As a travel search engine that pioneered, well, travel searching, we’ve had our focus on helping people experience the world since 2004. And while early KAYAK translated this to creating a flight tool that revolutionized our industry, the KAYAK of today understands that the travel experience goes beyond just planning your trip. Which is why we’re bringing our innovation and information to the hotel industry.
Opening April 2021, KAYAK Miami Beach is a 52-room boutique hotel that merges travel tech with a locally inspired stay experience. Part design lab and part tech experiment, our hotel is an end-to-end representation of what we believe are the best parts of travel: seamless technology, thoughtfully designed spaces, authentic experiences and a KAYAK-engineered accommodations operating system (AOS).
“We see a big opportunity to apply our audience and technology to the accommodations space to level the playing field for independent hotels,” said Steve Hafner, CEO of KAYAK. While many guests will reap the benefits of our AOS, the real delight comes from tech touches that fully integrate into a guest’s stay at KAYAK Miami Beach. We’ll roll out our tech integrations throughout the year.
To start, the KAYAK app will provide room-ready alerts, 24/7 access to hotel staff and support, in-app messaging for housekeeping and more. In the future, all check-ins/outs will be contactless through either our mobile app or a digital lobby kiosk. Guests will also enjoy keyless room entry, modifying their reservations, and making limited service requests through our app. We’ve even upgraded the tech our guests enjoy during their say; every room features a mix of tech-forward amenities from connected TVs to Marshall speakers.
Our partners — especially smaller and independent hotels — will be excited for what we’re building behind the scenes. Our backend software, still early in its development, is intended to help these partners leverage our app and capitalize on the latest travel tech advances. It will include integrations to cloud-based property management systems, wireless lock and access controls, and sophisticated distribution channel management. We’ll incorporate consumer and pricing insights from the billions of travel queries that we process annually.
We’re developing this technology in partnership with Life House, a vertically-integrated hotel brand and management company. Life House will help shape our on-site guest experience, manage hotel operations, and enable guests to interact with staff as much or as little as they prefer.
So if you, like us, get excited about front-end development and integrated technology, well then you’re in luck. Because with KAYAK Miami Beach, we’re bringing the best parts of our tech direct to travelers. Come stay with us.
