Kayak introduces new tools

Kayak has launched new tools to help consumers take advantage of all the savings offers.

The new offerings are as follows: 

• Baggage fee calculator: In addition to the airline fee chart, Kayak has integrated baggage fees into the price of a flight.

• Hotel rate calendar: Kayak also launched historical rate information for hotels. Users can now view the average daily rate including taxes and fees for two months on any of the 197,389 hotels.

• Custom airports: Kayak automatically searched nearby airports to find the lowest fares, but now travellers can tell Kayak which airports matter to them.

The travel search engine has shared that thanks to low prices and deals, last year’s trend of vacationing in the backyard or close to home has subsided. As per the findings of its Annual Summer Travel Survey, more than 41 percent said the recession did not affect their summer plans in any way -- which is double the number from its last year’s survey.

Brian Harniman, EVP of marketing and distribution, KayaK, said, “According to our survey, our users plan to take advantage of historically low airfare and hop on a plane in search of culture and nightlife with trips to domestic and European cities topping the list of destinations being considered. This is a major change from last summer when 64 percent told us they would avoid flying because airfare was too expensive.” 

The survey shows that people are also employing several cost saving tactics, including staying with friends or relatives instead of booking a hotel (62 percent); taking advantage of off-season pricing (50 percent); trading down for a less fancy hotel (42 percent); booking a shorter holiday (34 percent); choosing a destination closer to home (32 percent); and booking accommodations with a kitchen and eating in (30 percent).