We compared 7 travel-booking sites to show you what each is best at

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Planning a vacation or trip is undoubtedly stressful. You're bombarded with seemingly endless options for flights, lodging, and things to do, and it can be difficult to figure out where to start. Many travel aggregators strive to present you with the best deals, but they all end up looking very similar to each other.

These similarities make it easy to know what to do and expect when you first visit a site. Typically, you enter your destinations, dates, and number of travelers. After you click search, you can further filter based on price range, airlines, and departure times for flights; amenities, hotel stars, and location for hotels; and type of car and rental car company for cars. 

So what makes one site better than another?

It all depends on your priorities and preferences. Everyone travels and plans for that travel differently. Here are seven travel sites and the factors you should consider when choosing a site. 

Booking.com

Booking.com

Booking.com is a huge bank of information, offering more than 1 million properties in 117,000 destinations in 225 countries and territories. Wherever you'd like to go, you'll find it through this site. It offers booking for flights, hotels, vacation rentals, and rental cars. Clicking restaurants will take you to OpenTable. 

Highlights:

I found their desktop homepage to be cluttered and a lot to look at compared to the homepages of other sites, but their app experience was noticeably simpler, which makes sense as travelers increasingly turn mobile. 

One feature on the homepage that stood out to me (shown above) was the "Are you traveling for work?" option. Clicking "Yes" will present popular business travel options like WiFi and breakfast.

Another feature was its flexible date suggestions if your chosen destination is a popular choice and accommodations are more than 50% reserved during your selected dates.

Best for: 

• Wide variety of options, including hostels, homestays, and bed and breakfasts
• Easy access to your plans and searches by syncing your account across your devices 
• Getting the best deals with their Price Match offer 
• Destination travel guides and articles 

Lacking or not the best for:

• Bundling hotel, flight, and car packages

Book a trip with Booking.com

Expedia

Expedia

Expedia offers booking for flights, hotels, vacation rentals, rental cars, cruises, and things to do. 

Highlights:

You can bundle flight, hotel, and car deals so you don't have to go through the headache of looking separately and trying to coordinate all the deals. 

The "My Trips" section is helpful for managing your entire itinerary in one place, so you don't have to search through endless emails and accounts to figure out your vacation plan. 

If you sign up as a member, you can earn Expedia+ points to use toward future trips. Use the mobile app to earn 2x Expedia+ points. 

Like Booking.com, Expedia also offers suggestions for date shifts, date extensions, and route changes to get you to the cheapest deal. 

Best for: 

• Hotel, flight, and car bundles 
• Coordinating your whole vacation itinerary 
• Reward points system

Lacking or not the best for:

• Single bookings. The site is best utilized for its bundle packaging.

Book a trip with Expedia

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor offers booking for flights, hotels, vacation rentals, restaurants, and things to do.

Highlights:

It's well-known for its user-generated reviews, so as you're booking, you get the added benefit of reading reviews all in the same place. While I'm partial to Yelp for food recommendations and believe it to be better for US destinations, TripAdvisor is much more widely used in the international community. 

TripAdvisor is the most experience-driven travel site. You are not just booking somewhere to live — you're signing up to experience and explore a destination. 

Best for: 

• Detailed filtering (e.g. style for hotels and distinctive features for vacation rentals) 
• Comparing deals across aggregators 
• Strong user-generated review community 

Lacking or not the best for:

• Bundling hotel, flight, and car packages 

Book a trip with TripAdvisor 

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