The robot revolution is coming to the travel industry, this CEO says

As is, many travelers are turning to mobile technology to look for travel deals. According to a recent TripAdvisor study this year, 42 percent of global smartphone users turned to their smartphones for searching part of their trip. Committing to a deal, however, was more difficult: Just 11 percent booked some travel using a travel app on a mobile device, and just 8 percent booked a hotel room. While Kayak processes 1.5 billion search queries every year, and the site refers users to other websites to complete transactions. So if you don't buy a ticket or hotel room from Kayak, how do they make money? Hafner explained that "Kayak is a lot like using Google. We don't need to make money on every transaction or every time you use the site. If we can get you to use the website and occasionally you'll click on and purchase something from the services that we offer, we'll get a small piece of that transaction." Advertising revenue accounts for more than half of Kayak's total revenue. About 30 percent comes from sending referrals to airlines, while 15 percent from hotel and car rental companies, according to analyst estimates. Hafner tells CNBC "it's up to the consumer for where they want, where they have the greatest comfort or familiarity where they want to book from, personally, I book direct with the airlines." Looking ahead, Hafner says consolidation in travel has been "good for the American consumer, there are fewer airlines now, but there are more flights and it's cheaper to fly now than it used to be."