Is hotels.com legit?

65
/ 100
Mostly Safe
Industry: Travel

Hotels.com appears to be a legitimate and established travel booking platform, but a critical issue with site accessibility significantly lowers its current trustworthiness. While its long domain history and robust email security are strong positive indicators, you currently cannot access the service.

Travel average: 74/100 · based on 25 sites

Checked: April 18, 2026 at 8:10 AM UTC · Refresh

Is hotels.com a scam? Here's what we found.

Security 90/100

The site uses a modern TLS 1.3 encryption, ensuring secure connections, and Google's Web Risk scanner found no threats, which are solid security practices.

Identity 95/100

The domain has an impressive age of over 32 years, establishing a strong historical presence, and is registered with a reputable corporate registrar, indicating stability.

Reputation 80/100

Despite not having a Trustpilot profile, which is odd for such a prominent brand, the high Tranco rank confirms it as a widely recognized and trafficked website, showing significant market presence.

Transparency 60/100

The missing favicon is a minor oversight for a site of this stature, but the critical issue of the site being unreachable severely impacts its current usability and therefore perceived openness.

Compliance 85/100

No specific red flags regarding compliance were found, which, combined with its established nature, suggests typical adherence to necessary legal frameworks for a large travel booking site.

Infrastructure 50/100

While DNS resolution and email configurations (SPF, DMARC) are excellent, the fundamental problem of the website being unreachable is a critical infrastructure failure that needs immediate attention.

Signals Detected

[+]
Tranco Rank: Rank #3312

This is a well-known, high-traffic website

[-]
Website: Unreachable

Could not load website: Get "http://hotels.com": context deadline exceeded (Client.Timeout exceeded while awaiting headers)

[?]
Trustpilot: No Trustpilot profile

This business has no Trustpilot presence — not unusual for smaller or newer companies

[+]
Domain Age: 32 years, 6 months

Domain created 1994-03-30T05:00:00Z (32 years, 6 months ago)

[?]
Registrar: CSC Corporate Domains, Inc.

Registered through CSC Corporate Domains, Inc.

[+]
Domain Expiry: 2027-03-31T04:00:00Z

Expires in 346 days

[+]
DNSSEC: unsigned

DNSSEC status from WHOIS

[+]
SSL Certificate: Valid

Valid certificate, expires in 80 days

[?]
Certificate Issuer: Let's Encrypt

Certificate issued by Let's Encrypt

[+]
TLS Version: TLS 1.3

Connection uses TLS 1.3

[?]
Certificate Transparency: Unable to check

crt.sh returned status 429

[~]
Branding: Missing

No favicon found — unusual for an established business

[~]
Site Reachable: Unreachable

Could not reach site: Head "https://hotels.com": stream error: stream ID 7; INTERNAL_ERROR; received from peer

[+]
Google Web Risk: Clean

No threats detected by Google Web Risk

[+]
DNS Resolution: 3 IP(s)

Resolves to: 2a02:26f0:1700:384::277d, 2a02:26f0:1700:383::277d, 23.209.209.213

[+]
Email (MX Records): 2 record(s)

Mail servers: mxa.expediagroup.com., mxb.expediagroup.com.

[+]
SPF Record: Present

Domain has SPF email authentication configured

[+]
DMARC Record: Present

Domain has DMARC email authentication configured

[?]
Name Servers: 10 server(s)

DNS providers: pdns4.ultradns.org., pdns5.ultradns.info., dns1.p09.nsone.net., dns2.p09.nsone.net., dns3.p09.nsone.net., dns4.p09.nsone.net., pdns6.ultradns.co.uk., pdns1.ultradns.net., pdns2.ultradns.net., pdns3.ultradns.org.

[?]
Sitemap: Not found

No sitemap found — common for smaller sites

[+]
DNS Blacklists: Clean

Not found on any DNS blacklists

[?]
Web Archive: Unable to check

Could not query Wayback Machine

[?]
robots.txt: Not found

No robots.txt file — common for small sites

Embed This Badge

Own this site? Show visitors your trust score.

Trust badge for hotels.com
<a href="https://verified.fyi/review/hotels.com"><img src="https://verified.fyi/badge/hotels.com?size=medium&style=full&theme=dark" alt="hotels.com trust score — verified.fyi" /></a>
[![hotels.com trust score](https://verified.fyi/badge/hotels.com?size=medium&style=full&theme=dark)](https://verified.fyi/review/hotels.com)

Stay Safe Online

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When evaluating a travel booking site like Hotels.com, the first thing consumers look for is reliability and a seamless experience. This platform has a strong foundation, boasting over three decades in operation, which is a significant indicator of a well-established and persistent business. This long history usually translates to robust operations and customer service, typical of leading travel industry players. However, a critical red flag in our analysis is the site's current inaccessibility. For a platform that hinges entirely on users being able to browse and book accommodations, an unreachable website is a severe impediment. While the underlying security infrastructure, such as modern TLS encryption and strong email authentication (SPF and DMARC records), are all present and well-configured, these are moot if you can't actually get to the site. Legitimate travel booking sites pride themselves on 24/7 availability, especially given the global nature of travel. For consumers, this means that while Hotels.com possesses many of the hallmarks of a trustworthy brand, its current technical difficulties make it unreliable for immediate use. When booking travel, look for consistent uptime and a clear path to customer support. Always ensure the booking platform is actually functioning before committing any personal or payment information. When the site is back online, its excellent domain age and high traffic suggest it would otherwise be a reliable choice for your travel needs.