Kayak will embark on its first significant push in the Asia-Pacific region in 2017, years after missing out on investing in one of China’s hottest web properties.

The travel search brand, which has a dominant position in North America, has had a modest presence in the APAC for a number of years but says over the course of 2017 and 2018 it will be investing in marketing in a bid to capture some market share from the likes of Wego, Skyscanner and Qunar.

Speaking at the WebInTravel conference in Singapore this week, CEO Steve Hafner argues that a sequence of elements needed to be in place before it made a concerted push of its brand for the region.

Specifically, Kayak needed to get more supply of local product from hotels and airlines and customise the user interfaces on desktop and mobile app for users.

Certain types of signage for products perform better with users in Japan, for example, than they do with travellers in North America.

The decision to make a play for the APAC market comes a number of years after Kayak, pre-IPO and pre-Priceline Group acquisition, was offered the opportunity to buy into Qunar, the China-based travel search engine.

Kayak co-founder Paul English argued that the company should do a deal to buy a 25% stake in Qunar, Hafner admits, but he declined.

This was one of the “big mistakes” that Kayak made, Hafner concedes.

Still, Hafner couldn’t resist poking at his rivals in APAC who grabbed the opportunity to try and challenge Qunar when they made their own entries into the region a few years ago.

He says:

“We were not as enthusiastic at losing money as some of our competitors.”