Travel metasearch engine owned and operated by Booking Holdings
Kayak (styled as KAYAK) is a metasearch engine for travel services, including airline flights, hotels, rental cars, and vacation packages. It is owned and operated by Booking Holdings.[3]
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,[4] 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.[5][6] 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.[7]
The company was originally named Travel Search Company, Inc. and the name was changed to Kayak Software Corporation in August 2004.[8]
The website launched in February 2005.[2]
In December 2007, Kayak raised $196 million in a new round of 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.[9][10]
On March 5, 2010, Kayak sold certain assets related to TravelPost.[11] In May 2010, Kayak acquired German travel search platform Swoodoo.[12][13]
In January 2011, Kayak shut down SideStep and redirected SideStep traffic to Kayak.com.[14]
In March 2011, Kayak began providing results in the U.S. version of Bing from multiple cities, airports and airlines in Bing's travel search section.[15]
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.[16][17]
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.[18]
On May 21, 2013, Booking Holdings, then known as Priceline.com, acquired the company for $2.1 billion.[19]
On September 25, 2013, it was announced that Connecticut would assist Kayak with a $2.5 million loan to help facilitate their move to the Harbor Point district of Stamford.[20]
In August 2017, the company acquired a Brazilian flight metasearch company named Mundi.[21]
In July 2018, Kayak assumed leadership of Hotels Combined, which was acquired by parent Booking Holdings.[22]
In September 2018, the company launched a feature to help travelers determine if their luggage fits in the overhead bin of planes.[23]
Awards
In 2013, Travel + Leisure named Kayak's app in its list of the Best Apps for Business Travelers[24] as well as its list for the Best Apps and Websites for Travelers.
Time named Kayak to its list of the 50 Best Websites of 2009.[25]
Mashable included Kayak in first place for the website's list, "10 Budget Airfare Tools Every Traveler Should Know in 2012".[26]
Kayak won the following Webby Awards:
- 2008: People's Voice award in the travel website category[27]
- 2009: The Webby Award in the travel website category[28]
- 2011: The People's Voice award in the mobile travel app category in 2011[29]
- 2012: 3 awards: both the Webby and People's Choice awards in the travel website category, and the People's Voice award in the mobile travel app category.[30]
- 2013: Nominee for Best Travel Mobile & App for Handheld Devices[31]
- 2014: both the People's Voice and Webby Award in the Travel category for Tablets.[32]
- 2015, Kayak Mobile won again the People's Voice Award in the Travel category.[33]
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.[34]
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".[35][36] 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”.[37]
