book hotels. Since it has the first movers advantage of having a more established online presence and branding than other platforms, it boasts the largest variety of accommodations, with over 28 million listings in 200+ countries and over 50 million verified guest reviews. Booking.com, like Agoda, also has one of the best reputations in terms of price matching guarantee, as they will refund you the difference if you find a cheaper deal elsewhere.

Booking.com also provides free cancellation that is not common on other platforms, making it suitable for last-minute unforeseen circumstances. They also have the best hotel reviews because they are well known.

Klook

Best Platform For Staycations and All-In-One Platform for Travel
Promotions:

Features

  • Staycation hotel perks and discounts
  • Competitive rates especially for local hotels
  • Great for travel activities worldwide

Klook is one of the best platforms in terms of everything destination-related. Klook has more travel activities and travel packages than other platforms as it serves as an all-in-one site for all things related to travel. They provide hotels and transportation (flights, trains, car rentals) and travel activities in general, they also provide sales of international SIM cards and Wi-Fi Access Plans.

If you like to pay for experiences and your hotel stay, consider Klook, as they always provide great deals and bundles related to that. Not only that, Klook is one of the best places to book a staycation, as they tend to provide dining/attraction packages at an attractive rate along with your stay. Making your experiences more worthwhile.

Best Platform For Staycations and All-In-One Platform for Travel

Features

  • Staycation hotel perks and discounts
  • Competitive rates especially for local hotels
  • Great for travel activities worldwide

Klook is one of the best platforms in terms of everything destination-related. Klook has more travel activities and travel packages than other platforms as it serves as an all-in-one site for all things related to travel. They provide hotels and transportation (flights, trains, car rentals) and travel activities in general, they also provide sales of international SIM cards and Wi-Fi Access Plans.

If you like to pay for experiences and your hotel stay, consider Klook, as they always provide great deals and bundles related to that. Not only that, Klook is one of the best places to book a staycation, as they tend to provide dining/attraction packages at an attractive rate along with your stay. Making your experiences more worthwhile.

Check Out Our Hotel Reviews Here!

Traveloka

Traveloka
Traveloka
Best Super App for A Holistic Experience with Transparent Prices
Promotions:

Features

  • Comprehensive site for all travel-related items
  • One of the best Rates in the market for Asia-Pacific regions
  • Transparent fee structure

What makes Traveloka attractive is that they do not have booking fees or hidden charges (with the only expectation of deposit fees), and the hotels are priced inclusive of GST. This allows them to provide the cheapest rates possible without any member sign-in. You can also download the Traveloka app for better features such as price alerts, flight status, etc. Traveloka also has a section for you to book for COVID-19 Tests for VTL requirements.

Klook and Traveloka tend to be neck to neck in bringing one of the best hotel rates for the Asia-Pacific region. They dispute the attractive rates and a jack-of-all-trades platform. Their websites seem to be bloated, and it takes longer to navigate with so many redirects. You will be better off using their mobile app for a better experience.

Traveloka
Traveloka
Best Super App for A Holistic Experience with Transparent Prices
Promotions:

Features

  • Comprehensive site for all travel-related items
  • One of the best Rates in the market for Asia-Pacific regions
  • Transparent fee structure

What makes Traveloka attractive is that they do not have booking fees or hidden charges (with the only expectation of deposit fees), and the hotels are priced inclusive of GST. This allows them to provide the cheapest rates possible without any member sign-in. You can also download the Traveloka app for better features such as price alerts, flight status, etc. Traveloka also has a section for you to book for COVID-19 Tests for VTL requirements.

Klook and Traveloka tend to be neck to neck in bringing one of the best hotel rates for the Asia-Pacific region. They dispute the attractive rates and a jack-of-all-trades platform. Their websites seem to be bloated, and it takes longer to navigate with so many redirects. You will be better off using their mobile app for a better experience.

