Travel search engine, flight comparison, hotels, car rental, metasearch, price alerts, trip planning, travel marketplace, Trip.com Group, and online booking discovery

Skyscanner

Skyscanner is a travel search website and app that helps people compare flights, hotels, and car rentals from many travel providers before choosing where to book.

Core service

Skyscanner compares flights, hotels, and car rentals across many travel partners and provider sites.

Founded

Skyscanner says it began in 2003 as a way to show flight options in one place.

Parent company

Skyscanner says it was acquired by Ctrip, now Trip.com Group, in 2016.

Skyscanner is a travel search website and app for comparing flights, hotels, car rentals, and travel provider prices.View image on original site

What Skyscanner is

Skyscanner is a travel search website and app for comparing trip options. On Skyscanner, people can search flights, hotels, and car rentals, then compare prices, routes, dates, providers, filters, and booking choices before moving to a travel partner or provider.

How travel search works

Skyscanner is best understood as a metasearch service. It gathers travel options from airlines, hotels, car rental companies, online travel agencies, and other partners, then places those results into searchable comparison pages. The user can sort and filter results instead of checking many travel sites one by one.

Flights, hotels, and cars

Flights are the service most closely associated with Skyscanner, but the site also covers hotels and car rentals. Its tools are built around price comparison, flexible dates, destinations, travel partners, alerts, and practical filters such as stops, departure time, airline, cabin, property type, and rental provider.

Booking path

A Skyscanner result is not always the final seller. Many searches send the traveler to an airline, hotel site, car rental company, or online travel agency to complete the purchase. That means the final price, payment flow, cancellation policy, baggage rules, loyalty benefits, and customer support can depend on the provider selected at checkout.

Growth and ownership

Skyscanner says three friends started the company in 2003 to make flight comparison simpler. Its about page says the service now reaches more than 100 million monthly users across the app and website, and that it was acquired by Ctrip, now Trip.com Group, in 2016.

Why it matters

Travel metasearch made trip planning more transparent for many users. A single search can show competing fares, hotel rates, rental offers, and route combinations. The tradeoff is that travelers still need to judge provider reliability, sponsored placements, fees, refund terms, baggage costs, and whether the final booking page matches what the comparison page suggested.

Limits and tradeoffs

Skyscanner can simplify comparison, but travel prices change quickly and not every provider appears in every result. Some cheap fares may have tight restrictions, inconvenient schedules, extra fees, or limited support. The most useful approach is to treat the site as a discovery and comparison layer, then read the final provider terms carefully before paying.

WHOIS domain data

Data pulled: May 19, 2026View current WHOIS record

Domain: skyscanner.com
IP address: 13.248.155.102
Registrar: Nom-iq Ltd. dba COM LAUDE
WHOIS server: whois.comlaude.com
Referral URL: http://www.comlaude.com
Created: July 3, 2002
Updated: October 17, 2025
Expires: July 3, 2026
Nameservers: ns1.skyscanner-dns.co.uk (205.251.195.103); ns1.skyscanner-dns.org (205.251.198.28); ns2.skyscanner-dns.co.uk (205.251.195.214); ns2.skyscanner-dns.org (205.251.193.35)
Domain status: clientDeleteProhibited; clientTransferProhibited; clientUpdateProhibited; serverDeleteProhibited; serverTransferProhibited; serverUpdateProhibited
Contact privacy: Registrant organization is listed as Skyscanner Ltd in GB, with registrant, admin, and technical contact details redacted or anonymised.

Key concepts

Metasearcha search layer that compares results from many other travel providers.
Providerthe airline, hotel, rental company, travel agency, or partner that may complete the booking.
Price alerta tool that watches selected routes or trips and notifies users when prices change.
Flexible searcha way to compare nearby dates, destinations, or airports when a traveler has room to adjust plans.

Website features

Flight search with filters for stops, airlines, times, airports, duration, price, and booking provider.
Hotel and car rental comparison tools for rounding out a trip after a flight search.
Search Everywhere and flexible-date tools for travelers who want destination or timing ideas.
Mobile app tools for alerts, saved trips, destination inspiration, and travel planning.

Common misconceptions

Skyscanner is not always the company selling the ticket, room, or car rental.
The lowest visible price may not include every fee, baggage rule, refund term, or support tradeoff.
A comparison page is a snapshot; travel prices and availability can change before checkout.
Sponsored or partner results should still be compared against schedule, policy, and provider reputation.

Open questions

How should travel comparison sites explain total trip cost when provider fees vary so much?
How visible should sponsored placements and partner relationships be in search results?
How can travel tools balance cheaper fares with reliability, flexibility, and customer support?
How will AI trip-planning features change the way people compare flights and destinations?