20 Things You Didn’t Know About Momondo
Momondo is one of those obscure websites that you probably haven’t heard a lot about if you’re from the United States. You wouldn’t have seen any commercial advertisements on television and your best bet for finding out about them would be to conduct an online search for the cheapest airfare because that’s what they do best. Momondo can be compared to Expedia, Kayak or Travelocity in some capacities. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know much about Momondo, but here are 20 things you didn’t know about it to fill you in on them.
1. Momondo is a Danish company
Momondo was developed in the country of Denmark. It was established in 2006, so it’s been around for longer than a decade. It’s a bit obscure to most Americans because it’s not a company that has been widely advertised throughout the US. The more popular Kayak.com is more well-known and Momondo was actually a subsidiary of this company.
2. Momondo got top ratings in a study
A recent study was conducted to find out how effective several different travel agencies were in really finding the lowest airfare rates. Of all the companies tested, it was discovered that Momondo was the online travel agency that offered the lowest airfare rates ninety-five percent of the time. This is quite an accomplishment and it’s no wonder that this amazing little company was so high in demand and desired by their larger competitors.
3. Momondo has gone through a series of acquisitions
Momondo has established an amazing track record for consistently finding low airfare and this has made it something that larger competitors wanted to absorb into their own companies. There have been several big companies that have acquired Momondo and brought the company into the fold under their umbrellas so they could reap the benefits of the excellent work that the team had done in accomplishing their overarching mission. They were formerly a subsidiary of kayak.com, which was itself a subsidiary of a larger parent company called Booking Holdings. It was next acquired by Cheapflights Media, the company that controls and operates the Cheapflights website. They were a Momondo’s competition and rivals in the online travel agency industry until the acquisition was made.
4. Both Cheapflights and Momondo were acquired by Booking Holdings in 2017
It was just six years after Cheapflights acquired Momondo that the much larger Booking Holdings bought both of the online travel agencies. booking Holdings paid $550 million to seal the deal.
5. Momondo launched even more services in January of 2014
Momondo was already doing a stellar job of offering some of the lowest prices on airline tickets. They wanted to do more for their customers and to enhance the services that they had to offer visitors to their site. In January of 2014, they implemented their free city guide that included really useful maps. This guide would allow people who were interested in finding out more about certain cities or neighborhoods the opportunity to zoom in on the specific places and learn about the amenities, landmarks, special points of interest, shopping, routes, and other useful information when building their itineraries. This was a brilliant addition and it made people who already loved Momondo enjoy using it even more. It was quickly becoming a one-stop shop for finding low airfare and useful tools for their trip planning.
6. Momondo added two more tools over the next year
Between 2014 and 2015, Momondo launched a new trip finder tool. This was followed in June of the next year with its Travel Saver Calendar tool. They had added so many new resources that the site was understandably one of the most attractive for people planning a trip to almost anywhere in the world. There are so many useful and helpful features that make trip planning not only easier and more convenient, but they point out important considerations that can help to make the trip safer and more enjoyable.
7. An investor made a large commitment to Momondo in 2014
Private equity firm Great Hill Partners saw something intriguing in Momondo. They believed that a large investment in the company would be a risk worth taking. The firm made an investment of 80 million in British pounds to the Momondo Group, earning them the majority stake in the company which had a valuation of 132 million in BP. This was prior to the acquisition of the Momondo group by Booking Holdings in 2017. The investment raises the value of the company to over four times its original valuation.
8. Controversy hit Momondo and other similar providers
Ryanair took exception with Momondo and other sites including Cheap o air and Opodo, with the way that they offered such low airfare. This was exacerbated by a drop in passengers for the commercial airline who blamed sites such as Momondo for pulling customers away by offering them the lowest possible prices. Not all airlines were in the business of offering lower-priced seats and those who were reaped the benefits. Those who were not found that in many instances, customers were going where they could save the most amount of money. It was a point that was well taken but the issue was resolved and Momondo persevered and continued to offer their fabulous finds to a loyal customer base.
9. Momondo received international recognition for its contributions
In September of 2011, Travel and Leisure Magazine, a well-read publication named Momondo among their listing of the “best travel websites and apps.” This is a distinction that has not been awarded lightly. The committees making the decisions take several factors under consideration prior to bestowing these honors. Perhaps it had something to do with the study that showed Momondo offered the lowest fares 95% of the time. This was an excellent track record and there were no other online travel sites that could boast the same amazing feat.
