connect . It is still in beta and Hafner said he hopes to have it ready sometime late this year .
The Kayak team is working on two software buckets – the instay user experience via the app and the back-end operations side to improve efficiencies . They are making sure that the Kayak app can actually help reduce the friction of the check-in and check-out process , requests for room upgrades , chat with staff – the basics of the guest experience . On the back end , there is a revenue management module and automation systems to reduce the need for staff . “ There ’ s a lot to be built yet , but we ’ re starting with the consumer-facing features first ,” he says .
No doubt , Kayak ’ s bread and butter is and will remain metasearch , and when asked about how the pandemic has impacted business , Hafner said financial performance hasn ’ t been where he wanted it to be .
“ But the silver lining is the accelerated adoption by consumers and industry participants of new technology . On the OpenTable side of our business , nobody ’ s walking into restaurants anymore – they are all booking online ,” he says . “ When you get to the restaurant , you ’ re scanning QR codes and you ’ re comfortable paying from your phone and ordering from your phone … The same is true on the hotel side – nobody wants to wait in line at a check-in counter anymore . They want to check in from their app , ideally , or potentially at a kiosk … Nobody wants daily housekeeping anymore . They want on-demand housekeeping . So , I think there ’ s been a lot of changes that are good for the industry and especially good for technology companies .”
Steve Hafner says Kayak Miami Beach is beating all of its financial metrics and comp set