"In my case I search using Kayak, but never really book the ticket from Kayak."
A lot of people do book from Kayak just because it's easier. So, don't assume you are the typical customer here. Also, I am not familiar with Hipmunk's numbers but I believe that hotel search is the real revenue generator for these sites, and flight search just acts to get people in the door.
True, I think logic suggests most people find it convenient to just click the result link on Kayak, which has made it so easy compared to Oribts, which has its own booking engine. So I am guessing they just make a very small percentage of the sale just for referring.
If as you say the hotel search is the real deal, it makes sense. Which leads me to the next thought, wonder why hotels haven't caught up with the airline industry in having a fairly realistic price listing on their own site? In fact, most of the times I am ok just booking using priceline bidding for hotels.
wonder why hotels haven't caught up with the airline industry in having a fairly realistic price listing on their own site?
What do you mean? Most hotels nowadays give you exactly the same price on their site as you'd get from orbitz/expedia/hipmunk.
If you mean a price list rather than a get-a-quote-for-a-particular-day, then that's not in their interests (they don't really want you to know how much they're gouging you on busy nights), but it's been a fair while since I stayed in a hotel which didn't have a price search thing on their site.
Priceline and hotwire are, of course, always cheaper than getting a named hotel, if you're clever about it.
I have to say, though, if hotel search is the real cash cow (as I suspect it is) then I think hipmunk should spend some more time working on it. Their interface for flight search is the greatest, and I use it all the time. But the hotel search I find to be confusing and clunky so I rarely use it.
It's really such a high value traffic area that you can be monetising traffic, especially if you're not looking to squeeze the last drop of money, is pretty easy.
A lot of people do book from Kayak just because it's easier. So, don't assume you are the typical customer here. Also, I am not familiar with Hipmunk's numbers but I believe that hotel search is the real revenue generator for these sites, and flight search just acts to get people in the door.