\n<\/p>\n
Kayak co-founder and CEO Steve Hafner, who took the company public in 2012 and sold it to Booking Holdings for $2.1 billion the next year, is out as CEO after 22 years.<\/p>\n
Parent company Booking Holdings announced Tuesday morning that it appointed chief financial officer Peer Bueller as Kayak CEO, and Hafner has become executive chair, a newly created position.<\/p>\n
The announcement did not give a reason for the leadership shuffle, but said Hafner \u201cwill take on a new leadership role at Booking Holdings focused on advancing AI innovation.\u201d The company provided no further details on the new role.<\/p>\n
Bueller became Kayak CFO in 2016 and added chief operating officer to his duties in 2021. From 2012 to 2016, Bueller served as director of financial planning and analysis at the parent company\u2019s flagship brand, Booking.com.<\/p>\n
In addition to his Kayak CEO role, Hafner served as the CEO of sister brand OpenTable from January 2018 to August 2020.<\/p>\n
Skift broke the news last month that Hafner had previously sought to take Kayak private, and had investors lined up to execute the move. Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel rejected the idea, according to our scoop.<\/p>\n
Hafner and chief technology officer Paul English co-founded Kayak in 2004, and it became one of the leading companies in what was then a hot category, travel metasearch. Skyscanner, Trivago, and Tripadvisor were also top players.<\/p>\n
Leading OTAs reasoned they needed to own a metasearch company to use as an in-house platform to market their own brands, and to make money off rivals\u2019 advertising spend. Booking Holdings acquired Kayak in 2013, Expedia Group took a controlling interest in Trivago that same year, and China\u2019s Trip.com Group scooped up Skyscanner in 2016.<\/p>\n
Expedia and Hotels.com are among many non-Booking Holdings brands that advertise on Kayak today.<\/p>\n
Google \u2014 with its grip on search, and the dominance of its hotel and flight metasearch products \u2014 overtook Kayak and others in the metasearch group.<\/p>\n
The rise of generative AI and large language models such as Google Gemini, OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT, and Anthropic\u2019s Claude, has reduced the perceived value of metasearch platforms.<\/p>\n
In October 2025,\u00a0Booking Holdings took a $457 million writedown\u00a0on the value of Kayak. Booking stated that it expected lower future cash flows for Kayak and higher customer acquisition costs.<\/p>\n
At the time, Hafner attributed the impairment largely to changes in Google\u2019s search practices \u2014 including the rise of AI Overviews and a shift in visibility from free (organic) links to paid listings.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cSteve pioneered the metasearch category with the launch of Kayak and delivered industry-leading results for Kayak for many years, since our acquisition of the brand in 2013,\u201d said Glenn Fogel, Booking Holdings CEO, in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019ll continue to rely on his entrepreneurialism, leadership and deep expertise in travel tech in his new role within Booking Holdings.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been an honor to lead Kayak for the past 22 years,\u201d Hafner said in a statement. \u201cWe have the innovation velocity, ambition and a highly engaged team. It\u2019s the perfect time to hand the reins to Peer. He\u2019s been indispensable to our success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bueller said in a statement that he still sees plenty of opportunity for Kayak, \u201cand we\u2019re well-positioned to pursue it.\u201d<\/p>\n