Kayak responds to new TripAdvisor search engine

The launch of TripAdvisor’s booking engine today seems to have spurred a tiny little tussle.

There came an e-mail to us, with the subject line “Kayak.com: A Step Above Their Competition,” saying that Kayak.com is “flattered” by TripAdvisor’s imitation.

The statement attributed to Chief Executive and co-founder Steve Hafner: “Kayak.com welcomes the competition since it should help grow the metasearch category — hopefully to Kayak.com’s ultimate benefit.  We are flattered by how many design elements TripAdvisor has chosen to mimic from our site.   While the visuals may be similar, ultimately it’s the caliber of the results that distinguishes the category leader. We offer the most comprehensive, relevant search and we continue to invest in the tools and brainpower to make our site easy to use for everyone. Kayak.com offers more money-saving technology than any other travel site including Flexible Search, Kayak Buzz, Airfare History Charts, Real-time Collaboration and our new Hotel Rate Calendar.  Plus, Kayak.com is available in 11 countries worldwide.

“We’re also very excited to compete with TripAdvisor on hotel reviews.  In just a few weeks, Kayak.com will launch TravelPost, the world’s most comprehensive travel site for hotel reviews, descriptions and rates.”

Me-ow.

Meanwhile, Leena Rao of TechCrunch, writes about Travelzoo’s new search engine: “At first glance, Fly.com is a Kayak look-alike (except that Fly.com searches are limited to airfares only). The two sites offer virtually the same search options, except that Fly.com’s price comparison sites are limited to Priceline and Hotwire, whereas Kayak offers comparison searches on Priceline, Hotwire, Expedia, Travelocity and Airfare.com.”

Bring it on. The consumer will ultimately be the winner.

– Catharine Hamm, Los Angeles Times Travel editor

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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 7:54 am by Catharine Hamm and is filed under Airline travel, Business Travel, Deals, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.