Trip.com: Book Flights, Hotels

Review by eFreeware

Trip.com is a free travel booking app from the company of the same name, listed under Travel & Local and sitting at a 4.7 average from more than 950,000 ratings. It has been available since 2013 and has passed 50 million installs, which puts it among the more established options in this category rather than a newcomer. The app has no ads and no in-app purchases.

The reason to consider it is breadth. Rather than handling one part of a trip, it covers flights, hotels, trains, car hire, guided tours, attraction tickets, e-sims and travel insurance in a single place. That makes it most interesting to people who would rather assemble a whole journey in one app than juggle several bookings across different services.

One app for the whole journey

The core of the app is search and booking across several travel categories. Flights come with live status updates and price alerts that flag when fares drop, and the developer describes cancellation options as flexible for when plans change.

Rail is treated as a first-class category rather than an afterthought. Tickets are sold for the UK, Europe and beyond, with a split ticketing feature intended to bring the cost down, and the app does not add payment fees on top.

What I like about this structure is that the pieces reinforce each other. A traveler who books a flight and a hotel in the same place avoids re-entering details and keeps the itinerary in one view. The trade-off is that a single app covering this much ground will not match the depth of a specialist service in any one area, and the developer's own emphasis on bundles suggests that is where the value is concentrated.

Flights, hotels and the booking guarantees

On the flight side, the app leans on flexibility and price awareness. Live status updates keep you informed about a booked service, and price alerts are there to tell you when a route is at its cheapest. The developer also mentions app-only discounts, which is the kind of claim worth treating as marketing until you compare a fare yourself.

Hotels come with two promises that are more concrete. If you find the same stay cheaper elsewhere, the app says it will match the price, and if a check-in problem leaves you without a room, it says it will find you another hotel. Booking a flight alongside the room is said to bring the hotel cost down by as much as a quarter.

Those guarantees are the sort of thing that matters more than interface polish when a trip goes wrong. They are stated commitments rather than features you can see, so the practical test is whether they hold up on a given booking. For a traveler who wants a safety net attached to a reservation, they are a reasonable part of the pitch.

Trains, cars and the smaller extras

The rail side is more developed than I would expect from a general booking app. Tickets are available for the UK, Europe and further afield, split ticketing is built in to reduce the fare, and the developer states there are no additional payment fees on train bookings. For anyone who travels by rail regularly, that combination is the most distinctive part of the offering.

The remaining categories fill in the gaps around a trip. Car hire covers the ground between stations and destinations, guided tours and attraction tickets handle what you do once you arrive, and e-sims and travel insurance cover connectivity and the unexpected. None of these are unusual on their own, but having them in the same app as the flight and the hotel is the point.

The most recent update adds a road trip map for planning drives, from short weekend escapes to long highway routes, with the ability to save a route you like. It is a planning tool rather than a booking one, and it sits slightly apart from the rest of the app, but it fits the broader idea of covering a trip from the first idea to the last leg.

Rewards, support and what you need to use it

Bookings earn Trip Coins, a travel credit that can be put toward later trips, and continued booking raises your membership tier. Higher tiers are said to bring benefits such as free airport lounge access. The mechanic rewards repeat use, so the value accumulates for someone who travels often rather than for a one-off booking.

Support is available around the clock, with English-speaking agents. Support replies in under 30 seconds, and calls made through the app cost nothing. Those are the developer's figures rather than something a review can verify, but the presence of a free in-app call route is a useful fallback when a booking needs attention.

Payment is handled through credit cards including Amex, debit cards, PayPal, Google Pay and Apple Pay. The app is free to download, with no ads and no in-app purchases. The practical requirements include having one of those payment methods to complete a reservation.

Where the trade-offs sit

The main trade-off is focus. An app that sells flights, hotels, trains, cars, tours, e-sims and insurance is spreading itself across a lot of ground, and the developer's own pitch leans on bundling a flight with a hotel to get the best hotel price. If your trip is a single train ticket or one night in a hotel, the bundle logic does less for you.

The rewards system is another consideration. Trip Coins and membership tiers only pay off if you keep booking through the app, so a traveler who spreads bookings across several services will accumulate little. Benefits such as lounge access sit at the higher tiers rather than being available from the first booking.

There is also the nature of the guarantees. Price matching, rebooking help and fast support responses are promises about how the service behaves when something goes wrong, and they are the developer's claims rather than visible features. They are worth weighing as part of the decision, but they are not the same as a feature you can evaluate before installing.

Who this app is built for

This app suits travelers who plan multi-part trips and want the pieces in one place. If a journey involves a flight, a hotel and a train, or a flight plus a car and a couple of attraction tickets, the appeal of booking them together is straightforward, and the hotel discount tied to a flight booking is aimed at exactly that pattern.

It also suits people who travel often enough for rewards to matter. Trip Coins and tier benefits reward repeat bookings, and the round-the-clock support with a free in-app call is reassuring for anyone booking across time zones or unfamiliar destinations. Rail travelers in the UK and Europe get a particularly strong set of features, with split ticketing and no added payment fees.

The airline and hotel names listed, including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, EasyJet, Hilton, Marriott and Premier Inn, suggest the app is oriented toward travelers booking well-known brands rather than hunting for the smallest independent options. That is a reasonable fit for most leisure and business trips, and it tells you what kind of inventory to expect.

A booking hub worth trying for multi-part trips

Trip.com works as a general travel booking app by covering more of a trip than most single-purpose tools. Flights, hotels, trains, car hire, tours, e-sims and insurance sit behind one free download, the rewards system gives repeat bookers something back, and support is available at any hour with a free call option. The 4.7 average from a large body of ratings suggests the approach works for a lot of people.

The case is strongest for travelers who book flights and hotels together and who return to the same app trip after trip. Rail users in the UK and Europe have extra reason to look, given split ticketing and the absence of payment fees. For a single booking, or for someone who prefers a specialist for each part of a trip, the bundle advantages carry less weight.

My recommendation is to install it and compare a route or a stay you already have in mind against what you would otherwise book. The guarantees and the rewards are the developer's promises, but the breadth of what the app covers is plain from the outset, and that is what makes it worth a place on your phone.

What's new in version 8.58.0

New road trip map is here! Drive coastal highways, cross snowcapped peaks, wander starlit plains, explore ancient streets... From weekend escapes to legendary highways—all on one map. Explore freely and save your perfect drive.