Kayak launches in France

July 02, 2007 | Online Travel

Kayak.com expands with the beta launch of its French site Kayak.fr. The site launches with with flight search only - hotel and car hire will be available later this year.

Kayak.com expands with the beta launch of its French site Kayak.fr. The site launches with flight search only including the Kayak Buzz tool � it displays the lowest fares to the 25 most popular destinations from any airport or city found by other Kayak users. Hotel and car hire will be available later this year.

Created by co-founders of Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia, Kayak exploded onto the North American market, winning accolade after accolade and emerging as a top 15 travel site in less than two years. Since launching in the UK, Kayak has quickly become one of the most popular travel search sites, winning three Best of the Web awards since its beta launch in December 2006.

In France, the Internet has become a powerful tool, especially when booking travel, with at least 10 million French people organising their trips on the Internet (source: Benchmark Group). Kayak.fr offers French Internet users a personalised search engine with the most powerful flight search facility available. It provides pricing and availability from more than 140 travel sites in seconds so the online traveller no longer needs to spend valuable time visiting multiple sites to compare prices. Kayak.fr promises to quickly establish itself as a favourite travel site amongst French consumers.

“The French market has previously suffered from biased results, service fees tacked on by online travel agencies and the primitive functionalities of current travel search engines,” said Steve Hafner, Kayak co-founder and CEO. “Kayak’s launch in France will simplify the booking process by providing a comprehensive search function and the tools needed to narrow in on the best itinerary and price. Unlike other travel sites, Kayak.fr offers the user a choice of where to book- directly with the supplier or through an online travel agency - then sends users directly to the site to purchase.”