Travel is back and better than ever. A tumultuous two years for international travel has allowed the industry to bounce back with new and improved processes to help get from A to B.
Global travel spending was $2.37 trillion in 2020. That’s right, Trillion. Also, it is 49% less than last year.
There’s a lot of money to be made in the travel industry—meaning travelers have a variety of travel tools and solutions to make their trips easier and more convenient.
We’ve compiled the top ten best online travel agencies to help you get the most out of your next trip. Whether you’re traveling for pleasure or business, we’ve got you covered.
First, let’s take a look at what online travel agencies do.
What are online travel agencies?
An online travel agency (OTA) is a website that sells travel-related services. It enables users to make hotel and travel reservations from a single platform. They are the digital equivalent of a travel agent.
Examples of online travel agencies include Expedia, Booking.com and Agoda. Some OTAs—like Kiwi.com—specialize in a single service. Others — like Skyscanner — do it all.
How do online travel agencies work?
Online travel agencies can be used by ordinary people for leisure travel, and organizations can use them for business travel. Platforms vary in their offerings, but the premise remains the same: to facilitate travel and related management and expenses.
Hotels, airlines, and car rental companies pay online travel agencies to appear on their websites. On the other hand, the benefit to the service provider is the additional visibility that OTAs can provide.
OTAs work by providing a seamless approach to all things travel. It involves the customer accessing a website or platform where they are offered a variety of travel options from various travel and accommodation providers.
If airlines and hotels are the sheep, OTAs are the shepherds—they gather and present all the necessary details for consumers to make a travel decision.
What are the benefits of booking through an online travel agency?
Some of the benefits of booking travel services through an OTA are:
- Access to comparison tools
- Peer reviews to help you make your decisions.
- Flexible cancellation policies
- All your travel in one place
- Local flights and deals
- Rewards programs
These benefits are why OTAs are so popular with travelers around the world, and why you might want to consider finding the one that’s right for you. Before choosing an online travel agency to make your booking, you need to consider these details:
Comparison tools
The biggest advantage of using an OTA is that you can quickly and easily compare prices for accommodation, flights, etc. Most have search filters and comparison tools so you can target your search and find exactly what you’re looking for.
Peer reviews
Another benefit of booking through an online travel agency is the review system, whereby customers leave ratings and written reviews for future customers. The option to leave a review is usually only available after a customer has booked a service, so they are a reliable source of feedback.
Flexible cancellation
To be featured on an online travel agency, hotels, airlines, and other service providers must often adhere to the OTA’s cancellation policy. All information is clearly laid out for the customer in the email or on the website at the time of booking, making it very user-friendly and customer-centric.
Note: Not all OTAs have their own cancellation and change policies — some, like Skyscanner, direct you to the vendor’s website to confirm your ticket. This then means you are subject to vendor cancellations and policy changes, which may not be as flexible.
One account for all your travel needs
You can also use one account for all your different travel plans, saving you the hassle of entering details over and over again. Remember: A good OTA is an intuitive OTA — you want to be able to easily navigate your options without needing constant help.
Again, some platforms—mainly aggregator sites—will direct you to a third-party website for booking. This means you have to contact the third party directly for any changes.
A local approach to global travel
OTAs personalize things like measurements and currencies to improve the individual user experience. As a result, independently run organizations that do not have the resources to adapt their website internationally are unable to compete.
You’re offered the best deals for your area in a currency you know—making sure everything’s clear when it comes to booking.
Rewards programs
Many online travel agencies offer rewards systems, such as Booking.com and Expedia. These often offer customers access to special deals and discounts—like the rewards programs you get with an airline or hotel.
Top 10 Online Travel Agencies
First, let’s break down our top ten online travel agencies into leisure travel and business travel solutions. They offer different solutions to different customers so there is no point in grouping them together. Here’s what we’ll cover:
OTAs for leisure travel:
- booking.com
- Agoda
- Lastminute.com
- Expedia
- hot wire
- Sky Scanner
- Kiwi.com
OTAs for Business Travel:
- Travel perk
- SAP Concur
- My CWT
Let’s get this show on the road.
