Articles tagged “kayak”

Priceline is no slouch when it comes to mobile, but it tapped Kayak as an acquisition target in part because of Kayak's mobile expertise.

Online booking websites are more popular than travel agencies, branded bookings, and deals websites; however, meta-search's 10 percent jump this year indicates the growing sector could soon become a more formidable competitor.

Simpler homepages have been a trend over the last few years, and lately hotel-search sites have been catching up. Kayak, Google, and Trivago are among the sites that have streamlined their hotel-search widgets into one line in a bid to get less complicated and distracting.

Kayak is becoming a more comprehensive hotel-information source as it moves to compete more directly with TripAdvisor. Look for a lot more back and forth in coming years between the two rivals.

Tourism expanded globally, airlines and rental car companies faced consolidation, guidebook brands were sold off, and travel tech got better: We don't expect these major stories to disappear in the next year and plan on covering where they lead us just as carefully.

Priceline, Orbitz and Expedia may be taking the easy way out by not showing itineraries for any flights to Iran, even those operated by airlines with no blood on their hands, but that's doing a disservice to travelers who want to get there.

There's been so much talk about hotel rate parity, and the sameness when searching for a hotel room. TripAdvisor's invitation to often-overlooked independent hotels and B&Bs may provide some real choice.

Funded, lean and focused, Hipmunk can take its sweet, little time honing its product to get ready for a larger profile. Whether it ever emerges from beautiful product to major player is a very open question. There is plenty of money to be made even as a relatively small company, but Hipmunk's ambitions are huge.

With Priceline buying Kayak, Expedia investing in Trivago, and TripAdvisor launching hotel metasearch, all the big players have a piece of the pie, and this will have many delightful twists and turns.

As a subsidiary, Kayak will soon withdraw behind the Priceline veil. But, it will greatly benefit from Priceline's largesse.