Found some great deals on Kayak and you want to know if they’re legit before you give them any money? Then you’re definitely in the right place because this detailed guide will tell you everything you need to know about Kayak!
The short answer is yes, Kayak is legit and you don’t have to worry about giving them your money. That’s because you can’t really give your money to Kayak – they’re more of a search engine that lets you search for flights, accommodation, and rental car prices. Keep reading to learn more about Kayak and how to use the platform!
Kayak is a website for searching for flights, vacation rentals, and car rentals. It’s a great website to use when planning a trip, but it is important to note that you cannot book flights or homes directly on the platform.
Kayak will search for the best deals on flights and stays across its partnering websites and present you with all your options. When you find a deal you like, you can go to their partner’s website to learn more about it. It’s very similar to Skyscanner and Google Flights search and is an extremely useful platform for vacation planning.
Looking for a flight schedule or vacation rentals on Kayak is much more efficient than looking at just one platform because you’re browsing through more options immediately.
The website has many helpful filters and features you can use to really narrow down the search for deals, and you can track prices for flights and stays you’re interested in and get push notifications when they’re at their cheapest point.
Yes, Kayak is a legit website that’s been around for almost two decades. It’s an extremely useful platform for searching for deals, and if you know how to use it, you can save quite a bit of money on vacations. Kayak flights are perhaps the most popular part of the platform because it allows travelers to find the cheapest flights to the destinations they want to visit.
That being said, I have to point out that most people who have had some sort of issue when booking deals they found on Kayak didn’t have the best experience with Kayak customer service. But that’s because Kayak isn’t directly responsible for the bookings, so if you do have an issue with anything, you will need to contact the customer service of the partner you booked with.
Kayak is only as reliable as its partners and providers, so it mostly depends on which third-party booking sites you use to complete the booking. The platform partners with well-known booking providers like Expedia, Agoda, and Booking.com, but also some lesser-known agencies that can be hit or miss.
Kayak also partners with countless airlines as well as many third-party sites, so it’s up to you to decide who you want to buy your ticket from. It’s generally smarter to purchase tickets directly from the airline because it will be easier to change the tickets if necessary, but they usually won’t be the cheapest tickets.
If you want to ensure you have a great experience no matter what, try to book flights, stays, and cars through their most reputable partners. On the other hand, if you’re looking for the cheapest deals available, be prepared to do a lot of research and review reading to avoid having a negative experience.
You can’t really book anything on Kayak, but you can search for the best deals and safely book from their partners. Make sure that you’re reading all the fine print when you’re searching for something on Kayak – if you’re booking flights with connections, double check the time of the layover, baggage allowances on all the flights, whether they’re basic economy seats, and all the other relevant information.
Also, when you find a deal you like, try to find out as much about the website that offers it, especially if it’s not something famous and established like Expedia or Booking. Look for TrustPilot and SiteJabber reviews of the website, and see what other travelers are saying about their experiences with them.
Another thing to note is that you should be extra careful when booking accommodation, especially if it’s not a popular hotel. Kayak will present you with the best deals for private home rentals and other vacation packages, and sometimes this might include options that are fairly new or don’t have the best reviews.
That’s why when you go to check out the rental on the partnering website, you should read through all the reviews left by other travelers. Book the accommodation only if you see that the vast majority of people who stayed there are satisfied with their experience, or that their qualms are something you’re confident won’t bother you as much.
Setting flexible dates for Kayak flight booking will help you find the cheapest deals. When selecting dates for flights, you can select a flexibility of up to three days. That way, you’re presented with deals you wouldn’t see with fixed dates, and the amount of money you can save is astonishing.
I looked for flights from Zagreb to Lisbon between the 22nd and 26th of May. The cheapest flight for these dates is around 300 Euros, with a 20+ hour stopover with is less than ideal. But when I confirmed that my dates were flexible, I was presented with a 210 Euro flight option with a 9-hour stopover. It’s still not the perfect solution, but it’s significantly better than the first deal.
Kayak will present you with three categories at the top of your search – Cheapest, Best, and Quickest. The cheapest flights usually include long layovers or even more than one layover, and they’re rarely a good option.
The best deal is what they deem to be the best price with an acceptable stopover length, while the quickest option displays the flight that gets you there the fastest, and is usually the most expensive option.
It’s worth noting that it’s possible to select flexible dates only for flights. You can’t do this when looking for hotels or a rental car, but you can sort the options from lowest to highest price.
The main advantage of using Kayak is that you’re simultaneously looking at deals from multiple other platforms, similar to Google Flights and Skyscanner. It eliminates the need to open dozens of tabs to compare prices on different websites because Kayak does all the work for you.
This is excellent because you can find deals that you would otherwise be unaware of, and save a lot of money on your trips. Especially because Kayak also gives you the option to select a departure airport, and then shows you the cheapest flights available there. This is very helpful if you don’t have a destination in mind – you just want to travel somewhere and do it for as little money as possible.
Another good thing about Kayak is that you can set up price alerts. So, if you’re planning a vacation that’s ways away in the future, you can get emails and notifications for deals on plane tickets.
One of the main downsides of using Kayak is that you’re limited only to the booking providers they partner with. You won’t see deals from websites that aren’t official partners of Kayak, and sometimes those websites might offer better deals that you’re unaware of.
Also, there aren’t any Kayak reviews directly on the website. The travelers can see the reviews of properties on the site of the provider, but there’s no way to leave reviews directly on the Kayak website which is a bit of a downside.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Kayak isn’t directly responsible for any of the bookings completed with their partners, so their customer service won’t do much for you in case of issues with your booking.
They might try to talk with the partnering website on your behalf, but this isn’t guaranteed. That’s why you should always book with Kayak’s best and most trusted partners, even if they might not be the cheapest.
No, there are no hidden fees on Kayak. The platform displays the prices as they are on the websites of their booking providers, and they do not charge travelers any additional fees. That’s one of the best things about using Kayak – you can essentially look through the deals on hundreds of different sites free of charge, and find the options that are best suited for your needs.
That depends on where you end up booking the flight. You can’t actually book anything on Kayak – the website only displays the prices of flights from their partners, and then you get redirected to the partner website when you want to complete the booking.
All purchases are finalized on the provider’s website, so whether or not the flight is refundable depends on the type of ticket and where you booked it.
No, Kayak is not the same as Expedia. Expedia is a travel agency that offers deals on flights and stays, whereas Kayak is more of a travel search engine that lets you look for flights and accommodation across a variety of platforms.
Kayak is more similar to Skyscanner than anything else – both are reputable websites that browse the web for deals on flights, stays, and rental cars, and then present you with all the best options. Both websites then redirect you to their partner, and only then can you book something.
Roger is a little obsessed with travel. He has been to over 40 countries, broken 3 suitcases and owned over 10 backpacks in 12 months. What he doesn't know about travel, ain't worth knowing!