Best online travel agencies for leisure travel
First, let’s take a look at online travel agencies for leisure travel. These are the websites that everyday users use to book their next big vacation or family vacation—whether it’s to New York or the Caribbean.
Note: We’ve included our top picks for OTAs specializing in flights at the bottom of this section — if you’d prefer to jump ahead.
1. Booking.com
Booking.com is the world’s largest accommodation booking website, and it also allows users to book their own travel and car rentals. It enables travelers to search for different types of accommodation, destinations and deals. It is a comprehensive OTA for everyday travelers.
Key Offers and Features:
- Intuitive booking tool and website
- Flight + hotel booking for easy travel planning without cross-referencing travel websites
- Convenient car rental options and taxi hire
- Available in over 40 different languages and offering over half a million properties in 207 countries.
- You can book experiences in your destination city to keep you entertained during your trip.
- Genius Rewards Program
Overall, booking.com is a comprehensive online travel agency with hotels and flights anywhere in the world. That being said, you’ll need to focus – it’s often criticized for its overwhelming UI.
2. Agoda
Agoda is a fast-growing OTA that’s especially popular in Asia—and for good reason. The platform — which specializes in providing accommodation — employs market managers who allocate Agoda’s services to ensure the best deals for the markets.
Agoda doesn’t offer much in terms of flight booking, but it’s a great platform for finding accommodation—especially private homes and apartments.
Key Offers and Features:
- Easy interface and booking tool
- Deals on multiple bookings
- Offers 38 different languages and 24-hour, multilingual customer support service.
- Free cancellation within 24 hours of booking
- Millions of reviews to help you decide.
- However, the flight booking tool is not as comprehensive as some others, so you may want to look for a tool with broader coverage.
3. Lastminute.com
Lastminute.com is one of the top three travel companies in Europe, where geographical proximity makes city trips a popular choice. This OTA is a mix of what we’ve seen before — hotel bookings are made through an OTA, and flights are booked through an aggregator site.
Lastminute.com specializes in finding flight and hotel packages and all-inclusive vacation packages at the best prices for last-minute travelers. If you’re brave enough to play chicken, lastminute.com is where you’ll find the golden egg of travel experiences.
Main offerings and features:
- Filter hotels by budget, star rating, guest rating, board types and more.
- ATOL protection on flight + hotel bundles
- Flash sales for last-minute deals
- A payment plan to spread the cost of travel
- Booking additional entertainment for your trips, such as theater productions and day trips
- Gift cards for gift travel
- This is a great OTA for travelers who prefer to leave things to the last minute to get the best deal. You’re sure to find it here, along with a wide selection of other flight and hotel deals.
4. Expedia
Expedia has been giving travelers access to flights, hotels and cars since the nineties – and they’re still a strong contender today. In fact, they are the largest travel agency in the world. Hotels.com, trivago, Travelocity—they’re all owned by Expedia, so you know you’re unlikely to find a better deal anywhere else.
Key Offers and Features:
- Expedia rewards for hotels, cars and more
- Experienced support
- Compare cruise lines.
- Big savings when booking flights, hotels and cars
- Works in nearly 70 countries and over 35 different languages.
- Luxury travel options
- Expedia is an especially good option for people who want to book flights, accommodations, and car rentals all at once.
5. Hotwire
Hotwire is another long-standing online travel agency that has been around since 2000. It is famous for its ‘secret deals’, in which travelers get huge deals on trips they know little about. It requires some flexibility, but it’s a great way for adventurous types to travel on a budget.
Key Offers and Features:
- Book hotels, flights, cars and bundles
- 24/7 support
- Low prices on the app.
- Great last minute deals for spontaneous travel
- If you’re booking at the last minute, consider doing it with Hotwire.
Best Online Travel Agencies for Flights
1. Skyscanner
Skyscanner is an aggregator site — it uses a meta search engine to compare prices from all OTAs, airlines, hotels and car rental companies. Skyscanner often finds the best prices and helps travelers save big on flights and accommodation.
