Editor's note: Hotels.com is now part of the One Key travel rewards program, which you can read more about here. This article is being updated to reflect that change.

Online travel agencies like Hotels.com act as the go-between for you and travel companies, helping to facilitate all your travel needs. Hotels.com — as the name suggests — focuses on accommodations. Let’s take a look at how Hotels.com works, its loyalty program and ways to save money when booking with Hotels.com.

How does Hotels.com work?

Like other OTAs, Hotels.com works to bring together a variety of accommodation options. Once you’ve input your information, you’ll complete a search and the website will return its results.

Perhaps the biggest benefit you’ll find when searching through an OTA rather than a single hotel’s website is that OTAs will gather information from multiple sources. This means that you’ll find results from several hotel chains, such as Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt and boutique hotels — all in a single search.

In contrast, searching through Hilton’s website will only return you results for available Hilton hotels.