Articles tagged “kayak”

It's really tough to judge a brand's performance in the midst of a pandemic, but OpenTable clearly deserved more focus given the fact that travel and dining are completely different businesses. Once again, travel and dining aren't always natural playmates.

The concept makes sense, but there's a risk that metasearch sites could come unstuck coping with all the complexities corporate travel will entail when it eventually restarts.

Deep-pocketed Google clearly didn't appease suffering travel advertisers in any meaningful way because it didn't have to — it's Google. Don't look for Google to find religion in terms of being a more collaborative partner perhaps until regulators would take it down a peg.

It's tough to say in what form Kayak would enter the hotel business, if it does. If there ever were a Kayak-branded hotel, it's safe to say that Marriott and Accor have nothing to worry about.

At Skift's recent Travel’s Path Forward: Online Travel event, Skift Executive Editor Dennis Schaal interviewed Kayak and OpenTable CEO Steve Hafner about the state of travel metasearch, restaurant bookings, and…

If the dining and travel industries are looking for a bright spot during these dark days, then returning employees are a morsel to hang onto.

Will it be hotels or alternative accommodations that bounce back first? Booking Holdings officials said they see a shift toward alternative accommodations when travelers are booking stays at least two months in advance. But this trend won't necessarily stick over the long term.

The job cuts at Kayak and OpenTable represent the first reported layoffs and furloughs at parent company Booking Holdings growing out of the coronavirus crisis other than for 48 contractors at Booking.com whose agreements weren't renewed. Few travel companies will emerge unscathed so it wouldn't be surprising if more cuts were coming at other Booking brands.

If the impact of coronavirus gets worse, and if the company doesn't tap any additional borrowings, Booking Holdings probably has enough money to pays its obligations until the second half of 2021 — but it can't guarantee that will be the case. This has potential chilling implications for weaker competitors, let alone tens of thousands of smaller businesses that will likely be long gone by then.

Kayak is making a landmark departure from its current strategy. It will add a tool to its mobile app to let users who book select short-term rentals and boutique hotels through it check in and check out via its app. That moves the travel metasearch player beyond merely listing accommodations to actually providing extra services for guests at partner properties.