Mobile users with tours and activities - a perfect match, right? Perhaps not so obvious after all, with Kayak deciding to end its partner deal with GetYourGuide.
The US-based travel search service discontinued its contract with GetYourGuide after realising the idea of being able to book in-destination things-to-do and attractions had not resonated with users.
The partnership was signed in August 2011 and saw GetYourGuide featured as the sole provider of tours and attraction on the Kayak apps. It was the first such deal Kayak had signed with a tour and activity platform.
Users were able to search for various products and then make a booking within a GetYourGuide-branded screen.
Hopes were high for the pair to have a good run with the service, especially given Kayak's apps at the time were soaring in popularity in the US.
Unfortunately for both parties, take-up for the service by users has not materialised at all, with Kayak saying activities have just not proven to be a popular feature of the apps.
On why the partnership was discontinued, a Kayak official says the company makes "decisions to add and cull features based on usage and plans for our product".
GetYourGuide, which recently completed a capital raise of $14 million and was quoted as saying it would "bet the house on mobile", appears reasonably relaxed about such a high profile deal coming to an end.
Acknowledging the partnership's failure, CEO Johannes Reck says consumers looking for flights and hotels (Kayak's main audience) are "way too early to research activities".
"However, once they are in-destination, it is a completely different story and that [is] what we will focus on in the future."
Reck says there is not change in terms of what the company is "betting on" and says it is seeing "good uptake" on its mobile website, with bookings more than doubling compared to the desktop service in the past six months.