KAYAK

What KAYAK does

KAYAK is a travel metasearch platform founded in 2004 by Steve Hafner and Paul English, and has operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Booking Holdings since 2013. The platform aggregates real-time flight, hotel, and rental car inventory from hundreds of partner travel sites, presenting users with side-by-side price comparisons and forwarding them to partner sites to complete booking. KAYAK serves individual consumers directly via its website, iOS/Android apps, and 70+ country-specific localized domains, and serves enterprises through KAYAK for Business, its corporate travel booking and policy-management offering.

The underlying technology stack layers a high-scale search aggregation engine on top of an Aerospike-powered real-time ad bidding platform, with newer AI capabilities spanning natural language (Ask AI, AI Mode via ChatGPT integration), computer vision (screenshot-based price comparison), and predictive analytics (Airfare Trends Dashboards). Supporting features include price alerts, itinerary management (KAYAK Trips), Trip Calculator, and event-driven dashboards (e.g., World Cup Trends).

KAYAK earns revenue primarily through referral fees when users click through to partner travel sites to complete bookings, supplemented by advertising revenue from its real-time bidding platform; KAYAK for Business generates subscription-based revenue from corporate customers on undisclosed enterprise contracts. The company employs 1,001–5,000 people and is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, with Peer Bueller as CEO since February 2026 following Steve Hafner's transition to Executive Chairman.

Name

KAYAK

Legal name

KAYAK

Website

https://kayak.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2004

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

KAYAK is a travel metasearch engine, wholly owned by Booking Holdings, that aggregates flight, hotel, and rental car prices from hundreds of partner sites for hundreds of millions of consumers globally, while also serving corporate clients via KAYAK for Business.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Travel Metasearch

NAICS

Tour Operators (561520), Tour Operators (56152)

akta.pro primary industry

Metasearch & Aggregator Platforms for Vacation Rentals (THAMALAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Car Rental Metasearch (THALAEAF), Ferry Ticketing, Booking Platforms & Distribution (THAEAGAI)

Keywords

• Travel metasearch engine
• Flight comparison platform
• Hotel price aggregator
• Car rental search
• Corporate travel booking

Headquarters

HQ city

Stamford

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Referral Fees from Travel Partners: KAYAK earns commissions when users click through to book flights, hotels, or rental cars on partner travel sites. The platform aggregates search results from hundreds of travel sites and earns referral fees when users complete bookings on those external sites.
2. Advertising Revenue: KAYAK generates advertising revenue through its platform, utilizing real-time ad bidding powered by Aerospike database technology for ad auctions. Travel partners and airlines can pay for visibility within search results.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

KAYAK operates a travel metasearch platform that aggregates real-time flight, hotel, and rental car prices from hundreds of travel sites, allowing users to compare options and click through to book on partner sites. The platform is free to consumers and complements its core offering with AI-powered conversational tools (Ask AI and ChatGPT-integrated AI Mode), price alerts, airfare trend dashboards, and itinerary management. A separate corporate travel sub-product, KAYAK for Business, adds policy controls and reporting for businesses.

Product overview

KAYAK is a travel metasearch platform that aggregates flight, hotel, and rental car prices from hundreds of travel sites, enabling users to compare deals and book through partner sites. The core platform is complemented by mobile apps for iOS and Android with app-only deals and price alerts. KAYAK for Business serves corporate travel needs with policy controls and reporting. AI capabilities include Ask AI (conversational travel planning with live search results), AI Mode (ChatGPT-powered natural language search), and the Ask Kayak AI Suite with screenshot-based price comparison. Supporting tools include Airfare Trends Dashboards, World Cup Trends Dashboard, Trip Calculator, KAYAK Trips itinerary management, and Price Alerts. The platform also produces the annual 'What the Future' travel trends report and supports brand initiatives like the 'Got That Right' campaign.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• KAYAK for Business: Corporate travel booking and management service targeted at business travelers and companies.
• Ask AI
• AI Mode

Products and services

• KAYAK Travel Metasearch Platform Free consumer-facing travel metasearch engine that aggregates real-time flight, hotel, and rental car prices from hundreds of partner travel sites, enabling comparison and click-through booking on partner sites. Accessible via KAYAK.com country-specific domains in 70+ countries and via iOS and Android mobile apps, with no fee to users.
• KAYAK for Business Corporate travel management platform that provides booking tools, policy controls, and reporting for businesses managing employee travel, positioned as an alternative to traditional corporate travel management platforms.
• Ask AI Conversational AI-powered travel planning tool that combines natural language chat with live, updating search results for flights, hotels, and rental cars, allowing users to refine queries in real time and see up-to-date prices across hundreds of travel partners.
• AI Mode ChatGPT-integrated natural language travel search feature that lets users type travel questions directly into the search box and receive AI-generated responses combined with real-time flight, hotel, and car rental results.
• Ask Kayak AI Suite AI suite that combines conversational travel planning with screenshot-based price comparison, allowing users to upload screenshots of prices and have the AI identify better deals across travel sites via a dedicated kayak.ai platform.

