GOOD MORNING, READERS.
Booking Holdings is backing a new AI travel startup called Lola, led by Kayak founders Steve Hafner and Paul English. A new splash page for Lola suggests conversational AI search is core to the project, promising "Insider access to the world’s leading travel brands. Better rates, better options, better everything. Just ask."
The Lola name has history: English and Hafner actually wanted to call Kayak "Lola" before its launch in 2004, but the Kayak domain was much cheaper. English later co-founded a separate Lola.com business travel startup in 2015, which Capital One acquired in 2021. He bought back the name Lola, then sold it to Booking Holdings last month.
Booking made a big bet on Hafner and English when it bought Kayak in 2012. Will a second go around with the duo turn out as well?
P.S. To go much, much deeper into the evolution of online travel, set aside the time to dive into Dennis Schaal's definitive oral history of online travel.
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