Skyscanner Flights Hotels Cars

Review by eFreeware

Skyscanner's pitch is comparison rather than booking: it pulls flight, hotel and car rental prices from airlines, hotel chains and online travel agencies into one search, then hands you off to whichever provider you choose. The developer says it charges no booking fees of its own, which is the part that makes the model easy to understand. What stands out to me is the scale behind it, with more than 100 million installs and a 4.8 average from over 1.5 million ratings.

That combination of breadth and a long track record points to a tool for people who plan trips themselves and want to see the market before they commit. If you already know which airline you fly or which hotel you like, a direct booking is simpler. Skyscanner earns its keep when the destination, the dates or the provider are still open questions.

The app has been on Google Play since July 2011, and the developer keeps adding to it; the most recent update arrived in October 2026 and introduced a deals feature called Drops.

Drops, the daily price hunt

Drops is the newest piece and the one the developer leads with. It is an app-exclusive feature that scans travel prices every day looking for flight price drops of at least 20 percent to destinations around the world. You tell it which airport you usually fly from, and the deals arrive for that departure point.

The appeal, as I see it, is for travelers whose dates are loose. If you have a specific city and a specific week in mind, a general feed of discounted fares is less useful than a search. If you are open to going wherever the price is good, a daily list of marked-down routes from your home airport is a low-effort way to spot an opportunity you would not have thought to look for.

It is billed as a travel hack for getting a better deal, and the mechanic is straightforward: the app watches prices, you decide whether any of the drops are worth acting on. I would treat it as a source of ideas rather than a reason to book on the spot.

Flights, hotels and cars in one search

The flight search is the core of the app. You can compare fares across carriers such as Spirit Airlines, United Airlines, Southwest, Delta and American Airlines, alongside online travel agencies and other booking platforms, and the results put those options side by side. Filters let you narrow by flight duration, airline, number of stops, travel class, and departure or arrival times, which matters when a cheap fare lands at an awkward hour.

Two features stand out for anyone with flexible timing. The calendar view breaks down a chosen month and shows which dates are cheapest, so you can shift a trip by a day or two and see what it does to the price. Price Alerts go further: set one on a route and the app notifies you when the fare changes, which suits travelers who are watching a trip months out rather than booking immediately.

Hotels work on the same comparison principle, covering budget properties, luxury resorts, vacation rentals, motels and hostels worldwide. Last-minute stays can also be searched by location. Car rentals can be filtered by vehicle type, fuel type and features, and the Fair Fuel Policy flag is meant to keep you from overpaying on fuel when you pick up the keys.

The developer also mentions that you can compare providers such as Expedia, Kiwi.com, Trip.com, Agoda and booking.com in the same place, and that recent reviews from other travelers appear alongside travel partners.

What it asks of you

The app is free to download and supported by ads. There are no in-app purchases, so nothing inside the app is gated behind a payment, and the developer states plainly that it takes no booking fees on flights, hotels or cars.

That model shapes how you use it. Skyscanner is a comparison layer, not a checkout: you search, compare and then complete the booking with the provider you picked. It works best for travelers who are comfortable dealing with an airline or agency directly and who want transparency about who they are buying from.

The trade-off is that the app's usefulness depends on the breadth of its partner list, which covers major carriers and large booking platforms. For a trip where you already know exactly what you want, the extra step of comparing may not add much.

Getting more out of a search

If you have no destination in mind, the Everywhere option in the search bar is the place to start. It surfaces low-cost flights to anywhere in the world, which is a good way to let the price decide where you go rather than the other way around. I would use it before locking in dates, since the cheapest places to fly often change by season.

When you do have a destination, the filters do most of the work. Narrowing by stops, duration and departure window turns a long list into something you can actually read. Combining that with the calendar view is the most efficient path: pick the month, find the cheapest days, then filter the results for the flights that fit your schedule.

Not ready to commit? You can save flights and hotels you like, and they gather in one spot for later. Pairing that with a Price Alert on the same route gives you a shortlist and a nudge if the price moves, which is a sensible way to plan a trip you are not ready to pay for yet.

Where the comparison model shows its edges

Ads are part of the deal. That is a fair exchange for a comparison tool, though it does mean the experience is not entirely clean.

The bigger consideration is what Skyscanner is not. It does not complete your booking for you; it sends you to the airline, hotel or agency to finish the transaction. That is deliberate, but it does mean you handle the booking itself elsewhere.

Drops is also narrower than it first sounds, and the deals it surfaces are flight deals, not packages, so hotels and cars remain separate searches.

A comparison tool worth keeping on your phone

Skyscanner does one job well: it shows you what flights, hotels and rental cars cost across a wide range of providers, then lets you decide. The calendar view, Price Alerts and saved trips make it useful over the life of a trip rather than just at the moment of booking, and Drops adds a reason to open the app even when you have nothing planned.

If you prefer to book everything in one place, or you already know exactly which provider you want, the comparison step will feel like extra work.

For everyone else, it is a free, ad-supported tool with a long history and a large user base behind it, and it earns a place on the phone for the next time a trip comes up.

What's new in version 7.211

This just in. Drops. Our brand-new app-exclusive feature is your next travel hack to get the best deal for your next trip. Every day, we’re sifting through billions of travel prices hunting for the best flight price drops of at least 20% to anywhere in the world. Simply tell us where you like to fly from, and watch the deals roll in. Whether you’re feeling a little spontaneous or got your eye on somewhere specific, check Drops for the latest prices from your top airport.