Trip.com vs Expedia.
Separate companies, measured side by side.

Measured, September 25 to October 1, 2026

What our price data shows

Across our 14 price snapshots of September 25 to October 1, 2026, Google Hotels listed Expedia.com as a seller at 3,996 of the 5,830 hotels we priced and Trip.com at 2,409. Both were listed at 1,818 hotels, and at 615 of them their lowest prices were the same to the dollar.

Before tax or after

At the 1,223 hotels listing both where taxes and fees added 10% or more to the going rate (the price most sites agreed on), Trip.com's price sat nearer the before-tax going rate at 161 of them and Expedia's at 19. Where one of the two prices looked before tax and the other after (162 hotels), the before-tax one looked lower at every one. Part or all of such a gap can be tax that is added at checkout, so those hotels are left out of the counts below.

On the same tax footing

Counting only the 1,336 hotels where both prices were on the same footing (both after tax, both before tax, or no tax showing in the going rates: under 2%, often because no site reported taxes separately), their prices were within $2 a night of each other at 56% of them (745 hotels).

So, on the same footing, Expedia was cheaper about 2.4 times as often as Trip.com (394 hotels to 164). When Trip.com was the cheaper one, it was typically 6% below Expedia; when Expedia was, 10% below Trip.com.

By region, and chain or independent

What the lower price came with: At the 164 hotels where Trip.com was more than 2% cheaper, its listing offered free cancellation at 35% and named a room type at 22%; Expedia's offered free cancellation at 28% and named a room type at 91%. At the 394 hotels where Expedia was more than 2% cheaper, its listing offered free cancellation at 39% and named a room type at 96%; Trip.com's offered free cancellation at 49% and named a room type at 6%. Check the room and the cancellation terms before you take the lower one.

The study's own count, on before-tax prices across all 15 snapshots (6,254 hotel prices in 348 cities): some site was 5% or more below the going rate at 4,512 of them, and the lowest price was Trip.com's at 59 of them and Expedia's at 14.

How we measured: in each snapshot we recorded every booking site's price that Google Hotels showed a US searcher, in US dollars, for a two-night stay checking in between October 30 and November 5, 2026, at 5,830 hotels in 348 cities. For each hotel we took each site's lowest price, all-in with taxes and fees where the site reported them, otherwise its listed rate. Our data keeps one price per listing without saying whether it includes tax, so we infer it: where the hotel's after-tax going rate was 10% or more above its before-tax going rate, a price nearer the after-tax one counts as after tax and a price nearer the before-tax one as before tax; where the after-tax going rate was under 2% above the before-tax one (often because no site reported taxes separately), any two prices count as the same footing; hotels in between are left out. Within $2 means the two differed by $2 a night or less; more than 2% cheaper means one was below 98% of the other. The study's regions put Dubai, Doha, Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Cape Town and Marrakech with Asia-Pacific. A price we saw is one moment, not a completed booking. Method and the CSVs: our hotel price study.

Comparing them for your stay

1. Check both for the same room and dates. In our data they were within $2 a night at 56% of the hotels compared on the same footing.
2. Compare the total after tax. A before-tax price next to an after-tax one looks lower even when it is not.
3. Count Expedia's sister sites as one quote. Orbitz, Travelocity and CheapTickets showed Expedia's price in our data: the sites Expedia owns.
4. Check the room and the cancellation terms. See whether free cancellation is worth it.

More from the same price data: Agoda vs Trip.com, Trip.com vs Booking.com, Agoda vs Expedia and trivago vs Expedia. For each site on its own: is Trip.com legit? and is Expedia legit?