Fifteen years after its launch as one of the first consumer travel metasearch solutions, Kayak is expanding into corporate travel with the launch of Kayak for Business.
Companies can request to join a waitlist; Kayak will choose a few to
use the product in pre-beta, with the full beta launching publicly later
this month.
The free tool will function as a meta-engine, showing
employees comprehensive options for flights and hotels, with car
rentals to be added in the future.
Corporate clients load their
travel policies and preferred approval flow into the system, so as
employees search they can see which options fall within that policy.
Kayak said it expects the system to appeal to small- and midsize
businesses and startups. But unlike other travel management solutions
targeted to this sector, such as Lola, TravelPerk, TripActions and
TravelBank, Kayak initially will not offer support from human
agents.
"This is a big reason that our service is free. Our users
can rely on existing customer service options, including supplier
direct, online travel agencies or even their corporate travel agency if
they have one. In the future, we plan to add ways for travelers to
opt-in for concierge-level or partner-specific customer service when
they need it," the company said in an email.
Kayak said more
details about the concierge services will be released later this month,
but it did not respond to a question of whether the platform provides
tools related to duty of care.
The company said the idea for Kayak for Business developed out of its own internal needs to manage its employee travel.
The past year has seen a flurry of activity in corporate travel. Lola partnered with American Express Global Business Travel in November 2018 and in March raised $37 million. TravelPerk completed a $104 million Series C round in July, and TripActions banked $250 million in June.
Companies
in this space have also regularly been adding new product features to
entice clients—most recently TravelBank, which launched a
three-in-one "SuperItinerary" tool in September.
According to
Phocuswright's U.S. Corporate Travel Report 2018-2022, managed travel
represents a third of the total travel market in the United States and
will reach $138 billion by 2022, with 86% of that spending taking place
online.
In mid-October Kayak announced a partnership with Wanderu that adds flights to Wanderu's ground transportation search system.
Source: PhocusWire