What I find interesting based on the layout it appears to be the Kayak.com search engine.

Recently Travel Zoo released a "beta" search engine (Fly.com) that also appears to be Kayak. I'm very surprised at how little effort is put in to customize the look and feel to differentiate their products. When I look at the similar sites, by first impression is why would I use their site when I can just go to Kayak.com.

Kayak.com has an extremely robust search API, but these firms appear to be buying the base Kayak search interface and just slapping a simple CSS upgrade on it. They use the same layout, refine results top left, various flight information refinement settings mid left such as stops, flight time, airlines cabin types etc... And flight information middle of the page, ads on the right. Trip Advisor does it a tad better by including their standard site navigation around the Kayak content but...

The Kayak API does not limit them to this standard look, they could parse out the information and re-display it in their own fashion, but instead they appear to be using a turnkey solution instead. I guess Kayak deserves some kudos on the product placement... But still I wish Travel Zoo and Trip Advisor were innovating beyond what has been done.

Posted By Iolaire McFadden on March 9, 2009, 11:29 AM

Iolaire,
I was so fascinated by your insight that I contacted Kayak to see if it was actually true. Alas, neither Tripadvisor nor TravelZoo has paid Kayak any money. They've just copied the design, according to Kayak CEO Steve Hafner. Here's his statement:

"Kayak.com welcomes the competition since it should help grow the metasearch category - hopefully to Kayak.com's ultimate benefit.  We are flattered by how many design elements TripAdvisor has chosen to mimick from our site.   While the visuals may be similar, ultimately it’s the caliber of the results that distinguishes the category leader. We offer the most comprehensive, relevent search and we continue to invest in the tools and brainpower to make our site easy to use for everyone. Kayak.com offers more money-saving technolgy than any other travel site including Flexible Search, Kayak Buzz, Airfare History Charts, Real-time Collaboration and our new Hotel Rate Calendar.  Plus, Kayak.com is available in 11 countries worldwide.
 We're also very excited to compete with TripAdvisor on hotel reviews.  In just a few weeks, Kayak.com will launch TravelPost, the world’s most comprehensive travel site for hotel reviews, descriptions and rates.  TravelPost will search hotel information and rates from more than 200 travel sites and displays hotel reviews from leading review sites.  We’ve applied our industry-leading filtering and sorting tools to hotel reviews which allows TravelPost users to find the most relevant reviews from people like them.  Plus, TravelPost incorporates the Kayak.com easy-to-use, clean, uncluttered UI." --Kayak CEO Steve Hafner

Posted By Sean (Blog Editor) on March 9, 2009, 2:43 PM

Budget Travel gives Kudos to Trip Advisor because when searching for plane tickets, the site quotes fares that include the estimated fees for baggage and other services in the price quoted. Instead of giving TripAdvisor kudos why not earn some yourself. I can't tell you how many times I have turned to the Real Deal section of your magazine and found a great trip for X amount of dollars in bold print only to find that one must add several hundred dollars to that for taxes and other fees. I am always left feeling like "you got me again". It's so disappointing to find a trip you think you can afford then have the add on amounts knock it out of the running. A trip isn't really $499 if the add ons bring it up to $750. The trip is either $499 or it is $750. It can't be both and no one's going anywhere if they only have $499. I'd like to see Budget Travel be a little bit more up front and state the WHOLE cost of the trip not just part of the trip.

Posted By Jackie on March 11, 2009, 6:03 PM

Hi Jackie!
Thanks for your comment. We use the starting price that tour operators use because it's the most consistent way to identify what most of the trip will cost. So if you click off one of our Real Deals pages to the tour operator's website, you'll see the same starting price. That being said, we are also as transparent as possible about the taxes and fees of a package. We quote airport taxes, hotel taxes, fees, fuel surcharges, and local payments, when applicable, in the "Real Deal" and "Fine Print" sections. Often, these are not listed on the tour operators' sites. We could say something more general like "taxes are additional," but instead we do more reporting to find out what those taxes will cost you.
Again, we thank you for reading and for your feedback. We’re always trying to refine what we do based on reader comments.
Regards,
The Editors

Posted By The Editors on March 12, 2009, 10:54 AM

Agree that TripAdvisor is a good site and we depend on them often. As to flights, we are getting fed up with the delays, low IQ TSA personnel, and nickel dime upon dime of fees and taxes. Because of this we have cancelled two flight plans and will not confine ourselves to trips we can drive. When the airlines and taxing authorities "get it". IF they ever do, we will resume our trips.

Posted By NickP on March 14, 2009, 2:09 PM