A popular travel search engine finds that majority of workers search for and plan their travel itinerary in the office. Travel search engine Kayak develops a desktop-only feature named "Kayak @Work" that could mask their activities, including a feature that helps them "pretend" to work.
According to Lonely Planet, travel search engine Kayak found that 57% of its visitors planned their vacation during weekdays where work activity was peaking or during their lunch break, a majority of visitors coming from desktop computers, likely the visitors' working stations. Kayak @Work, to be introduced in the United States for the moment, is available only for desktops, and it looks like a spreadsheet.
The idea is to make it easier for passing supervisors and managers to skip one's terminal when they see a Microsoft Excel-style file that makes an employee look hard at work. The layout is complete with a spreadsheet's column-and-row alphanumeric grid system while placing obvious travel items like "Flight" with drag-down cells indicating travel itinerary details.
Hiding one's interest for travel and planning these itineraries during work hours is important. While employers understand that being tied down to a desk for hours has one crave for vacations, it could be a cause of concern if they spot employees planning their vacation during work hours, especially when tasks and responsibilities are reaching deadlines.
Vacation planning could be a stressful activity and while productive can consume so much time during the weekends. The lengthier the travel period, the stressful the travel preparations could be, especially when handling overhead costs.
Travel and Leisure's interview with Kayak North America Marketing Vice President David Solomito indicated Kayak's understanding of more people being tied to work has them use work hours to plan their vacations. He said, "We created Kayak @Work to help people search for travel covertly."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
