Kayak opening first hotel in Miami Beach next month
Kayak is getting into the hotel business.
On Tuesday, the travel booking platform announced that its boutique hotel, Kayak Miami Beach, will be opening in April.
The 52-room hotel, located in Miami Beach’s Collins Park neighborhood, will be “tech-forward,” a press release said. Guests will be able to use Kayak’s mobile app to message hotel staff, unlock their door and request room upgrades, according to the company announcement.
The app will also send guests notifications of events at the hotel and alerts when their rooms are ready.
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According to the release, the backend software is still being developed by Kayak and the company will use the hotel to “build and refine its accommodation technology.”
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“We see a big opportunity to apply our audience and technology to the accommodations space to level the playing field for independent hotels,” Steve Hafner, Kayak’s CEO said in a statement. “Our Miami Beach property will serve as our hotel design lab and deepen our knowledge of hospitality and showcase our growing capabilities.”
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Kayak Miami Beach is opening in partnership with hotel brand and management company Life House, which will manage the hotel’s operations and “help shape the on-site guest experience,” the release said.
“Our mission is to create value for independent lifestyle hotels and their owners,” Rami Zeidan, Life House’s founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Together with Kayak, we can accelerate our leadership in this quickly evolving space.”
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Kayak Miami Beach — which is inside a landmarked art-deco building from 1934 — will also have amenities including hotel bikes and a rooftop pool. The hotel’s on-site Middle Eastern bar and restaurant, Layla, is powered by booking platform OpenTable, according to the release.
Though Kayak Miami Beach is the platform’s first hotel, Kayak said it would be looking into opening other locations “to help refine its software for different property sizes and types,” the release said.