Kayak

One chilly evening in late December 2003, two influential inventors of the web travel business met up for dinner. During their dinner conversation former Travelocity CEO Terry Jones and Steve Hafner, who recently resigned as EVP of Orbitz talked about their success and expressed their regrets of why they hadn’t used their products.   Terry and Steve shared a mutual vision to build their business: to substitute travel agents. Their dinner conversation led to a business plan, of creating a company that would give airlines leads instead of directly selling tickets. They would collect money on a pay per click basis, plus there won’t even be any hassle of extra payment for the customer- services, with very few employees.

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The dream company: Kayak is a travel search engine, aiding users by viewing the internet to acquire several different alternatives on flights, hotels, rental cars. It is mainly about providing users with information, to make the right choice in regards to traveling. Unlike other travel websites, Kayak is unique on its own, meaning they don’t sell anything. They aim to allow users to know their options and choices to find the best deal available.   Kayak uses several useful tools and features to obtain the correct information.

• Price Alerts - monitors fares on flights and hotels, sending notification via email, so that users are always updated about new deals.
• Trips - coordinates all the travel information of the users into an itinerary that can be edited and add to plan out the entire holiday.
• Explore - Travelling is expensive, and the budget may be tight, but Explore is there to help out, it shows approximately how much you would need to spend at different destinations.
• Flex Search - allows viewers to see how much money they can save if they are flexible with their travel dates.
• Private Deals - just by signing into KAYAK, it allows viewers to save more on hotels and rental cars.
• Price Forest - assists users to make a decision based on when to book or wait for a flight

      Pros and cons? Kayak’s popularity had spread all across the world but still, some users may wonder why they should and shouldn’t use the information based on Kayak.   Pros:

• Prices are directly shown from the carrier and third-party websites.
• There is a price trend predictor.
• Instant search result.
• Almost any travel method can be booked on Kayak.
• User-friendly website and app.

  Cons:

• Cannot book any travel method directly via Kayak, might be an inconvenience for several users.
• Hotel search results might be mainly based on information provided by third-party booking sites.
• Since it is only a search engine no loyalty program.

  Since the starting of Kayak, its popularity has gained worldwide acknowledgment and its success speaks for itself. Kayak is available in 20 languages with 35 million visits a month. It has gained approximately $200 million in investment funding by 2007. In 2013, Kayak was acquired by Priceline for around $1.8 billion.   Kayak provides users with legit information based on extensive research. It is easy to use and presents quick results.Kayak aims to continuously grow and offer more services through further expansion in the future. It’s an amazing tool to utilize for planning a trip. What makes Kayak so spectacular is that after comparing several other online travel agencies, Kayak presents the users with the best deal available without the users having to visit each website. One can say, Kayak is a 1 stop shop for researching and planning a splendid holiday.   Website link: Click Here

Written by: Ramisha Rahman

Reference: Investopedia, Kayak.com      

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