Kayak to launch meta-search site for hotel reviews

February 05, 2009 | Hospitality Industry

Kayak has shared that it will apply its success in online travel search to launch a new meta-search product for hotel reviews. TravelPost.com will launch in the first quarter and be the first metasearch site for hotel reviews that allows users to filter for reviews from people like them.

Kayak.com is predicting significant revenue growth for 2009 despite the current economic crisis.

Referring to a report (recently released by Hitwise), which indicates that online flight search has dropped 42 percent this January compared with the same month last year, the travel search engine has stated it is set for “record revenue and traffic during January 2009”.

The travel search engine is poised to hit one billion searches by the end of the first quarter, only four years after the launch of the consumer site in the US.

Faisal Galaria, MD for Europe and Asia, said, “The recession has caused consumers to become far more value conscious. Price comparison sites like Kayak.com that search for prices and availability from hundreds of travel brands are now must-have resources to travellers who are not only looking for greater value for money, but are also fed up with misleading advertising and confusing websites.”

The company has shared that it will apply success in online travel search to launch a new metasearch product for hotel reviews. TravelPost.com will launch in the first quarter and be the first metasearch site for hotel reviews that allows users to filter for reviews from people like them.

Also, Kayak.com has hired a sales team and launched the Kayak Publishing Network in Europe, a patent-pending advertising platform optimised for the travel industry which relies on keyword combinations.

Recently, in its report, `2009 Trends in Travel Investment’, Hudson Crossing had stated: “In a recent survey of investment bias amongst investors in travel, we found online media to be the one lone sector within travel where sentiment and investment remained bullish. We expect more deals to be conducted in online travel media in 2009 although at lower valuations.”