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Online travel agencies (OTAs) are travel marketplaces that enable consumers to browse and book flights, hotels, holiday packages and other travel arrangements. It is important to note that travel booking sites are often intermediaries between the customer and a travel service provider such as airlines and hotels.
The main advantage of using an online travel agent is you can browse and compare travel packages at the comfort of your home. It also provides a better review system for vacationers to choose the right package. Moreover, they are able to provide more travel plans and may have tie-ups across the world, providing a better overall experience over making individual bookings.
Planning a vacation could be a daunting task as you generally have little information about the place you are visiting, and this is why travel companies help you get the best experience. But the flight, hotel and travel booking space is not bereft of scammer and fraudsters.
In the UK alone, travellers lost £7 million ($9 million) pounds in 2017, as per UK’s Action Fraud. The same year, a hotel association in the US said people were defrauded of $5.2 billion in fake hotel bookings.
Apart from the general risks of online marketplaces, these are the things that could go wrong when you make travel plans online:
The internet is so vast, that it is nearly impossible to know what is real and what is fake. However, we have done the research for you on how to recognize an online scam. But you may still encounter sophisticated fraudsters who wish to steal your hard-earned money.
We have compiled a list of online travel agencies which implement consumer safety protocols and have robust customer service. They often also provide consumer guarantees if a travel booking goes wrong.
Please note that while the following companies have a global presence, they may not provide service in every country.
| Online Travel Agencies |
| Booking.com |
| Expedia |
| Hotels.com |
| Agoda |
| Priceline |
| HRS |
| AirBnB |
| TripAdvisor |
| Trip.com |
| Travelocity |
| HostelWorld |
| Skyscanner |
| LateRooms |
Founded in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com has grown from a small Dutch startup to one of the world’s leading digital travel companies. Booking.com is available in 43 languages and offers more than 28 million total reported accommodation listings, including over 6.2 million listings alone of homes, apartments and other unique places to stay.
Expedia, Inc. is the world's leading online travel service and the eighth largest travel agency in the U.S. The website and mobile app can be used to book airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruise ships, and vacation packages. It is owned and operated by Expedia Group. It has grown from primarily selling airline tickets and reaping the commissions, to offering a wide range of travel products such as discounted hotel rooms and packaged travel plans.
Hotels.com is a website for booking hotel rooms online and by telephone. The company has 85 websites in 34 languages, and lists over 325,000 hotels in approximately 19,000 locations. Its inventory includes hotels and B&Bs, some condos and other types of commercial lodging. Hotels.com was established in 1991 as the Hotel Reservations Network (HRN). It became part of Expedia, Inc. in 2001.
Agoda.com or just Agoda is a Singapore online travel agency for hotels, vacation rentals, flights, and airport transfer. As of June 2021, Agoda lists 2.5 million properties worldwide, including private holiday home rentals. In addition to its accommodation booking platform, Agoda also has its own flight product. Agoda Homes is the company's list of privately-owned accommodations, which include houses, apartments, and villas. As of 2021, Agoda claims to list more than 1.5 million private accommodations worldwide.
Priceline.com is an online travel agency for finding discount rates for travel-related purchases such as airline tickets and hotel stays. The company facilitates the provision of travel services from its suppliers to its clients. Priceline.com is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, United States and is wholly owned by Booking Holdings, which also owns Kayak.com, Booking.com and other sites.
The HRS Group (HRS for Hotel Reservation Service) is an international company with its headquarters in Cologne. HRS offers a large selection of hotels for business and private travelers worldwide so that customers can quickly and easily book their preferred hotel rooms. The core of the HRS Group was the pure procurement of hotels for private and business travelers. The HRS Group now specializes in business customers and offers various other services related to hotel bookings. HRS is one of the market leaders in this area. Major customers include Google, Siemens and Toyota.
Airbnb, Inc.is an American company that operates an online marketplace for lodging, primarily homestays for vacation rentals, and tourism activities. Airbnb does not own any of the listed properties; instead, it profits by receiving a commission from each booking. With 4,500,000 listings in over 65,000 cities in 191 countries, the company offers the widest variety of unique spaces for everyone, at any price point around the globe.
Tripadvisor, Inc. is an American online travel company that operates a website and mobile app with user-generated content and a comparison shopping website. It also offers online hotel reservations and bookings for transportation, lodging, travel experiences, and restaurants.With more than 934 million reviews and opinions of nearly 8 million businesses, travelers turn to Tripadvisor to find deals on accommodations, book experiences, reserve tables at delicious restaurants and discover great places nearby.
Trip.com is an international online travel agency. The website is owned by Trip.com Group (formerly Ctrip.com International, Ltd. in China), one of the world's largest online travel agencies with over 400 million users worldwide. The site provides booking services for flights, hotels, trains, car rentals, airport transfers, tours and attraction tickets, and claims to offer more than 1.2 million hotels in 200 countries and regions, as well as over 2 million flight routes connecting more than 5,000 cities. Train tickets for use in the UK, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Mainland China are also available for purchase on the site.
Travelocity.com is an online travel agency owned by Expedia Group. It has 12.4 million monthly unique visitors, making it the third most popular website owned by Expedia Group, after Expedia.com and Hotels.com. Travelocity.com was the first website that allowed consumers the ability to purchase travel tickets without the help of a person. In addition to airfares, the site also permits consumers to book hotel rooms, rental cars, cruises and packaged vacations.
Hostelworld Group is a leading Online Travel Agent focused on the hostelling category, with a well-known trusted brand. Their core business provides customers with hostel accommodation options and hostel focused small group adventure tour products (Roamies) in over 180 countries worldwide via our website and native app platforms in 19 languages.
Skyscanner is a metasearch engine and travel agency based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The site is available in over 30 languages and is used by 100 million people per month. The company lets people research and book travel options for their trips, including flights, hotels and car hire.
LateRooms is a hotel reservations website enabling users to find information on discounted accommodation and last minute hotel deals. It’s the UK’s leading online accommodation site, offering hotel deals in every corner of the UK along with over 200,000 properties worldwide.
Sources: Booking.com, Wikipedia, Referenceforbusiness, Crunchbase
