Kayak tips

Kayak this week released a tool that it says can read flight fare information from a screenshot and then search for a better price. 

Chase cardholders can book Southwest Airlines flights through the Chase Travel portal, and that’s a rarity for leisure travelers.

The Kayak website launched to the public in May 2004 as a pioneer in travel metasearch.

Travel metasearch companies used to be among the hottest things in travel. They enabled consumers to compare hotel or flight prices from multiple vendors at a glance, and many online travel agencies saw the need to acquire one.

Despegar and Kayak both released travel planning and booking tools this week meant to integrate generative AI more comprehensively. 

Rami Zeidan, founder and CEO of Life House, has resigned from the hotel startup, according to a letter to shareholders sent Monday and seen by Skift.

Ryanair said Wednesday that “most of the larger OTA Pirates” abruptly stopped selling its flights in early December. But at least one of them — Booking.com — was back offering Ryanair’s flights today.

Expedia Group laid off around 100 employees in a round of cuts that impacted its product and tech organization, Skift has learned.

Kayak and OpenTable, two Booking Holdings brands, laid off 80 employees, Skift has learned.

Kayak, the travel price-comparison service, on Tuesday debuted a corporate travel service for large companies.

Affirm, the buy now, pay later vendor, now has both sides of what used to be called the online travel “duopoly” with its latest partner, Booking.com. The former duopoly, at least according to hotel industry critics, was Expedia Group and Booking Holdings. With the Thursday announcement that Booking.com customers would see Affirm’s buy now, pay later options at checkout when they are purchasing trips, Affirm now counts several Booking Holdings brands as partners, also including Agoda, Priceline and Kayak.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, November 10. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

In an era when travelers see short-term rentals as an ever-more attractive choice, Booking.com’s mix of bookings for these types of accommodations on its platforms in the third quarter ticked up just “slightly” compared with 2019 to around 30 percent, the company said. Isn’t this an historic failure? Shouldn’t Booking.com be gaining more ground?

How Latin America Is the Future of the Airline Industry: No part of the world is seeing as many big changes to the airline business as Latin America. The final shape is still opaque, but one thing is clear for the region’s aviation industry: All eyes are watching closely for how this transformation unfolds.

Ten years ago this week, on November 9, 2012, the Priceline Group (today’s Booking Holdings) announced a deal to acquire Kayak, the Connecticut-based metasearch engine, which had been a public company for less than four months.

The numbers show solo travel is expected to increase in the year ahead while tour operators push to provide enhanced flexibility for single travelers, many of whom take trips in small groups.

HomeToGo, the Germany-based short-term rental comparison-shopping engine, has been making strides in a booking model that peers like Kayak, Google, and Tripadvisor downplayed or abandoned.

Travel website KAYAK, owned by Booking Holdings Inc, said domestic searches for hotels within China surged last week, after the country loosened its COVID-19-related restrictions.

Booking Holdings is one of the largest travel brands in the world, with business in hotels and other, accommodations, flights, holiday price comparison, car rental, travel extras, and restaurant bookings.

Kayak exited the business of opening hotels and branding them as Kayak hotels, Skift has learned.

That ChatGPT was going to become a platform — a la the iPhone with its App Store — was obvious, it was just a matter of time, what we didn’t know was when and how.