Who owns kayak travel

For my money, Booking. However, it is chilling to think about how rampant consolidation has lead to what amounts to a triopoly controlling so many of the most recognized brands in online travel booking and search services. Not that those three corporations have hoovered up everything. There are still some feisty independent OTAs and aggregators out there going it alone and doing quite well. I challenge anyone to find a better flight search engine than Danish-based Momondo. How long can they stay independent and un-acquired in this era of rampant consolidation?

That remains to be seen. Air Travel. Get Inspired for Your Next Vacation. Frommer's, and carefully selected third parties, use cookies on this site to improve performance, for analytics and for advertising.

By browsing this site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. For more information see our Cookie Policy. Top Picks Paris Washington, D. All Slideshows. One of the largest general revenue sources for Kayak is online advertising. The company offers ad placements on its site to travel agencies, travel suppliers, and other related businesses. Revenue is generated by charging advertisers either a cost-per-click CPC or cost-per-impression rate, similar to the revenue generated by many other websites that sell advertising.

Advertising revenue is a key income source for the company and one of the features that sets Kayak apart from some of the other Booking Holdings subsidiaries. Kayak can charge advertisers premium rates because of the number of potential leads it provides. Kayak works to improve its bottom line and the overall cost efficiency of Booking Holdings. Kayak can attract the same number of site visitors as many competing meta search engines in the travel industry using a lower level of advertising expenses.

In recent years, Kayak has been expanding its offerings and geographic representation in an aggressive manner. For instance, by acquiring Momondo Group in and HotelsCombined in , the company made significant inroads into the European and Asian markets.

It's likely that Kayak will continue to grow its service offerings through similar expansions into the future. Kayak's business model is such that it maintains significant leverage with both consumers and travel service providers. Consumers have come to trust Kayak to provide an easy-to-use and free service, which offers comprehensive information about travel pricing.

In turn, Kayak has been able to prove to travel service providers that it is capable of offering significant access to its customer base. Going forward, Kayak is likely to work to protect and develop relationships on both sides of this model. Because Kayak's relationships with consumers and travel service providers are essential to its success, they also represent important challenges going forward.

For instance, if travel service providers decide to allow contracts with Kayak to lapse, it could erode customer trust in the Kayak search engine, thereby weakening the company's appeal to other travel service providers. The company must strive to maintain a balance between these two sets of relationships. Other large-scale challenges persist as well.

For instance, competing meta-search companies that aim to provide a similar service could draw users away, thereby weakening Kayak's appeal to advertisers. Additionally, if global social, political, or economic events cause widespread changes in travel practices, Kayak could face a serious threat to its business model.

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I Accept Show Purposes. Your Money. Personal Finance. Your Practice. Popular Courses. Kayak experiences more than two billion site searches per year.

Key Takeaways Kayak earns revenue through advertising and distribution sources. Travel suppliers and agencies provide distribution revenue to Kayak when users are referred to their sites through Kayak's search engine. Besides the primary Kayak service, Kayak also operates six other brands.

Kayak offers its services in more than 60 countries around the world. Compare Accounts. The offers that appear in this table are from partnerships from which Investopedia receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where listings appear. Investopedia does not include all offers available in the marketplace.

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