Kayak's burgeoning effort to turn the metasearch model on its head by facilitating some aspects of consumer bookings will go much further than its mobile app, and eventually could permeate its websites.
That's the word from Kayak co-founder and CEO Steve Hafner, who says "assisted bookings" will first be trotted out in its pending launch of Private Sale, will be woven into its mobile app "soon," and will be launched on its websites, too.
One aspect of "assisted sales" that hasn't been thoroughly vetted is that the move could be a significant boost to Kayak's behavioral advertising efforts, and could be subject to some push-back from partners.
"Private Sale is really our first foray into assisted bookings -- which we will roll out into the Kayak mobile path soon," Hafner says. "Once we're up the learning curve with Private Sale and mobile, we'll launch it on the website, too."
In the traditional metasearch model, users click over to supplier and intermediary websites to provide their contact details and credit card information before consummating the booking.
With Kayak's assisted bookings, Kayak will collect user information "in the Kayak path" and the supplier will process the transaction, says Brian Harniman, Kayak's vice president of marketing.
Harniman says one of Kayak's strengths is in aggregating and presenting information, and the goal of assisted bookings is to render "the checkout process extremely easy" and to get the right inventory in front of the right people for better conversions.
After all, with assisted bookings, Kayak will be collecting the kinds of personal information from consumers that OTAs and suppliers covet.
“If Kayak can improve the relevancy of the advertiser, the relevancy of the message and the relevancy of the consumer, then that’s where Kayak can command a premium for the message," says Forrester Research principal travel analyst Henry Harteveldt. "It can help Kayak potentially become a must-buy in the hierarchy of online travel sites instead of a nice to have.”
Another issue that Kayak will have to navigate will be the reaction of online travel agencies and suppliers to Kayak's new role in assisted bookings.
Might there be some resistance, even supplier/OTA drop-outs over the issue, if Kayak transitions from strictly being a lead-referrer to having a role in collecting customer information like OTAs and suppliers do?
On another front, there has been much discussion on how Kayak will source exclusive deals for hotels, flights and vacation packages in Private Sale, which it will introduce this month, and whether it will lose the traditonal metasearch advantage of low overhead in staff costs to get the product rolling.
Hafner says Kayak will source the inventory for Private Sale through "direct connections to our existing partners and new property-level business development negotiations."
He says initially Kayak will add two people focused on Private Sale to its current 20-person sales staff, and that all customer support still will be handled by the supplier.
However, that sales staff might have to be reinforced if Private Sale, which Hafner likens to "a lab experiment," takes off.