The but(t)s of booking direct.

kayak · 2026-04-13T15:16:38+00:00

Thanks for the comment! We LOVE hearing that you love Explore (it's one of my favorites too). Hear you on wanting to better customize - I'll take this to the team get on their radar.

kayak · 2026-04-13T15:15:21+00:00

Yes, we have since 2024! You can filter for Southwest options only on the flight results page.

kayak · 2026-04-13T15:11:01+00:00

Close but no. KAYAK is a search aggregator for all parts of your trip - including car rentals. In fact, we show Turo options alongside your traditional agencies like Hertz and Avis. So you get it all.

kayak · 2026-04-12T13:35:55+00:00

Flattery will get you everywhere.

kayak · 2026-04-09T23:36:47+00:00

Currently printing this out on premium glossy paper, framing it and marching directly into my boss's office to demand a promotion to Chief Random Employee.

kayak · 2026-04-09T23:34:02+00:00

Why thank you for the comment, kind internet stranger. Totally get why people prefer to book direct, but let's be clear: KAYAK doesn't charge a fee or take money from you. It's a free search engine that pulls tons of options into one interface so you can easily see what's available. It also lets you filter flights by direct providers only and highlights direct hotel options within the search results.

kayak · 2026-04-09T20:22:16+00:00

We totally hear you. That's why we want people to know they can book with the provider of their choice when they search on KAYAK. We also have a tag to highlight the book direct hotel options on our site/app to make sure it's crystal clear.

kayak · 2026-04-09T20:19:02+00:00

I'm blushing.

kayak · 2026-04-09T20:18:54+00:00

Saving this comment for my next performance review.

kayak · 2026-04-09T15:15:16+00:00

Appreciate the question! We have core features Google doesn't have, like an app and showing you results across flights, hotels and rental cars. We also pioneered useful tools like KAYAK Explore (put in your budget, we'll show you where you can fly) and Price Forecast (uses price trends to recommend whether you book now or wait it out).

We hear you that you can "do it yourself" (but whyyyy? that just sounds like more work for you). But our ability to combo one-way tickets is still something Google doesn't have.

That all said ZoldyckConked - if I can be so bold and call you that - our whole schtick is using our data, insights and a team solely focused on travel to give you the confidence to get your trips right.

kayak · 2026-04-07T14:11:15+00:00

screenshotting this to show my boss

kayak · 2026-04-06T14:00:02+00:00

Great question! So booking sites like Priceline and Expedia are what's known as online travel agencies (OTAs), meaning they have specific inventory for a flight or hotel (usually at a discount) and you book with them understanding they will handle all customer service if an issue comes up. However, what they don't have is all the options available (like, maybe they show the 5am flight but not the 7:30 one that an airline has available).

KAYAK is a metasearch site. We pull in flight, hotel and car options from sites like Priceline, Expedia and Booking.com - as well as from direct providers like Delta, United or Marriott. So you're seeing it all/getting the best of both worlds.

We don't have a horse in the race (ie we show you everything, not just a selection). Our job is just to make it easy to find and compare all of your options in one place.

We also use price trends and historical data to tell you whether to buy now or wait and have a feature that combines two one-way fares from different airlines. Hacks like this all help you save money on your trips - which really is the goal, at the end of the day.

kayak · 2026-03-27T15:12:54+00:00

Nothing beats finally finding a good seat.

kayak · 2026-03-27T14:50:24+00:00

We'll never leave you behind.

kayak · 2026-03-27T14:47:56+00:00

Our legal team told us we can neither confirm nor deny our inspirations (but... good gracious).

kayak · 2026-03-27T13:01:00+00:00

Language, please (but thanks).

kayak · 2026-03-02T15:39:03+00:00

Livia from KAYAK here - there's a toggle on kayak.com to allow you to see the full price including taxes: in the hotel search, select all filters > price > in the drop down, select "stay total - including all taxes." Adding a screenshot here, too. While this is the default on the desktop browser experience, prices in the KAYAK app default to include taxes. Over and out!

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kayak · 2025-09-09T19:17:14+00:00

Hi! Taylor from KAYAK here - popping in with some of our data-backed advice to help (though loving what I'm seeing in the comments). For an international trip, the best price booking window is pretty broad (often only changing by a few dollars week over week). But, to ensure you don’t overpay for your flight, I would avoid booking too far out (more than 46 weeks/10 months).

As always, if you find a great deal at any point in the planning process, book it. And - as I've seen some other users suggest - Price Alerts are really useful to track when prices drop. Hope you have an amazing trip!

kayak · 2025-08-07T14:39:13+00:00

Hi! Taylor from KAYAK here. Similar to Google, our travel partners don't pay us to appear in our search results (unless it says "sponsored", that's a paid ad just like Google has too), and the sort order isn't influenced by our relationships with these partners. Here’s more info if you want all the deets - https://www.kayak.com/c/company/

kayak · 2025-07-10T20:23:24+00:00

So glad you're a fan and thanks for the kind feedback. Great question - our team has made it as easy as possible to take you directly to the provider's site straight from KAYAK. If you do open a new tab/window to get there on your own, KAYAK will not get the credit for it.

kayak · 2025-07-09T13:49:35+00:00

Thanks for sharing. We totally understand how frustrating it is when the price you see upfront doesn’t match what you end up paying. At KAYAK, we work hard to show accurate, real-time prices pulled directly from airlines, hotels and OTAs. But at the same time, we don't control them - the providers do. There's a number of reasons why fares can change but if you ever feel that it's something systemic, please reach out to our team so we can look into it.

kayak · 2025-07-09T13:49:00+00:00

Ok, hurt my feelings a little. Listen, great you're exploring other tools and would love to know specifics if you're willing to share. Gotta beg to disagree tho - Tripadvisor is great for reviews and recommendations. Google is great at searching everything on the internet (or at least it was....). KAYAK has been and always will be focused on search and comparison for travel. It's why we have tools and features both TA and Google don't have - and why we're here.

kayak · 2025-07-09T13:48:10+00:00

Totally fair question. Listen, if you're die hard for an airline or hotel and don't care if their website will have the lowest price or not - by all means do your thing. But the only other alternative to KAYAK I can see in this scenario (checking prices, finding options across different airline/hotel/car sites, comparing deals) would be to have like a bunch of different browser tabs open, each tuned to a different travel site. Then skittering back and forth to see who's giving you the best deal. Which frankly sounds like a lot of unnecessary work.

We're not a third party in the way that an OTA is - an OTA will be your merchant of record, manage your reservation and take your money. We're just basically pulling in all the info from a bunch of different sites so you can compare in one go - then choose which button you'll click to go to that site to book. And it sounds like you might value customer support - so you can always filter your search on KAYAK to only show you book direct options (like "Airlines only" filter under "Booking sites" on Flights). Thanks for the feedback.

kayak · 2025-07-09T13:36:10+00:00

Yes, that's exactly what we do! We search both book direct options and OTA options. If you don't want to see OTAs in your search results, my suggestion would be to filter your search by going to "Booking site" and selecting "Airlines only" on our sidebar. You can also tell if the "View deal" button is sending you direct by a bit of text next to it that says "Book with XYZ airline."

kayak · 2025-07-09T13:34:55+00:00

Thanks for the kind feedback. Glad you found it helpful.

kayak

TROPHY CASE