Nothing beats one-stop shopping for flights, hotels and rental cars. To help make that easier to accomplish, we took a look at the strengths and weaknesses among three top metadata search engines: Kayak, Mobissimo and Momondo, followed by some head-to-head-to-head searches.
Launched in early 2005, Kayak focuses on three things: “speed, relevance and simplicity,” said its chief technology officer, Paul English. When asked whether advertising influences searches, he said, “Kayak absolutely doesn’t bias its search results whatsoever — any bias will only be driven by whether it’s more relevant to the user. If users indicate they want to see American or Delta first, then Kayak shows those results first.”
Strengths
Sophisticated, helpful filters incorporate user preferences as to airlines, price, etc.
Deal and vacation searches
Multicity, weekend and flexible flight searches
Calendar shows cheapest days to fly.
Comparison windows to simultaneously compare results with other sites (Orbitz, Priceline, etc.). Kayak’s default setting is one comparison, which is less annoying if you don’t care to compare.
Hotel search recognizes suburbs such as Brooklyn, N.Y., or Cambridge, Mass., and includes pictures and a map.
Travel tools including My Trips (an itinerary keeper), Buzz (for flight deals), Insight (showing real-time searches) and more
Private sale featuring five to 10 hotel deals (discounted as much as 50 percent)
Weaknesses
No searches for high-speed trains integrated into flight searches.
No flexible hotel or car rental search.
Launched in April 2004, Mobissimo specializes in international deals. CEO and co-founder Beatrice Tarka said Mobissimo’s “activity” search can help people discover destinations where similar vacation activities are offered. If fares to Hawaii are too steep, this search could lead you to Panama. “This allows users to access information that an experienced travel agent would normally suggest to give you a better view of what’s available,” Tarka said.
Strengths
Activity searches
Searches generate a recommendation box for tips.
Comparison windows to simultaneously compare results (its default setting of three comparisons can be annoying if you don’t care to compare)
Local Web sites in Brazil, Britain, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Poland or Spain can increase savings for multilingual users.
Weaknesses
There’s no multicity flight search, but it’s due by late spring, according to Tarka.
Limited filters so you can’t specify the number of stops for flights or the star rating for hotels
No calendar showing best days to fly
Limited train searches
Vacation search is limited to Hotwire
No map or pictures integrated into the hotel search
Partner Martin Lumbye said that in ancient Spanish, Momondo meant “my world.” This Danish site was created in 2006 to provide “price transparency for consumers and show as many prices from as many suppliers as possible,” Lumbye said. Momondo searches some online travel agencies and carriers that the others skip. It searches Priceline, TravelPapa, Airclub 1 and Onetravel for airfare. Kayak and Mobissimo let users search Priceline only via a revenue-generating comparison box search (meaning Priceline pays to be listed).
Strengths
Consistently finds low prices.
Momondo’s bright colors and beautiful photos make searching fun.
Searches for high-speed trains (Europe and U.S.) are integrated into flight searches.
Flight search shows cheapest days to fly with a colorful price graph (or calendar).
Integrated pictures and map for hotel searches
Helpful city guides for several destinations
Weaknesses
No multicity flight search (but that feature is due by late spring)
Click-through links always take me to the right Web site, but sometimes search details don’t carry over to JetBlue, EasyJet, Ryanair and Eurostar.
Head-to-head tests
For round-trip flights between Chicago and New York, most often all three tied for the lowest fare.
Round-trip flight search — Chicago to San Jose, Costa Rica, departing May 10, returning May 19
Winner: Momondo: $227 fare on Mexicana through Hotwire. Kayak’s fare directly through Mexicana was $237, and Mobissimo’s Mexicana fare was $242 through Vayama.
Round-trip flight search — London to Paris (May 10-19)
Winners: Kayak and Mobissimo, with a $75 EasyJet fare (from London Luton Airport to Charles de Gaulle). Momondo’s EasyJet fare was $82, and when I clicked through to EasyJet, I had to re-enter my search criteria.
One-way flight search — Berlin to Zurich, May 10
Winner: Momondo, with $90 on Air Berlin through a German site, GoLeif.de. Momondo’s colorful price graph also showed May 5 or 6 as cheaper days to fly. Kayak’s and Mobissimo’s lowest fare was $108 on German Wings, a German airline I had never encountered.
One-way flight search — Frankfurt to Paris, May 10
Winner: Momondo, $100 for the TGV Europe train or $143 for an Air Berlin flight. Kayak’s lowest fare was $188 on Air Berlin. Though Mobissimo is supposed to find rail options in Europe, this search generated none, and the lowest airfare was $256 on Air Berlin.
Hotels
New York City, May 10-19
Winner: A three-way tie with a low price of $24 for hostel-type accommodations. Filters on Momondo and Kayak let you sort by price, location or star ratings, while Mobissimo sorts hotels only by price.
San Jose, Costa Rica, May 10-19
Winner by price: Mobissimo, with the Pension de la Cuesta for $20 a night through GTA Hotels. However, when I clicked through to GTA to see pictures (because Mobissimo doesn’t include pictures), I wasn’t sure the lodging was a winner. Kayak and Momondo both came up with nicer-looking accommodations priced around $44. Kayak’s and Momondo’s pictures and maps are extremely helpful for selecting a hotel.
Car rental search
Los Angeles, May 10-19
Winner: A three-way tie. Momondo found a lower price of $185 via Ireland-based arguscarhire.com versus $191 that Mobissimo and Kayak found for an Alamo economy car. By the time you pay a conversion fee to rent from Enterprise via a European vendor, you might be better off using a U.S. vendor.
