Scores are calculated from ratings and reviews from travelers based on 6 categories:
In order to qualify for selection as a best hotel in 2019 for a category, a hotel must have had a minimum of 50 new reviews published within 2018 with a minimum overall rating of 8.0 for the category.
For the Travel Awards website, a maximum of the 100 highest scoring hotels for each of the categories above were selected per country from each of the following regions: US & Canada, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, Asia Pacific.
KAYAK considered (4 & 5 star) hotel searches on the U.S. site between 8/1/18 through 1/31/19 for travel occurring between 1/1/19 through 6/30/19 for both domestic and international travel.
Cheapest/Most expensive days to check in and out were determined by looking at the average price per day (Monday through Sunday)
KAYAK considered (4 & 5 star) hotel searches on the U.S. site between 2/1/18 through 1/31/19 for travel occurring between 2/1/18 through 1/31/19 for both domestic and international travel. Data was capped at 1,000 days before departure date.
Scores are calculated from ratings and reviews from travelers based on 6 categories:
In order to qualify for selection as a best airline in 2019 for a category, an airline must have had a minimum of 150 new reviews published within 2018 with a minimum overall rating of 6.1 for the category.
Best Airlines
Selected the 10 highest scoring airlines (Full Service* and Regional**) for each of the categories above in each of the following regions: US & Canada, Latin America, Middle East & Africa, Asia Pacific.
Best Budget Airlines
Selected the 10 highest scoring budget airlines (Low Cost***) for each of the categories above.
* Full Service: A full service airline is an airline that offers passengers traditional services such as in-flight entertainment, checked baggage, meals, beverages and amenities such as blankets and pillows in the price of the airline ticket. The seats traditionally have more recline than a low cost airline as well as more leg room. Full service airlines offer passengers the selection of economy or business class travel and on some flights premium economy and first class. Full service airlines are also traditionally the flag carriers for their countries.
** Regional: Regional airlines are airlines that operate regional aircraft to provide passenger air service to communities without sufficient demand to attract mainline service.
*** Low-cost: A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (also known as no-frills, discount or budget carrier or airline, or LCC) is an airline without most of the traditional services provided in the fare, resulting in lower fares and fewer comforts.
KAYAK looked into flight destinations with the biggest savings when booking hacker fares (two one way tickets) as opposed to roundtrip flights.
We considered searches conducted on the US KAYAK sites between 2/1/18 through 1/31/19 for travel from the US occurring between 2/1/18 through 1/31/19. All flight searched are hacker fare, economy flights excluding price outliers based on certain criteria.
Cheapest flight destinations from the U.S., of the 300 most searched for flight destinations (domestic + international), with the lowest overall median airfare.
Travel dates considered were between 3/30/18 through 4/3/18.
Cheapest flight destinations from the U.S., of the 300 most searched for flight destinations (domestic + international), with the lowest overall median airfare.
Travel dates considered were between 5/24/18 through 5/29/18.
Cheapest flight destinations from the U.S., of the 300 most searched for flight destinations (domestic + international), with the lowest overall median airfare.
Travel dates considered were between 7/3/18 through 7/9/18.
Cheapest flight destinations from the U.S., of the 300 most searched for flight destinations (domestic + international), with the lowest overall median airfare.
Travel dates considered were between 8/31/18 through 9/4/18.
The data is based on flight searches and clicks on KAYAK, departing from the selected origin airport to the selected destination city for the respective travel month.
The data is based on flight searches on KAYAK, for the selected search month, showing the increase or decrease in searches compared to the same search month the year before.
Scores are calculated from ratings and reviews from travelers based on 5 categories:
In order to qualify for selection as a best car rental company in 2019 for a category, an agency must have had a minimum of 100 new reviews published within 2018 with a minimum overall rating of 6.1 for the category.
For the Travel Awards website, a maximum of the 10 highest scoring car rental companies for each of the categories above were selected in each the United States and Canada.
To determine the best domestic pick up and drop off locations for rental cars, KAYAK looked at the median price for intermediate rental cars (most popular rental car class) when picking up and dropping off at the following locations:
Search dates considered were between 8/1/18 through 1/31/19 for travel between 1/1/19 through 6/30/19.
To determine median prices per rental car class, KAYAK looked at the following car classes with search dates of 8/1/18 through 1/31/19 for travel between 1/1/19 through 6/30/19:
To determine the best timeframe to book intermediate rental cars in the U.S., KAYAK considered searches between 2/1/18 through 2/1/19 for travel between 2/1/18 through 2/1/19.
Timeframes were chosen based on the rental periods with the lowest prices per day.
KAYAK's list of travel influencers was curated by KAYAK's travel experts based on the following criteria: Content, Followers and Engagement.
Influencers were chosen by KAYAK’s team of travel experts based on the following criteria:
Top International Flight Routes.
Cheap flights, hotels, rental cars and travel deals:
KAYAK searches hundreds of other travel sites at once to find the best deals on airline tickets, cheap hotels, cheap cruises, vacations and rental cars.
Not what you’re looking for? Find thousands of other hotels, flights, car rentals and package deals with KAYAK.