Once you’ve made your decision, you’ll be taken to a third-party booking form on the Skyscanner website to complete the booking process and secure your airfare.
Key Offers and Features:
- Super flexible booking filters
- Cheaper flights and hotels than other OTAs
- Price alerts for itineraries of interest
- Easy-to-use booking tool and UI
- Hundreds of location and currency options
- One-way, return, and multi-city travel options
Skyscanner is trusted by millions to find the best deals with the most flexibility. It basically aggregates all the offers from every OTA to present the users with the best deals available.
2. Kiwi.com
Kiwi.com is the new OTA on the block — and it’s working differently. Kiwi.com is an aggregator site that finds the best multi-city deals available and covers you in case you are unable to make a connecting flight.
It offers consistently low rates and travel insurance for multi-city travel.
Key Offers and Features:
- Easy flight booking tool
- Partnership with Booking.com and Rentalcars.com
- Discover deals anywhere with the option to open your search.
- Easy to use app
- Kiwi.com is an innovative OTA perfect for city wanderers and travel hungry people. Be careful, though, as some reviews claim cancellations are difficult and customer service can be unreliable.
Best Online Travel Agencies for Business Travel
Now, let’s take a look at the top online travel agencies for corporate travel. There’s a lot more on offer, but we’ve compiled three above.
1. TravelPerk
TravelPerk is an innovative solution for modern corporate travel. Its easy-to-use OTA is a refreshing change from the cluttered UI often associated with business travel. TravelPerk enables you to make flexible bookings for employees, and even offers the option to offset your carbon footprint.
This platform is more than just an OTA, it is a comprehensive corporate travel management tool that helps your team book, manage and report on business travel. TravelPerk ensures that employees travel stress-free on the cheapest flights available without any sacrifices.
Key Offers and Features:
- Largest inventory of travel services
- Flexible booking with FlexiPerk
- Safety warnings with TravelCare
- Integrated travel policy and approval flow
- Centralized invoicing
- Easy and real-time expense reports.
- Carbon Offsetting with GreenPerk
- 24/7 fast customer support in average 15 seconds
- VAT reclaim
- Integration with third-party tools, such as expense management or HR software such as Expensify and BambooHR
TravelPerk gives employees access to the information and security they need to travel with peace of mind. It gives organizations and travel managers access to the best corporate travel rates you won’t find on the market.
2. SAP Concur
SAP Concur has been around for years — since 1993 — and is trusted by many enterprises to provide comprehensive business travel solutions. Its technology is self-owned and managed, meaning there’s no back-and-forth with third parties for changes or updates.
Key Offers and Features:
- Works with some major brands.
- Easy tracking and expense reporting for expense reports
- A number of connected apps, such as Uber and Airbnb for cars and hotels
- A solution for a variety of business travel expenses
SAP Concur is a great tool for organizations looking for a traditional approach to business travel. However, it requires patience—it takes 6-8 weeks to implement the platform and user onboarding to get the most out of it. Also, some users have reported that the UI is outdated, making it a less enjoyable experience for business travelers.
3. MyCWT
MyCWT is CWT’s corporate travel management solution. Its dedicated industry and country experts ensure that your employees are well looked after wherever they are.
CWT has been in the travel industry for over 150 years, but MyCWT is a proven travel management solution for business travelers everywhere.
Key Offers and Features:
- Substantial integration
- Award-winning mobile app
- Employee-centric travel management
MyCWT is an ideal solution for companies with large budgets and large corporate travel requirements. However, they use third-party software to deliver deals to business travelers and organizations—meaning software updates and changes can take time. There is a lot of back and forth that slows down growth and platform development.
Wrapping Up
Here are ten best travel agencies that help you get the best online booking. Please take the nearest exit and be sure to enjoy the rest of your trip.
Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure; From Hawaii or Peru or wherever business or your passion takes you — we hope these tools help you find the best deals available. The convenience of OTAs is unmatched, it’s up to you to make the most of your travel options.