KKDay

Best Platform for Attractive Travel Packages around Asia + Reviews
Promotions:

Features

  • Detailed description of hotel
  • Good hotel + attraction package deals for Asia region
  • Greta deals for tours

KKday is a relatively new website that provides an all-in-one travel solution, similar to Klook and Traveloka. Their information about a hotel is similar to a blog review, rather than just a hotel summary. So if you want to know more about the experience of staying in the accommodation, KKDay provides that. Despite this, KKDay is extremely limited in its destinations and hotels per destination.

Best Platform for Attractive Travel Packages around Asia + Reviews
Promotions:

Features

  • Detailed description of hotel
  • Good hotel + attraction package deals for Asia region
  • Greta deals for tours

KKday is a relatively new website that provides an all-in-one travel solution, similar to Klook and Traveloka. Their information about a hotel is similar to a blog review, rather than just a hotel summary. So if you want to know more about the experience of staying in the accommodation, KKDay provides that. Despite this, KKDay is extremely limited in its destinations and hotels per destination.

What To Consider When Choosing Your Hotel Stay?

If you are looking for the best price for a hotel room, start comparing hotel rates a few weeks or months before your trip. Hotel prices fluctuate daily and are influenced by many factors, including seasons, occupancy, events and popularity. It is best to keep tabs on the pricing fluctuations to obtain the best deals for yourself.

There are many hotel booking sites out there in the market, all purporting to be the best. Although it would be great if one hotel booking website offered the cheapest hotel rooms all the time, the truth is that no single website for booking hotel stays will offer the best deal every time. However, different hotel booking sites stand out in various categories. Some provide better ways to search and filter results, and others offer a wider variety of hotel rooms. It is always good to compare deals across sites to get a second opinion and check for a better deal.

Hotels want you to book directly from them, and occasionally you can get a hotel to match or undercut the price from an OTA or receive additional benefits. This approach can be worth the effort, given the better deals and less trouble from being able to communicate directly with the hotel regarding your reservations.

Given the lengthy Terms & Conditions and small fine prints, it is understandable that many simply just take a glimpse or even not look at them when booking their stay. However, there may be important information hidden in these places for your attention. If you cancel, how much of your money can you recover? Will you be surprised by any sneaky resort fees or sudden price hikes at check-in/checkout? It is always a good habit to zoom in on the fine print and Terms & Conditions to know what you are signing up for.

This could be the most important to note when you travel with a group or your family. Everyone has different hotel needs, and it is essential to pick the hotel that can fulfil your needs. Layout options such as adjoining rooms and kitchenettes and amenities like swimming pools could make a huge difference when in groups or with children. Keep in mind these needs when making your decision for your hotel stay.

If you own a miles credit card, you can earn more on travel miles the more you spend. This includes hotel booking. Miles provides the best incentive and reward for frequent travellers since they allow you to upgrade your seats or book better seat classes such as Business and Suites without spending a single cent. You can also exchange them for things like cash back or gifts.

The more miles you earn from spending more, the less you spend on the biggest travel expenditure: Air flight tickets. We recommend a few credit cards that can provide the most for you.

Before we travel and enjoy our journey abroad, we need to pack the essential items needed for the trip, like winter clothing for winter climates, and travel adapters for different parts of the world. We also need to get travel insurance before we leave the airport as travel insurance is now the requirement for more than 50 countries, especially for countries within the Schengen Area (aka most of Europe).

To know more about what travel insurance suits you, click here!

Conclusion

Start your search with any of the sites above and you’ll have a solid foundation for your hotel search. Do keep in mind that there is no harm in comparing prices across different sites, including the hotel’s own website over a period of time.

By keeping an eye on price fluctuations, you will be able to take action on a good rate and feel confident about your booking. When comparing prices across different sites, make sure to do an apple-to-apple comparison of the same room type.

For those interested in staycations, you can check out our specially-curated reviews on Singapore hotels.

Tan Boon Hun

Boon Hun spent over five years in the content marketing space as the managing editor of Goody Feed creating interesting and relevant content for the social media generation. In 2022, he moved to the FinTech space while remaining true to his roots, intending to bring financial literacy to more people in Singapore. When not doing his work, he can be found watching people build homes on YouTube.

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