Kayak (company)

Last updated

Kayak
Kayak Logo.svg
Screenshot
Kayak.com screenshot.jpg
Type of site
 Subsidiary
Available in18 languages
FoundedJanuary 14, 2004;20 years ago (2004-01-14)
Headquarters Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.
Area servedGlobal
Founder(s) Steve Hafner
Paul M. English
Key peopleSteve Hafner (CEO)
Ko Baryiames (CTO)
Amy Wei (CCO)
Peer Bueller (CFO)
Tore Pein Jensen (CMO)
Industry Travel
Technology
Products Travel agency
Metasearch engine
Revenue US$292.7 million (2012) [1]
Parent Booking Holdings
Subsidiaries SWOODOO
Checkfelix
Mundi
Hotels Combined
URL www.kayak.com
LaunchedFebruary 7, 2005 (2005-02-07) (Public) [2]
Native client(s) on iOS, Android, watchOS, Amazon Alexa, Facebook Messenger

Kayak (styled as KAYAK) is a metasearch engine for travel services, including airline flights, hotels, rental cars, and vacation packages. [3] It is owned and operated by Booking Holdings. [4]

Contents

Kayak's website and mobile apps are currently available in about 20 languages and 30 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, [5] Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Australia, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Belgium, Korea, Japan, and Singapore.

History

Kayak was founded in January 2004 by Steve Hafner and Paul M. English. [6] [7] Before Kayak, Steve Hafner, Kayak's current CEO, helped found Orbitz in November 1999 and led its business development, advertising sales, marketing, and product marketing activities. [8]

The company was originally named Travel Search Company, Inc. and the name was changed to Kayak Software Corporation in August 2004. [9]

The website launched in February 2005. [2]

In December 2007, Kayak raised $196 million in financing from a group of investors including General Catalyst, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, and Oak Investment Partners. Using that funding, Kayak acquired SideStep, another online travel agency. [10] [11]

On March 5, 2010, Kayak sold certain assets related to TravelPost. [12]

In May 2010, Kayak acquired German travel search platform Swoodoo. [13]

In January 2011, Kayak shut down SideStep and redirected SideStep traffic to Kayak.com. [14]

In April 2011, Kayak acquired all of the outstanding shares of JaBo Vertrieb-und Entwicklung GmbH, or JaBo Software, operator Checkfelix, a travel search engine in Austria. [15]

On July 20, 2012, Kayak became a public company via an initial public offering. On its first day of trading, Kayak opened at $26 per share and closed at $33.18 per share. [16]

On May 21, 2013, Booking Holdings, then known as Priceline.com, acquired the company for $2.1 billion. [17]

In September 2013, Kayak announced an office move to the Harbor Point district of Stamford, aided by a $2.5 million loan from the state of Connecticut. [18]

In 2017, the company acquired Mundi, a Brazilian flight metasearch company. [19]

In 2018, Kayak assumed leadership of Hotels Combined, which was acquired by parent company, Booking Holdings. [20]

In 2024, Kayak added fares from Southwest Airlines to its listings. [21]

Awards

In 2013, Travel + Leisure included Kayak's app in its list of the Best Apps for Business Travelers [22] as well as its list for the Best Apps for websites and travelers. [23]

Time named Kayak on its list of the 50 Best Websites of 2009. [24]

Mashable included Kayak in first place for the website's list, "10 Budget Airfare Tools Every Traveler Should Know in 2012". [25]

Kayak won the following Webby Awards:

The World Travel Awards presented Kayak with the World's Leading Flight Comparison Website award in 2013 and the World's Leading Travel Search Website award in 2011. [33]

All-American Muslim advertising

In December 2011, Kayak announced that it would not renew a contract to advertise on the TLC reality television show All-American Muslim . The decision followed a campaign by the Florida Family Association, a one-man fundamentalist organization focused on “defending American values". [34] [35] In a statement posted to the Kayak website, Kayak Chief Marketing Officer, Robert Birge, wrote that TLC “was not upfront with us about the nature of the show”. [36]

Related Research Articles

Tripadvisor, Inc. is an American company that operates online travel agencies, comparison shopping websites, and mobile apps with user-generated content.

