KAYAK Opens New Hotel

You’ve been booking hotels through travel search site Kayak.com for years, but soon you’ll be able to stay in an actual KAYAK hotel. The search engine brand is opening its first hotel (in partnership with hospitality company Life House) in Miami, Florida this April.

The KAYAK Miami Beach will turn a 1934 Art Deco building into a 52-room boutique hotel. This won’t be any ordinary hotel—KAYAK is planning on using the property as a design lab, where they can test out products and software innovations in the hotel industry.

“We created KAYAK to compare prices from hundreds of travel sites. We now want our app to help with the hotel guest experience too,” said Steve Hafner, CEO of KAYAK. “KAYAK Miami Beach is our design lab for accommodation innovations – and a great place to stay.”

Guests at the KAYAK Miami Beach will be encouraged to download the KAYAK app, which will give them 24/7 access to hotel staff, alert them to hotel events, let them know when their room is ready, and give them a way to leave housekeeping requests.

The app can also be used for check-in, or guests can use the kiosks in the lobby that are designed to check-in people in under a minute.

Other contactless features at the new hotel will include QR codes to contact hotel staff, digital guestbooks, and in-room yoga classes on-demand.

The hotel will open on April 11, 2021 with introductory room rates starting at $229 per night.