KAYAK reviews

At its early years, Kayak was blessed by the results of its initial strategy in the US, leading to its IPO and acquisition by the Priceline group. Now, the company finds itself still recovering from a hangover that was the re org of its global commercial team, 2 years a go. Coupled with a few mismanaged acquisitions (Momondo/Cheapflights) and a merger with Open Table, the company is primed for a tough road ahead. Competitors like Google Flights and Skyscanner caught up and outpace Kayak on product and as a performance channel for its partners. The global commercial team is small for the revenue it brings which leads to saturated titles and even bigger egos. The leadership team often chooses to fight internal battles to leverage or protect their own growth rather than welcoming different points of views, or simply executing on ideas that will help the business as a whole. This results in a clicky and toxic environment where result-driven work falls flat, because in the end it was all a fake meritocracy where "who you are close to" becomes the true success currency. Recently, there were attempts to improve the culture and internal process, but these efforts lacked authenticity, and ultimately, rewarded the very same leaders who turned a blind eye to the issues prior.

Let´s start by saying that KAYAK is an American company with an American culture and that it has grown extremely fast, from no more than 400 in 2015 to over 2,000 employees these days. Main cons I experience: 1. In my opinion, the biggest problem this company has is that it´s grown too fast for its own sake. The infrastructure, this is: People, Systems and Culture, was not ready to resist the influx of company acquisitions and here I believe that leadership is to blame for not building the foundation. 2. They thought the mantra they have, ¨part cowboys¨, would sustain a growing complex global business, when in fact they needed to PLAN ahead. One of the biggest cons I see in this company is the lack of people at the top having the ability to build mid-long term strategies, a master plan and processes to deliver sustainable growth. I reckon we are in a fast moving industry, but unfortunately employees and partners need to buy into a vision and a strategy which you haven´t been able to set firmly. This has resulted in not so positive company results and a lot of the firing/sacking you have read from other negative comments on this page. There´s been redundancies among the different workforces, KAYAK and new brands acquired. 3. Providing a career path, competitive salaries or visibility and alignment between roles and functions is not their forte. This means that there are known compensation gaps; you do not know what are the career options in your foreseeable future or that nobody can explain how people hold director and above titles not having sufficient experience or know how. Let´s put it this way, HR is an ongoing chaos and do a disappointing work. 4. The partners, those who pay for the company services, have long noticed and remind: KAYAK is busy dealing with itself. This is normally driven by regular restructuring and lack of maintaining a sustainable business to provide a win-win situation to all stakeholders. 5. Firing, it´s a business and the company is entitled? Yes, BUT they do not consider the repercussions it has to the business partners and to the morale. Imagine being asked from one day to the other to leave not being able to say goodbye to clients or people whom you´ve worked with. What´s the image when a partner asks about a project you worked and colleagues know nothing or when a peer needs to deliver double the work to cover for those fired? These are dangerous grounds as not only KAYAK is demotivating its workforce but it´s hurting the hand that feeds it. 6. No commitment to any humanitarian or environmental issues. In today´s society, young generations consider companies that show actively their commitment to some of today´s issues, KAYAK does not stand by any of these nor has a CSR programme in the making. 7. Lastly, The simple fact that the positive reviews (4 and 5 stars) in this KAYAK page probably come from the fact that HR asks employees to write something good is disappointing. The quality of those reviews, please notice the 1 liners, will not help the reader to have an idea of the company and challenge the very existence of Glassdoor.