Cheapflights is a travel fare metasearch engine. The website is part of the Kayak.com subsidiary of Booking Holdings.

Mobissimo is a travel metasearch engine website based in San Francisco, California. It allows consumers to compare prices on flights, hotels, and car rentals. The company offers country-specific websites in North America, Brazil, Mexico, France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Germany, the UK, India and Japan.

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Agoda.com is an online travel agency catering to customers around the world, registered and headquarters in Singapore with operations in Bangkok, Thailand. Agoda facilitates reservations for accommodation, flights, ground transportation, and activities. It is a subsidiary of Booking Holdings.

Momondo is a travel fare aggregator and travel fare metasearch engine. momondo was founded in Denmark and is today managed by KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings.

HomeAway was a vacation rental marketplace. It operated through 50 websites in 23 languages through which it offered rentals of cabins, condos, castles, villas, barns, and farmhouses.

Rome2Rio is an Australian online multimodal transport journey planner offering travel services globally. The company is based in Melbourne, Australia, and is owned by the German online travel comparison and booking website Omio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tripping.com</span> Online search engine

Tripping.com, a subsidiary of HomeToGo, is an online search engine and review aggregator for vacation rentals. It aggregates over 10 million listings in more than 150,000 cities worldwide. It is based in San Francisco, California. Tripping.com partners with and displays listings from booking websites including Booking.com, HomeAway, Vrbo, FlipKey, Roomorama, Interhome, Novasol, Wimdu, ZenRentals, Bedycasa, WayToStay, Gloveler, HolidayVelvet, 9flats, AlwaysOnVacation, RedAwning, and Housetrip. Users can search by price, ratings, location and features and amenities.

Mozio is a New York City-based transportation-search engine company that aggregates ground transportation data and plans trips to and from an airport. Mozio coordinates buses, trains, boats, rapid transit, and other types of transit to allow users to arrive at the airport as fast as possible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wanderu Inc.</span>

Wanderu Inc. is a ground and air travel metasearch engine that operates throughout North America and Europe. It provides a search and booking platform for buses, trains, flights, and ferries through its website and mobile app. Founded in 2012, Wanderu is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

Tripfez Travel is an online travel agency and metasearch engine focusing on Muslims and Halal tourism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HotelTonight</span> Hotel booking company

HotelTonight is a travel agency and metasearch engine owned by Airbnb and accessible via website and mobile app. It is used to book last-minute lodging in the Americas, Europe, Japan and Australia.

eDreams ODIGEO is a Spanish online travel company that was formed in 2011 as the successor of eDreams with the merger of online travel agencies eDreams and GO Voyages, and the acquisition of Opodo.

Roomkey, formerly Room Key, was a hotel metasearch engine. Roomkey was a joint venture founded by Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, and Wyndham Worldwide, or their respective affiliates. There were over 45,000 hotels in 150 countries listed on Room Key, including 60 brands.

Lastminute.com N.V. is the owner of several travel brands including lastminute.com, Volagratis, Rumbo, Bravofly, Jetcost, Crocierissime.it, weg.de, and Hotelscan.

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Booking Holdings Inc. is an American travel technology company incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law and based in Norwalk, Connecticut, that owns and operates several travel fare aggregators and travel fare metasearch engines including namesake and flagship Booking.com, Priceline.com, Agoda, Kayak, Cheapflights, Rentalcars.com, Momondo, and OpenTable. It operates websites in about 40 languages and 200 countries.

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Lola.com is a software as a service (SaaS) company based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is best known for developing corporate travel management and expense software for web browsers, the App Store and Google Play. The company was founded in 2015 by former Kayak.com executives, Paul M. English and Bill O'Donnell.

