Cheapflights

Cheapflights is a travel metasearch platform owned by the Kayak Group, covering flights, hotels, and car rentals in a single search interface. Rather than booking directly, Cheapflights connects you to more than 300 travel partners including airlines, hotel booking sites, and car rental companies, letting you compare pricing across selected providers before booking with your preferred vendor. The platform is global in scope, covering destinations across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the South Pacific. While the site name emphasizes flights, the search model extends equally to accommodations and car rentals, making it a general-purpose travel comparison tool rather than a flights-only metasearch engine like Skyscanner or Kayak itself.

The core feature that differentiates Cheapflights is its "Compare To" tool, which lets you search for flights, hotels, or car rentals and then handpick up to four of your preferred providers to view side-by-side. Rather than showing you a single aggregated price or a ranked list of results from all possible sources, Cheapflights lets you select which providers to evaluate. For example, searching a hotel stay in New York might initially show results from dozens of sources, but you can choose to compare only Expedia, Booking.com, Hotels.com, and Priceline if those are your preferred booking partners. This approach prioritizes transparency and user control over algorithmic ranking, giving you the power to decide which vendors matter to you. If you have a loyalty account with a specific chain or booking site, you might compare only sources where you can apply points or earn status, rather than defaulting to the cheapest option everywhere.

For hotel searches, Cheapflights aggregates properties from hundreds of hotel suppliers and travel sites. The search works like any hotel metasearch: you enter a destination city, check-in and check-out dates, and number of rooms and guests, and the engine returns properties with nightly rates, amenities, guest reviews, and availability. Each property shows multiple rates from different booking partners, though the Compare To interface lets you narrow down which sources you want to evaluate. Filters include price range, star rating, amenities (pool, parking, pet-friendly), and distance from a landmark. Guest reviews are aggregated from various sources or pulled from partners' review databases, giving you a sense of quality beyond just price. Unlike some metasearch engines that show limited detail before you click through, Cheapflights displays core information like cancellation policy, included amenities, and photos directly in the search results.

Cheapflights also supports searches for long-term rentals through its partnership with Vrbo, a vacation rental platform owned by Expedia. If you're looking for a month-long apartment rental or a longer vacation home stay, you can search for that within Cheapflights' hotel search. This feature bridges vacation rentals and hotels, useful if you're flexible between accommodation types or want to compare a traditional hotel stay against a rented apartment for an extended trip. The Vrbo partnership means Cheapflights can display thousands of vacation rental listings alongside hotels in the same results, though the search is less fine-tuned for rentals than platforms focused specifically on vacation rental comparison like HomeToGo or Hundredrooms.

Pricing on Cheapflights is free to search. The platform makes money through affiliate commissions when you book through one of its partners; you pay whatever the booking site charges, with no surcharge from Cheapflights. The philosophy is transparency: you see the price upfront, you're in control of which provider you select, and no hidden costs are added. Cancellation policies, tax calculations, and all other terms are the responsibility of the booking provider you choose. Cheapflights doesn't process payments or hold reservation details; it redirects you to the partner's booking page to complete your transaction. This model means there's no Cheapflights-specific cancellation or refund process; you deal directly with the vendor you selected.

Compared to other travel metasearch engines, Cheapflights' strength is its flexibility and transparent comparison model. Kayak, also owned by the Kayak Group, offers broader search options and can search metasearch sites themselves (you can search on Kayak and Kayak will show results from Cheapflights, etc.). Google Flights dominates flight search with real-time data and integration with Google's broader services. Tripadvisor combines metasearch with reviews and community content, making it a hybrid review-and-booking platform. For hotels alone, Trivago and HotelsCombined are pure metasearch engines without flights or cars. Cheapflights is positioned as an all-in-one travel metasearch, a generalist rather than specialist approach. The Compare To feature is a unique affordance; most metasearch engines show you all results ranked by price or relevance, whereas Cheapflights lets you manually select which providers to see, trading algorithmic ranking for user control.

The hotel search experience on Cheapflights emphasizes price comparison. When you search, the first view shows results ranked by relevance or price, with each property displaying a "Compare" button that lets you select it for side-by-side comparison. You can build a shortlist of properties across different price points or neighborhoods, then compare them using the Compare To tool. This workflow is useful if you're torn between two neighborhoods or property types and want to evaluate multiple options with identical partner sets. The interface is mobile-friendly, reflecting the reality that many travelers book accommodations on their phones during or while planning a trip. Cheapflights has also integrated price alerts, so you can save a search and receive notifications when prices for your desired dates and location drop.

Cheapflights works best for travelers who are tool-agnostic and want a single platform to search flights, hotels, and cars together without switching between Kayak and Skyscanner and others. The Compare To feature appeals to travelers with strong preferences for specific booking partners or loyalty programs; rather than force you to book where the algorithm says cheapest, you control which providers you evaluate. The global scope and multi-partner network mean coverage is broad across destinations and seasons, though Cheapflights doesn't specialize in any particular market the way Hundredrooms dominates Spanish-speaking regions or Holidu excels in Europe. The platform is competitive as a one-stop travel metasearch for price-conscious travelers who don't have strong brand loyalty and are willing to shop across multiple partners. For hotel-only searches, specialist tools may offer deeper content, and for vacation rentals, HomeToGo and Hundredrooms offer better rental-specific features and inventory than Cheapflights' holiday rental integration through Vrbo.