Travel online this week
Ten years ago this week, on November 9, 2012, the Priceline Group (today’s Reservation of participations) announced an agreement to acquire kayakthe Connecticut metasearch engine, which had been a public company for less than four months.
“A bombshell just dropped in the world of online travel: Priceline, the world’s largest travel company, has agreed to acquire travel metasearch company Kayak, for about $1.8 billion.” he wrote Skift founder Rafat Ali added, “Priceline will gain a great online and mobile team to build its portfolio and put muscle behind the Kayak brand.” After regulatory scrutiny, Priceline welcomed Kayak on May 21, 2013.
For context, Kayak was one of the hottest things in online travel in the US back in the day Google had acquired a flight technology company ITA software in 2011.
When Kayak, which was co-founded in 2004 by Steve Hafner and Paul English, went public on the Nasdaq on July 20, 2012, The change has published a blog with about 18 updates documenting every move that day. When the closing bell rang on the opening day of trading, Kayak’s share price had risen 26 percent to $33.18, while 70 percent of the rest of the Nasdaq trade went come down
What has been Kayak’s performance so far under Booking Holdings, and at a time when from Google Has hotel and fight metasearch products established a global footprint and sucked the life out of numerous competitors? Financially, it’s hard to say for sure because Booking doesn’t disclose much about Kayak’s earnings.
Asked about Kayak’s fate under Booking Holdings over the past nine years, Kayak CEO Hafner told Skift, “We don’t report numbers, but I can assure you that our business has thrived since the acquisition. Booking Holdings has supported our international expansion (from 14 countries to over 40), mergers and acquisitions (over $550 million per momondo i hotelscombined)and anything else we’ve tried like Kayak Miami Beach.”
Kayak/Booking Holdings acquired metasearch companies Momondo in 2017 and Hotelscombined in 2018. partnership with hotel operator Life Housethere are now three Kayak-branded hotels, one in Miami Beach, Florida, and two in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
“If it hadn’t worked out, I wouldn’t still be at Kayak,” Hafner said, contrasting his roughly 18-year tenure at Kayak with leadership changes over the years. Expedia-controlled I wander i Trip.com Group-property Skyscanner.
A person close to Kayak, who has some knowledge of Kayak’s finances, said they “continue to crush it.”
Google has certainly hurt Kayak’s stature. And sometimes you have to question whether Booking Holdings could devote more money to advertising and marketing to keep Kayak front and center in travelers’ trip planning considerations. In 2015, then CEO of the Priceline Group Darren Huston even questioned the value of metasearch, even though his own company, now called Booking Holdings, already owned Kayak; Expedia had a majority stake in Trivago; and Trip.com Group acquired Skyscanner the following year in 2016.
“The threat from Google is real,” said Kayak co-founder Paul English, who left the company in late 2013. “I wonder if there’s ever going to be any kind of antitrust against Google to take over of vertical search results by vertical and starve what were once strong companies”.
English added that rivals like Tripadvisor, which is currently fimplementing a change plan, “They were much more vulnerable than Kayak because I think most of TripAdvisor’s traffic was SEO (search engine optimization), where most of Kayak’s traffic was self-directed.”
English said he’s disappointed that Kayak hasn’t done more to accept direct bookings, especially mobile ones. “It’s really hard to search in the Kayak app, and when I find what I want, I have to open another app and start over,” he said.
Martin Lumbye, CEO of Ventura from the northeasthe was one of four people who launched Momondo in 2006. He left Momondo in 2014, and was acquired by Kayak three years later.
Lumbye he said Momondo’s front end doesn’t appear to have undergone any radical changes in recent years, but he believes its back-end technology is probably faster and deeper.
“The biggest developments are probably in access to the capital needed to scale internationally and the ability to have more leverage in negotiations with online travel agencies and airlines regarding the per-click costs they pay to Momondo and Kayak because size matters,” Lumbye said. .
Kayak, as well as Tripadvisor, used to be essential marketing vehicles for travel companies, at least in North America. Is kayaking still important?
Clayton Reid, CEO of travel and tourism marketing firm MMGY Global, said he is amazed at how well Kayak has resisted Google’s “aggressive tactics.”
Kayaking “is still very relevant to travelers in our travel influence survey,” Reid said. “Kayak has fared better than Tripadvisor and Trivago, with a more consistent place in the travel decision process. The other two have tried to move higher with, I’d say, poorer results.”
Soon
Airbnb will start showing the total price for US guests in advance
Airbnb next month will start showing US customers the total price of a reservation, minus taxes, upfront on their listings and on maps when they choose to view it that way. Under regulatory pressure, the company has done so in Europe for an extended period. Airbnb said it will also reduce burdensome payment task requirements for some hosts. Exchange
Tips from Tripadvisor about the exchange plan
Tripadvisor officials hinted that its travel and activities brand Viator, as well as hotel metasearch, will be anchors of its transformation plan under the leadership of the new company (new CEO and CFO) . Details to come in 2023. Exchange
Hopper gets more funding from Chum Capital One, $96 million
Who is Hopper’s preferred distribution partner? It’s definitely Capital One Travel. The credit card company just contributed an additional $96 million in funding to Hopper’s coffers as banks upped their travel portal game. Exchange
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