Quantifiable outcome

• Users can save up to 42% on international flights by booking between mid-August and early September instead of peak summer weeks
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability13 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Booking Holdings (Passwordless Authentication Case Study)minorOthers · 9 May 2026KAYAK is cited as one of five case studies of successful passwordless authentication implementations in a B2C decision framework. The framework recommends synced platform passkeys as primary credentials with context-aware fallback chains.
• Booking HoldingscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 6 May 2026KAYAK co-founders Steve Hafner and Paul English are collaborating on a new AI startup called Lola for Booking Holdings. Booking Holdings acquired Lola.com and Lola.ai URLs from English in early April 2026. The startup provides users with discounted rates and enhanced access through AI-powered interactions.
• HotelPlannercoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 May 2026HotelPlanner partnered with KAYAK as part of a global AI-enabled hotel booking expansion across Canada, United States, China, Japan, India, Singapore, South Africa, and Egypt. The partnership integrates KAYAK's travel search data with HotelPlanner's hotel booking engine to provide AI-driven personalized recommendations.
• RyanaircoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 30 August 2025Ryanair reversed its 17-year crusade against online travel agents, announcing a landmark partnership with Booking Holdings (KAYAK's parent company) granting OTA access to sell Ryanair flights through Booking.com, Kayak, Agoda, and Priceline brands. All legal cases between Ryanair and Booking Holdings were concluded as part of the agreement.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Trivago: Trivago is a publicly-listed travel metasearch engine that aggregates hotel (and increasingly flight/car) prices from OTAs and supplier sites. It is the most direct global metasearch competitor to KAYAK, serving the same consumer use case with a referral-based revenue model.
• Skyscanner: Skyscanner is a leading global flight and travel metasearch platform owned by Trip.com Group. It competes head-to-head with KAYAK on flight comparison, price alerts, and multi-vertical travel search for global consumers.
• Tripadvisor: Tripadvisor operates a travel search and reviews platform with metasearch functionality for hotels, flights, and experiences. It overlaps directly with KAYAK's core offering while adding user-generated reviews as a distinct asset.
• Momondo: Momondo is a flight and travel metasearch brand operated under the Skyscanner/Ctrip umbrella. It targets similar price-comparison use cases as KAYAK, particularly for European and international leisure travelers.

Broad incumbents

• Google Travel: Google Travel integrates flight, hotel, and vacation search directly into Google Search, Maps, and AI Overviews. It is both a primary acquisition channel and the largest competitive threat to KAYAK's metasearch model.
• Booking.com: Booking.com is the flagship OTA of Booking Holdings and a sister brand to KAYAK within the same parent. While it primarily takes direct bookings, it is the destination for many KAYAK referrals and a competing surface for the same travel demand.
• Expedia: Expedia is a global online travel agency offering flights, hotels, cars, packages, and metasearch through its Hotels.com and Trivago brands. It competes with KAYAK both as a referral destination and as a direct-booking alternative.

Emerging players

• Hopper: Hopper is a mobile-first travel booking app that uses predictive analytics and AI for flights, hotels, and cars. It represents an emerging AI-driven competitor targeting younger consumers in KAYAK's addressable market.
• Kayak.ai (Lola AI): Lola is the new AI travel startup created by KAYAK co-founders Steve Hafner and Paul English for Booking Holdings, launching conversational AI booking with discounted rates. It is closely related as a sister initiative within Booking Holdings but represents an emerging AI-first booking model that may overlap with KAYAK's AI roadmap.

Others

• HotelsCombined: HotelsCombined is a hotel metasearch site acquired by KAYAK in 2018 and now operated within the Booking Holdings portfolio. It is directly comparable as a metasearch product but is now part of the same corporate family.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/kayak
• Facebookfacebook.com/kayak.co.in
• Instagraminstagram.com/kayak
• Xx.com/KAYAK
• YouTubeyoutube.com/kayak

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds7 records

Investors12 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A6 records

Investments1 record

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about KAYAK