10. They also offer cheap fare on complicated itineraries
Momondo has the sophisticated technology required to conduct a variety of different travel searches with a variety of trip type searches including multiple destination itineraries as well as one way and round trip flights. Their system is so adept at finding the lowest rates on certain routes and putting them together that they are one of the top providers when it comes to planning the ideal trip.
11. Users have multiple options with Momondo
Momondo’s tools offer ways for online users to find a variety of different trip itineraries and route combinations that will provide them with the lowest priced options for fares. Sometimes there is a lot more to planning the ideal trip than for simply cutting corners on the total overall cost of airfare. In some cases, a customer may want to customize an itinerary to include a leg on the journey that is offered at a higher price than some of the cheaper alternative routes. All of this is possible through the use of Momondo and it’s one of the most phenomenal websites out there for planning a customized vacation or business trip while saving the most money possible on the airfare.
12. Momondo collaborated with Ancestry.com
Here is a fun fact that few people know about. Momondo formed a brief collaborative effort with Ancestry.com in 2016. The ad campaign that they jointly embarked upon was called “The DNA Journey.” Momondo took the initiative to invite 67 participants from all parts of the globe to get their DNA testing done through ancestry.com to discover more about where their families come from. The project resulted in a group reveal on camera and the promotional video was uploaded to YouTube.
13. Momondo was bestowed yet more honors
In 2014 Travolution Awards bestowed the high honor of the Best Meta Search Website award. They were granted this distinction for two consecutive years in addition to being named as the number one website on the top ten list of the Best Airfare Search Sites by Frommer.
14. Momondo received Media accolades as well
Forbes joined in the high praises of Momondo by offering their insights on the online travel agencies status as among the most intuitive meta search engines. This is in addition to their naming them as one of the “best travel websites for sourcing travel deals.”
15. The New York Times jumped on the bandwagon
Momondo was also recognized by the New York Times. The Times recognized Momondo and gave the site high praise for their capacity for consistently finding “combinations of flights that you won’t find anywhere else.” This was a high honor by an esteemed media source and they took the time and effort to render a detailed explanation of why they thought that Momondo was such an amazing travel site.
16. Momondo is multilingual and serves everyone in the world
Momondo is available for anyone in the world to use. Their websites and highly useful tools are available in several of the most widely used languages throughout the world. These include English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Turkish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Russian, Finnish, Czech, Romanian, Polish, Chinese and Ukrainian.
17. Momondo is more than a search engine
To call Momondo an online travel search engine for cheap airfares doesn’t seem to do it the justice that it deserves. It’s actually much more than that, but one thing we haven’t mentioned yet is that it is a metasearch engine. This tells you that it conducts multiple searches at one time. This saves users a lot of time and effort to find what they’re looking for. They’re comparable to Skyscanner.
18. Momondo is still one of the best-kept secrets
When it comes to traveling, those who are aware of Momondo and the tremendous benefits it has to offer, understand that it’s one of the top rated sites for getting the lowest rates on airfare. Those who still haven’t heard of it are missing out and paying more than they need to on airfare. Momondo is one of the best-kept secrets and there are still far too many who haven’t heard the good news yet.
19. Momondo has a cool option that will blow your mind
When you get onto the Momondo website there is a tool that you absolutely must try. It’s an option that says, “take me anywhere” All you need to do to have an amazing experience is to enter the departure airport and don’t fill in the destination. When you hit search it will bring up some of the most outstanding recommendations that you might not have thought about. It’s a lot of fun to play around on Momondo. It’s like going on a mini adventure before you even board the airplane to embark on your next trip and it could give you some excellent ideas to maximize the time that you have at each destination on your itinerary.
20. Momondo gives you tons of extra tips for finding cheap fares
Momondo not only offers a lot of useful tools for finding cheap airfare, but they also give visitors to their site tons of additional tips that are helpful for finding the best deals and more. Some of the tips that they provide include information about the best days to fly on the cheap. For example, they tell visitors that Tuesday is generally the cheapest day to fly and on the other hand, Saturdays are usually the most expensive days to fly. They also let everyone know that the trends show that early morning flights are less expensive than afternoon or late night ones. Did you know that you can get the maximum savings by booking your flight 56 days in advance? These are some of the amazing things that Momondo shares with everyone for free to help find the absolute lowest airfares.
They also teach you how to get the most out of using their own website. A good example of this is their stip that you should open an incognito window to search for your tickets and you should also remember that you need to clear your browser’s cookies if you’re not going to use an incognito window. They also encourage all site visitors to be a little flexible and dedicate some time to researching a variety of different routes along with different airports and departure/return dates.