Kayak
A metasearch that compares 100s of sites, then hands you off to book.
Kayak is a flight metasearch that never sells you the ticket — it aggregates fares from hundreds of airlines and OTAs, then redirects you elsewhere to actually buy. The homepage states the model outright: "Find the right flight from 100s of sites," over one form spanning Flights, Stays, Cars, Packages, and Cruises. Results sort by Best, Cheapest, or Quickest above a deep filter rail — stops, airlines, times, bag fees — and a right rail that literally compares Kayak against rival sites. Pick a flight and the booking panel reveals the catch: the fare's fine print (no carry-on, paid checked bag, no refunds) and a "Book on Kiwi.com" handoff to a third party. The aggregation is genuinely useful, but the page is dense with house ads and sponsored "official site" results that blur into the organic list.
Notable UX patterns
Flows
Step through each flow screen by screen.
Search
From a 'compare 100s of sites' homepage through an ad-dense results page to a booking panel that hands you off to a third-party OTA — Kayak's flight metasearch.
3 screens
Hotels
Kayak's hotel metasearch — a price-coded date calendar, then a list-and-map of results that compare providers inline and hand off to the cheapest to book.
2 screens
Car rentals
Kayak's car-rental metasearch — the same 100s-of-sites frame, a resumable search history, then vehicles listed by class with provider prices and a sponsored-redirect undertow.
2 screens
Packages
Kayak's flight-plus-hotel packages — one form prices both together, then a list-and-map of bundles powered by Expedia and Priceline, with the metasearch handing off to book.
2 screens
Cruises
Kayak's cruise search — a destination-and-port form (powered by Cruiseborg) over thousands of sailings, filtered by cabin and price, each card stacking struck-through fares and onboard-credit perks.
2 screens
Plan with AI
Kayak's 'Ask AI' planner — describe a trip in a sentence and the agent parses it into a structured metasearch, runs it, and returns priced options in the chat, skipping the forms.
2 screens
Teardowns
Teardowns of Kayak are coming
We haven't published a written teardown of Kayak yet. Explore related topics, or request an audit.
Request a UX audit