Honest review
Orbitz has an unusually credible origin story: it was launched in 2001 by a group of major US airlines as their own booking site. Since 2015 it has been owned by Expedia Group and runs on Expedia's platform. So the legitimacy question is easy: real rooms, real bookings, big-company support. The better question is whether Orbitz gets you a lower price than its sibling sites. Mostly it doesn't, because the inventory is shared. Here's the honest breakdown, including what happened to Orbitz Rewards.
We have no affiliate relationship with Orbitz. This isn't a referral pitch. We surface whichever site has the cheaper rate, and only then.
A legitimate brand with real history. Just know that you are effectively booking on Expedia.
Where Orbitz is genuinely fine
Where you should be careful
Rarely. Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, and Hotels.com all belong to Expedia Group and draw on the same supply. When we measure hotel rates across sites, the mainstream OTAs almost always quote the same price for the same room. In our June 2026 test across a 24-hotel basket, wherever a room could be matched across major sites the price was at parity. The genuinely lower numbers came from wholesale resellers that couldn't be verified as the same room, not from one household-name OTA undercutting another.
One more honest note: people sometimes remember Orbitz for Orbitz Rewards and its "Orbucks", which paid out unusually well on hotels. That program has been retired, so don't book on Orbitz today expecting the old deal. If price is what you care about, the lever isn't which big OTA you pick; it's comparing the all-in total across every class of site and timing the booking.
Before you book any OTA rate, check three things
The honest way to know whether an Orbitz rate is a good deal is to compare the all-in total for the exact same room and dates against the hotel's own site and one or two other booking sites, and to read the cancellation terms alongside the price. Doing that by hand across five tabs is tedious, which is why most people trust the first number they see.
Underbook is a free Chrome extension that does that comparison for you while you shop. When you're looking at a hotel, it checks other booking sites for the same room and dates and shows the all-in totals side by side, so you can see whether anyone actually beats the rate in front of you. When it can't confirm two rooms match, it says so plainly instead of pretending. We earn nothing from Orbitz; we just show the cheapest rate we can find.
No. It's a 20-plus-year-old brand owned by Expedia Group. Complaints you'll find online are the standard OTA class: refund friction on non-refundable rates, changes routed through the OTA instead of the hotel, and occasional check-in hiccups on third-party bookings. Terms and support friction, not fake reservations.
The program was retired after Expedia Group consolidated its brands' loyalty efforts. Its One Key program centers on Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo. Practical takeaway: the loyalty case for picking Orbitz specifically is gone, so choose on interface preference, or better, on whichever site actually has the lowest all-in price for your room.
Effectively, yes. Same parent company, same platform, same inventory, almost always the same price for the same room. The brand and interface differ; the machinery underneath is shared.
It depends on the rate. Refundable rates cancel fine within their window; the cheapest rates are typically non-refundable. Cancellations run through Orbitz rather than the hotel. Read the specific rate's terms at checkout before paying.
No. We have no affiliate relationship with Orbitz. Underbook surfaces whichever site has the cheaper confirmed rate for your room, and shows the lower price even when it earns nothing from it.
Underbook compares the all-in price for your exact room across booking sites, Orbitz included, so you can see whether anyone actually beats the rate in front of you. Free, and you always book where you choose.
+ Add to Chrome (free)