How trivago Works

trivago is a metasearch engine that compares accommodation prices and offers provided to us by many different booking sites globally, including online travel agencies (OTAs), accommodation chains and independent hotels. This means that while users decide on trivago which hotel best suits their needs, the booking process itself is completed through the booking sites, which are linked to our website. You can find out more about how our site works here.

Meanwhile, a booking site or Online Travel Agency (OTA) is a web-based marketplace that allows consumers to research and book travel products and services, including hotels, flights, cars, cruises, activities and more, directly with travel suppliers.

The hotel or booking site is mentioning a ‘Room Supplier’ - who or what is this?!

In order to facilitate customer booking requests, some booking sites will work with room suppliers. Room Suppliers are companies that purchase rooms from accommodation providers in bulk and, in turn, sell them on to booking sites, travel agents or tour operators. They sell directly to other businesses and do not have any direct dealings with consumers - this part is left to the booking sites!

It can sometimes happen that the reservation details will initially be recorded in the hotel’s booking management system under the supplier’s name and the guest’s personal details will not be released until closer to the arrival date. For any questions regarding the status of your reservation, it’s always best to contact the booking site you booked with directly.

Other frequently asked questions…

• How can I cancel or make changes to my booking?
• Where is my booking confirmation?
• How do I know if the booking site is legitimate?
• Why doesn’t the property have my reservation?

We are a metasearch engine that compares accommodation prices and offers provided to us by many different online booking sites. We compare and display different offers from many booking sites, and they pay us a fee if a user clicks on their specific deal. We are not a party to any booking agreement between you and the site or accommodation you book with. We do not collect any payments for your stay and are not liable for the services offered by the booking site and the accommodation provider.

trivago works with many booking sites worldwide, including online travel agencies, as well as accommodation chains and independent hotels. In total, trivago’s sites cover more than 2.5 million hotels and other types of accommodations across approximately 190 countries. 

With trivago Book & Go we provide services throughout the booking process by enabling you to select a room and facilitate the reservation between you and selected booking sites and accommodation providers. With trivago Book & Go we promote offers for accommodation in cooperation with selected partners who operate online booking sites. We believe that through our trusted brand and the services of trivago Book & Go, we can learn and give you a better and more consistent overview of all the information you need when considering booking a deal.

We collect a fixed percentage fee from those selected partners for any bookings that you ultimately make. Please note that we are not a party to any booking agreement between you and our selected partners who operate the online booking sites. We do not collect any payments from you for your stay. Any hotel product or service booked, and after-booking support is provided by one of our selected partners. We always aim to clearly inform you about who our selected partner is, before clicking on “Confirm booking” on the checkout page.

The "our recommendations" feature is based on a dynamic algorithm that shows you a range of attractive and relevant offers we think you’re going to love. We display in green a “recommended deal” which our algorithm recommends as a great offer. Our algorithm takes into account a number of relevant factors, such as your search criteria (for example your location and stay dates), the offer’s price, its general attractiveness and the accuracy of the rates provided to us by the booking sites. We also take into account the fee booking sites provide us with when a user clicks on an offer. We require booking sites to meet a de minimis fee requirement for any particular offer to be listed on our site.

Below to the "recommended deal", we display additional offers to allow you to compare other deals for the same accommodation. You may find a lower price offer below the recommended deal that is displayed as “our lowest price”. While price is an important factor when selecting our "recommended deal", we believe other factors, such as those mentioned above, make offers attractive and relevant to you and contribute to high levels of satisfaction by our users.

Ultimately, our mission is to give you the information and tools to help you find your ideal accommodation.

You can use alternative sort filters to help you explore the different accommodation offers on our site. You can sort your results thanks to the drop-down menu on our search results page which, in addition to ‘our recommendations’ sort, allows you to sort, according to additional or different factors, by: ‘rating & recommended’, ‘price & recommended’ and ‘distance & recommended’. These options combine ‘our recommendations’ sort (which is described above) with a focus on either ratings, price or location; it’s up to you! 

If you have a preference for accommodations with strong positive ratings (over location or price) the ‘rating & recommended’ sort will boost the importance of ratings in your search results. If you’re all about location, location, location, you can boost the location factor in our algorithm by choosing the ‘distance & recommended’ option. Keep in mind though that the distance filter default is from the city centre. If you want to change this to a different point of interest, such as a top attraction, you can use the additional filter option under “Location” of our site to select your preference. Did someone say Eiffel Tower? 

Alternatively, you can rank accommodation offers according to only rating, price or location. This removes the ‘our recommendation’ sort algorithm from the ranking process, except for offers which are the same based on your chosen setting, i.e. which have the same rating, price or location. In these cases we use ‘our recommendations’ sort to determine the order of these accommodations. 

You can also apply other filter options to your search, such as ‘WiFi’, ‘spa’, or even ‘pet friendly’ if you fancy bringing pooch along on the holiday too. These options are found under the “More filters” tab.  

We are a metasearch engine that compares accommodation offers, not a booking site. When you click on an accommodation offer, we transfer you to the booking site that is offering you the deal you have chosen.

trivago works with many different websites, and the rates and availability they provide us with change constantly. trivago frequently updates its site to try to ensure that the information you see on our site is correct. On occasion though, you may not find the exact same offer you clicked on when you land on the booking site. This can be for a number of reasons. Perhaps the booking site gave us inaccurate information, or maybe they have sold out of the rates they offered us – everyone loves a good deal!

In this case, we recommend clearing your cache and performing the search again.  If the discrepancy is still there, please contact us so we can deal with the issue ASAP. 

We scan many available guest review and rating sources across the web on a daily basis. We aggregate these reviews and ratings, and convert them using our Rating Index® that ranges from 0 to 10 (10 is the highest possible rating). You can find more details in relation to accommodation-specific ratings by clicking on the accommodation’s guest rating score.

For further information relating to our rating system, please see here.

Our forecasted price for specific properties reflects the median price for the property clicked on by trivago users over the past six months, adjusted for seasonal effects.

Our forecast is based on prices for two guests, but does not consider different room types and amenities (e.g. free breakfast, free cancellation) that may be included in the group of prices used to determine the forecast.

We display the Less than usual badge when the price for the selected property is lower than our forecasted price as we believe it indicates that the price represents good value.

Expedia, Inc. owns the majority of shares in trivago. For further information in relation to our company, please see here.

For trivago's postal address and email address, see here.

If you have an issue and require assistance, we recommend checking out our FAQs. Here, you should hopefully be able to find the answer to your question.

Alternatively, if you would like to submit a complaint or require additional assistance, click on the contact form link. On the contact form, select the issue/request that best suits your needs, fill out all necessary information fields, then click "Submit".

Your feedback helps us continuously improve our product and create the best possible experience for you. 

While we don't have a direct phone number, you should be able to find the answer to your problem in one of our articles, here are some of the most frequently asked:  

• Coronavirus (COVID-19) travel advice
• How can I cancel or make changes to my booking?
• Where is my booking confirmation? 
• What is trivago? 

As a metasearch, trivago is not directly involved in the booking or payment process, so if your question relates to these topics, please reach out to the booking site directly.