trivago vs Hotels.com.
Same owner, different jobs.

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 Hotels.com as a seller at 4,433 of the 5,830 hotels we priced and trivago DEALS at 1,895. trivago's comparison search sends you elsewhere to book, so the trivago price you can set against Hotels.com's is trivago DEALS'. Both were listed at 1,705 hotels, and at 89 of them their lowest prices were the same to the dollar.

Before tax or after

At the 1,340 hotels listing both where taxes and fees added 10% or more to the going rate (the price most sites agreed on), trivago DEALS' price sat nearer the before-tax going rate at 743 of them and Hotels.com's at 62. Where one of the two prices looked before tax and the other after (731 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 813 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 24% of them (192 hotels).

So, on the same footing, trivago DEALS was cheaper about twice as often as Hotels.com (391 hotels to 205). When trivago DEALS was the cheaper one, it was typically 5% below Hotels.com; when Hotels.com was, 9% below trivago DEALS. Leaving out the hotels whose going rates showed under 2% tax, 609 hotels remain, where taxes added 10% or more and each price's basis could be read: trivago DEALS was more than 2% cheaper at 240 of them and Hotels.com at 177.

By region, and chain or independent

What the lower price came with: At the 391 hotels where trivago DEALS was more than 2% cheaper, Google Hotels showed no free-cancellation label or room name on any trivago DEALS listing; Hotels.com's offered free cancellation at 24% and named a room type at 90%. At the 205 hotels where Hotels.com was more than 2% cheaper, its listing offered free cancellation at 37% and named a room type at 91%; trivago DEALS' listings never showed either. 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 trivago DEALS' at 210 of them and Hotels.com's at 97.

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.

How to use them, in two minutes

1. Use a comparison to see who lists your hotel. trivago and Google Hotels both show many booking sites at once; here is which sites Google Hotels showed in our data.
2. Compare the total after tax. On Google Hotels a trivago DEALS price was often before tax while Hotels.com's usually included it.
3. Check the room and the cancellation terms. No trivago DEALS listing in our data named the room or carried a free-cancellation label; see whether free cancellation is worth it.
4. Know who handles your booking. Through trivago's comparison you book with the site you click through to; on trivago DEALS or Hotels.com, that site handles it.

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