Kayak (styled as KAYAK) is a metasearch engine for travel services, including airline flights, hotels, rental cars, and vacation packages.[3] It is owned and operated by Booking Holdings.[4]
Kayak was founded in January 2004 by Steve Hafner and Paul M. English.[6][7] 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.[8]
The company was originally named Travel Search Company, Inc. and the name was changed to Kayak Software Corporation in August 2004.[9]
On March 5, 2010, Kayak sold certain assets related to TravelPost.[12]
In May 2010, Kayak acquired German travel search platform Swoodoo.[13]
In January 2011, Kayak shut down SideStep and redirected SideStep traffic to Kayak.com.[14]
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.[15]
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.[16]
On May 21, 2013, Booking Holdings, then known as Priceline.com, acquired the company for $2.1 billion.[17]
In September 2013, Kayak announced an office move to the Harbor Point district of Stamford, aided by a $2.5 million loan from the state of Connecticut.[18]
In 2017, the company acquired Mundi, a Brazilian flight metasearch company.[19]
In 2018, Kayak assumed leadership of Hotels Combined, which was acquired by parent company, Booking Holdings.[20]
In 2013, Travel + Leisure included Kayak's app in its list of the Best Apps for Business Travelers[22] as well as its list for the Best Apps for websites and travelers.[23]
Time named Kayak on its list of the 50 Best Websites of 2009.[24]
Mashable included Kayak in first place for the website's list, "10 Budget Airfare Tools Every Traveler Should Know in 2012".[25]
2008: People's Voice award in the travel website category[26]
2009: The Webby Award in the travel website category[27]
2011: The People's Voice award in the mobile travel app category in 2011[28]
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.[29]
2013: Nominee for Best Travel Mobile & App for Handheld Devices[30]
2014: both the People's Voice and Webby Award in the Travel category for Tablets.[31]
2015, Kayak Mobile won again the People's Voice Award in the Travel category.[32]
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.[33]
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".[34][35] 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”.[36]
