Published: 03 Sep 2007

The site has come up with a new “Weekend Search” that allows users to compare prices for upcoming weekends or all weekends within a specified month.

“Several recent studies show travelers all over the world are taking shorter holidays, typically opting for long weekend trips,” said Steve Hafner, Kayak.co.uk co-founder and CEO. “Yet, no travel site has effectively offered a search specifically for the flexible weekend warrior until now. Only Kayak.co.uk’s Weekend Search allows the user to specify days of the week and preferred times in the search parameters, resulting in relevant search results.”

To compare fares for weekend travel, users simply select “Weekends” on the flight homepage and specify destination, month of departure or upcoming weekends, day of the week and time. Core results are organised by price while an interactive Weekend Snapshot box offers an overview of dates and prices for all five weekends. Check boxes allow users to compare prices for two or more weekends. Kayak.co.uk uniquely allows consumers to save favorite itineraries to the top of the search results for easier comparison by clicking on the heart icon within the itinerary details box.

Kayak.co.uk launched a new display for flights and hotels after testing more than 300 mocks for Travel 2.0 functionality.

Flights results are now displayed in the following views:

· Traditional List View displays itinerary information and offers users a choice of where to book, supplier direct or from an online travel agency.
· For those preferring an overview of results from all airlines, Matrix View has been added. Users can filter results by clicking content in the Matrix or by interacting with the filtering and sorting tools.
· Chart View is the new home of Kayak’s Best Fare Trend Graph, which charts pricing for city/date pairs found by Kayak.co.uk users over the past 90 days. Travellers will benefit from two charts, one that displays pricing for the selected departure date and another graph that presents pricing for all dates within the specified month for flexible travelers on a budget.

Also, users can compare hotel results from the following views: Traditional List View, which according to the site displays more hotels above the fold than any other travel site, and a checkbox has been added to include or hide hotel thumbnails; Map View integrates search results on a Google Map; Photo View offers slideshows of properties using Ajax navigation, allowing for quick scrolls through hotel pictures.

Kayak.co.uk has also launched a new car rental search facility. Kayak’s integrated search enables consumers to cross shop for rental cars on one page. Users benefit from Kayak’s signature filters and enhanced search options, searching by price, brand, location and vehicle features, to suit them. Kayak searches all major rental car brands in addition to searching for prices and availability from online agencies. Kayak will continue to add more car rental brands and agency sites, according to a release.