Open travel notebook with passport and boarding pass on a teak desk at golden hour

Guide topic

Brand manuals

Brand manuals explain one booking company at a time: what it is, whether it is legit, how to use it, hidden catches, and when to skip it. Start with Skyscanner or Google Flights for search, then open the manual for the OTA or marketplace you are about to pay — not after a bad refund.

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Which brand manual should you read first?

Read Skyscanner or Google Flights if you are still searching. Read Trip.com, Booking.com or Kiwi if you are about to pay an OTA. Read Gotogate or MyTrip before you confirm a cheap Skyscanner click-out. Read GetYourGuide, Viator or Klook before you buy a timed ticket.

The manuals are not interchangeable. Metasearch (Skyscanner, Kayak, Momondo, Trivago) compares and redirects. OTAs (Trip.com, Booking.com, Kiwi, Expedia) take your money. Marketplaces (GetYourGuide, Viator, Klook) sell tours fulfilled by someone else. Paying the wrong layer is how refunds stall.

If a Skyscanner result is an OTA you cannot name, open that OTA’s manual — or skip to [Trip.com](/guides/trip-com-complete-guide) or the airline. The [travel resources](/travel-resources) wall lists live affiliate partners with the matching guide under each card.

Does TravelShifu earn from every brand in these manuals?

No. Only live partners in the partner list produce affiliate links — Trip.com, Kiwi, Aviasales, Booking.com, Agoda, Hostelworld, Vrbo, GetYourGuide, Viator and Klook among them. Kayak, Momondo, Expedia, Airbnb, Trivago and Gotogate are editorial unless a page says otherwise.

Editorial brands still get an honest manual. We will not pretend a commission exists, and we will not hide a commission that does. Partner cards on each guide are labelled Ad · affiliate link.

What if the cheapest click-out has terrible reviews?

Walk away if the saving is small. Prefer the airline, then a named higher-trust OTA such as Trip.com. Gotogate and MyTrip are the usual Skyscanner cheap-click names — their manuals exist so you read the Trustpilot file before you pay, not after a refund stall.

A low Trustpilot score with a huge sample is a service-risk price. It is not a scam-or-not binary. UK credit-card Section 75 over £100 is a backstop, not a reason to book the worst desk on purpose.