Kayak Is Missing a Golden Opportunity With Its New Corporate Travel Platform
Skift Take
In what could be the travel industry’s most drawn-out launch of a booking tool, the final version will appeal to many small companies — but it could have offered so much more.
Travel search engine Kayak has finally launched its corporate travel booking tool, after nearly two years in the making. But during this lengthy period — which included beta-testing (15 months), a soft launch (five months) and even a Miami hotel opening — it doesn't seem to have taken the pandemic into account.
The Booking Holdings division on Tuesday officially unveiled its corporate travel solution, Kayak for Business. It said it had signed on 3,000 companies in the past three months, while it's available in 60 markets and 28 languages. "New" features include expense integration, price prediction, discounted corporate rates and more.
“When travel came to nearly a full stop in 2020, it gave us an unexpected runway to think about the future of business travel,” said Steve Hafner, Kayak’s CEO. “Business travelers and their employers in a post-Covid world will demand even more flexibility, competitive prices and easy ways to blend business and leisure travel.”
Join Us at the Skift Destination and Sustainability Summit on July 21
Fair points, but where the platform (still) falls short is customer serv