What Is Metasearch?
Metasearch is a travel price comparison service. Sites such as Google, Trivago, Kayak and Tripadvisor show one hotel's rates from several booking sites side by side and send the traveller to the chosen site to book, usually charging that site per click or per booking.
Last updated: October 2026
How metasearch works
A hotel metasearch engine collects real-time rates and availability from many booking sites and shows them together for each hotel (Hospitality Net). The traveller compares the offers and clicks one. The metasearch site then sends them to that provider, which takes the reservation and the payment. Hospitality Net calls this a traffic-referral model (Hospitality Net).
The offers on the page come from OTAs and from hotels selling on their own websites. Some companies sit on both sides. Booking.com is an OTA, and its parent Booking Holdings also runs KAYAK, which it describes as providing "online meta-search services that allow consumers to easily search and compare travel itineraries" (Booking Holdings 10-K).
Most metasearch sites charge advertisers per click (Hospitality Net). trivago also offers cost-per-acquisition (CPA) pricing, where "an advertiser pays us a percentage of the booking amount that ultimately results from a referral" (trivago 20-F).
Google runs its own version. Hotels, often through a connectivity partner, send rates and availability to Google Hotel Center, which feeds both Google's ads and its free booking links (Google Hotel Center Help). Hotel ads are paid links ranked by Google's ad auction. Free booking links are unpaid and ranked by how useful they are to travellers, and bids have no effect on that ranking (Google Hotel Center Help).
Outside travel, the word has a wider meaning: a metasearch engine is any search tool that uses the results of one or more other search engines to build its own. Skyscanner and Kayak apply that idea to travel (Wikipedia).
Why it matters for hotel distribution
Metasearch puts the sites that advertise a hotel's rooms on one page, in front of a traveller who is ready to compare prices. A hotel can advertise its direct rate alongside the OTA listings for the same room (Hospitality Net).
On trivago, the biggest advertisers are OTAs: trivago says it earns "the great majority" of its revenue from its largest OTA advertisers, naming Booking.com, Agoda, priceline.com and the Expedia Group brands. At the end of 2025, Expedia Group owned 59.2% of trivago's issued shares and 83.9% of the voting power (trivago 20-F). On metasearch, a hotel competes directly with OTAs for the same booking (Hospitality Net).
Google is one of the most popular metasearch engines for hotels (Hospitality Net). Booking Holdings lists metasearch services among its competitors and notes that "Google links travel search to its dominant search engine" (Booking Holdings 10-K). Google charges no fee for free booking links, which gives a hotel a way onto the page without an ad budget (Google Hotel Center Help).
Vacation rentals work the same way. Google shows rental listings next to organic results in Search, Maps and Google Travel, with approximate location, rates, availability and booking links, and there are no fees for Google-generated referrals or bookings (Google Hotel Center Help). Partners that send accurate rates, up-to-date availability and content such as photos, descriptions, amenities and reviews get richer listings that link to their own pages (Google Hotel Center Help). The price a traveller sees is only as good as the data behind it.
Metasearch compared with other channels
| Metasearch | OTA | Direct booking engine | Channel manager | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A price comparison site | A booking website for travellers | The booking tool on a hotel's own website | Software that distributes inventory and rates consistently across channels (Hospitality Net) |
| Examples | Google Hotel Ads, Trivago, Kayak, Tripadvisor | Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda | A hotel's Book Now page | |
| Takes the booking? | No; sends the traveller to another site | Yes, with payment | Yes, the hotel keeps it | No; it is not a sales channel |
| Who pays whom | Advertisers pay it per click or per booking | The hotel pays the OTA a commission on each booking | The hotel keeps the booking; no OTA commission | The property pays the vendor; Jetstream's commission model is under Where Jetstream fits |
Google offers two kinds of placement, and a partner can appear in both for the same search (Google Hotel Center Help).
| Google hotel ads | Google free booking links | |
|---|---|---|
| Paid? | Yes | No fee |
| How they are ranked | Google's ad auction | Usefulness to travellers; bids have no effect |
Frequently asked questions
What is metasearch?
What does metasearch mean?
What are examples of metasearch engines?
Is Google a metasearch engine?
How do metasearch engines work?
Related terms
See all termsWhere Jetstream fits
A metasearch page can only show the rates and availability each booking site sends it. If one of those feeds is out of date, the traveller sees the wrong price or a room that is gone. Jetstream builds an AI channel manager that connects a property's reservation system to the channels where guests book. It keeps rooms, rates and availability accurate on each one, managed from one place. Jetstream earns a commission on the booking revenue it generates, with no monthly minimums or fixed management fees.