Kayak Covid-19 Travel Resources
A Case Study on Travel During the Global Pandemic
Going in to 2022, the world is still facing the effects of Covid-19. The global pandemic is entering it’s second year and despite the creation of a vaccine, and the rollout of booster shots, restrictions continue to lift and reinstate based on infection numbers. One aspect that is particularly affected by these constant changes is travel. With restrictions that can fluctuate at a moments notice and new risks to consider, travels have a more to think about before boarding a plane. How are travelers adapting to the current moment? And how can a travel resource such as Kayak better cater to their user groups and the predicaments they face?
Background
Who is Kayak?
Kayak is an American travel agency and online meta-search engine for travel. The site processes billions of search queries on travel and scours the web to show their users the best information on flights, hotels, cars, and travel packages for their desired travel destinations.
What are their goals?
Kayaks goal is to help travelers make informed travel and booking decisions so they can travel the globe with confidence. Kayak wants to encourage users to travel and to book their travel accommodations, cars, flights, and vacation packages through their site.
What challenges do they face?
Covid-19 has greatly impacted the travel industry and they will need to find ways to help their users feel their travel plans are safe and stable in a fluctuation pandemic environment. They implemented a Covid-19 page that is an excellent minimum viable product. However it does not stand out from competing sites. By interviewing their user base there may be features that could be added to the site to help Kayak corner the Covid-19 travel market.
What is Kayak currently offering?
Ability to change origin country
Implements a map and color coding to give users a quick high-level overview of where they can travel.
Ability to click on country and view restrictions based on vaccination status
Tile view of all countries with ability to filter by vaccination status, countries with open borders, quarantine requirements, and Covid-19 testing requirements
Pages for each country with detailed stats on the counties vaccination status, links to paperwork required to enter the country, requirements to travel to the country, links to the county’s official Covid-19 information page
Who Are Kayaks Competitors?
According to Amazon Alexa Analytics, Kayaks top competitors are Expedia, Orbitz, Cheapflights.com and Travelocity. These four sites have the most audience overlap. Hotels.com / Booking.com would also have overlap. Kayak currently has the most comprehensive resources.
ORBITZ
Search by passport type, flights, connections, departure date
Filter by vaccination status
View restrictions / requirements after entering travel parameters
EXPEDIA
Search by flight and connections, departure date
Filter by vaccination status
View restrictions / requirements after entering travel parametersCHEAP FLIGHTS & TRAVELOCITY
both companies currently do not offer any way to view Covid-19 restrictionsHOTELS.COM & BOOKING.COM
High level map overview of countries the user can travel
Search by passport type, departure country
Toggle vaccination status
View restrictions / requirements
Understanding the Travel Climate
According to a study of over 1,000 Americans between ages 15-56 by getyourguide.com “travel is the highest- ranked activity respondents were looking forward to post-pandemic: above eating in restaurants, attending parties and going to bars/clubs.” However, the way Americans are looking to travel varies greatly by generation. The study shows:
while 70% of the Americans surveyed were planning trips, the younger the generation the more adventurous they were in their plans – 51% of the Gen Z participants were planning international trips while only 35% of the millennials and 20% of Gen X were
Despite differences in travel styles all three generations had a comparable interest in safety. With 57% of Gen Z, 54% of Millennials and 55% of Gen X stating that safety was their top concern in traveling.
From this, we can infer that Gen Z is the most likely to travel internationally but also the most likely to take safety in to consideration. However Kayak may also have a vested interest in attracting Millenials to their services as around 1/3 still were planning to travel internationally and 63% were willing to spend more to have excursions planned for them.
Defining the Target User and Goals
Who is the ideal user group?
Based on the study above, americans between the ages of 23 and 35 would be the ideal user. This group encompasses older members of Gen Z and young millennials. These groups are the most likely to want to travel internationally + have the disposable income to do so.
What are Kayaks Goals?
Kayak’s current Covid-19 resource page is on par or better than it’s competitors. However, there may be additional features they could add in to corner the travel market with the chosen user group.
Userbase Interviews
To find key features this user group would be interested in, qualitative interviews were conducted with 3 users between the ages of 24 to 30 who have traveled internationally at least once during the pandemic and are actively planning additional international trips. Based on these interviews opportunities to improve Kayaks Covid-19 resources page were identified.
Marcy
Age 25
Profession Software Engineer
Travel History Had traveled internationally during the pandemic and had active plans to do so again soon
Justin
Age 29
Profession Registered Nurse
Travel History Was traveling internationally at the time the interview was conducted
Thomas
Age 26
Profession Real Estate Developer
Travel History Was traveling internationally at the time the interview was conducted and planned to travel again soon
Conclusion
As an online travel resource and booking agency, Kayak wants to help users make informed travel decisions that they can feel confident in. They also want users to then book those trips through them. They implemented a Covid-19 page that is an excellent minimum viable product. However the page has no calls to action to let the users move to booking their trips. There are a few add ons we could include on the site to give users calls to action to book their trips including showing flight and hotel price information, showing what activities are open in a country, and allowing users to save out a list of their top countries to watch for changes to restrictions. Adding these additional features to their site may help them gain a competitive edge over other travel sites with Millennials and Gen Z travelers.