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References

  1. ↑ King, Danny (April 3, 2013). "Kayak turns 2012 profit". Travel Weekly.
  2. 1 2 Schaal, Dennis (January 30, 2012). "Kayak redesign: How and why they did it". Phocuswire.
  3. ↑ Peterson, Lucas (April 18, 2017). "Which Travel Search Site Is Best? It Depends on Your Goals". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  4. ↑ "Kayak.com: Private Company Overview". Bloomberg L.P.
  5. ↑ Perez, Sarah (July 20, 2012). "Kayak Is Headed To Russia". TechCrunch .
  6. ↑ "The Billion-Dollar Travel Agent". Boston . January 9, 2018.
  7. ↑ "The Way I Work: Paul English of Kayak". inc.com. Retrieved April 14, 2023.
  8. ↑ Timmins, Beth; Cox, Josie (April 26, 2017). "A View from the Top: Steve Hafner, founder of travel comparison site Kayak". The Independent . London.
  9. ↑ "Kayak Software Corporation 2012 Form 10-K Annual Report". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission .
  10. ↑ Arrington, Michael (December 20, 2007). "Breaking: Kayak Raises $196 Million, Buys Rival SideStep". TechCrunch .
  11. ↑ Luzadder, Dan (December 21, 2007). "Kayak.com, SideStep to merge in $196 million deal". Travel Weekly.
  12. ↑ Schaal, Dennis (February 11, 2011). "Kayak has stake in TravelPost rollout". Phocuswire.
  13. ↑ Zinnagl, Lukas (May 6, 2010). "Kayak swoops on German travel search engine Swoodoo [Updated]". TechCrunch .
  14. ↑ Rao, Leena (May 27, 2011). "in-front-of-its-ipo-kayak-reports-growth-in-revenue-but-income-down". TechCrunch .
  15. ↑ May, Kevin (April 5, 2011). "Kayak buys Austrian travel search engine Checkfelix". Phocuswire.
  16. ↑ Empson, Rip (July 20, 2012). "That'll Fly: Kayak Closes IPO Day With Shares Up Nearly 30% And Market Cap Over $1.2B". Techcrunch .
  17. ↑ "PCLN Form 10-Q". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
  18. ↑ "Gov. Malloy: Kayak to Expand and Create 50 Jobs in Stamford" (Press release). Connecticut. September 25, 2013.
  19. ↑ O'Neill, Sean (August 4, 2017). "Kayak Acquires Assets of Struggling Brazilian Metasearch Company Mundi". Skift .
  20. ↑ Schaal, Dennis (July 9, 2018). "Booking Holdings Buys HotelsCombined as Kayak Expands Into Asia Pacific". Skift .
  21. ↑ Schaal, Dennis (August 5, 2024). "Kayak Can Now Show Southwest Flights – Finally". Skift .
  22. ↑ Brown Hunt, Katrina; Samiljan, Tom (October 14, 2013). "Best Apps for Business Travelers". Travel + Leisure.
  23. ↑ Rop, Gideon (January 8, 2015). "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Kayak.com". DPO Group. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  24. ↑ Fisher, Adam (August 24, 2009). "50 Best Websites 2009" . Time .
  25. ↑ "10 Budget Airfare Tools Every Traveler Should Know". Mashable . July 26, 2012.
  26. ↑ "2008 People's Voice: KAYAK.COM". Webby Award.
  27. ↑ "2009 Webby Award Winner: KAYAK.COM". Webby Award.
  28. ↑ "Kayak Mobile For Iphone". Webby Award.
  29. ↑ "We Won Three Webby Awards – Thanks to You". Kayak. May 1, 2012.
  30. ↑ "2013 Nominee: KAYAK - MOBILE SITES & APPS". Webby Award.
  31. ↑ "2014 People's Voice / Webby Award Winner: KAYAK Technology Team". Webby Award.
  32. ↑ "2015 People's Voice: KAYAK - MOBILE SITES & APPS". Webby Award.
  33. ↑ "Kayak". World Travel Awards.
  34. ↑ Freedman, Samuel G. (December 16, 2011). "Waging a One-Man War on American Muslims" . The New York Times .
  35. ↑ Diaz, Johnny (December 14, 2011). "Kayak won't renew ads on Muslim TV show" . The Boston Globe .
  36. ↑ Elliott, Stuart (December 14, 2011). "Kayak Defends Cutting Ties to 'All-American Muslim'" . The New York Times.
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