AI agents put online travel giants on edge
Booking.com, Expedia and Airbnb brace for a future where digital assistants could bypass their platforms
The biggest names in online travel booking are scrambling to adapt to the rise of AI “agents” — autonomous digital assistants that can plan and book trips directly for users. These tools could reshape the $1.6tn travel market by cutting out intermediaries like Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb, threatening their commission-based business models. While OTAs highlight their scale, data, and customer support as moats, hotels see a chance to reduce reliance on platforms that charge fees of 15–20%.
Key takeaways
- AI agents emerge as threat: New autonomous bots from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and others can plan and book travel, potentially bypassing online travel agencies (OTAs).
- OTAs push AI partnerships: Booking.com, Expedia, and Airbnb are integrating OpenAI’s models and building AI trip planners or service agents to keep customers inside their ecosystems.
- Hotels see upside: Industry groups and investors argue AI could reduce the heavy 15–20% commissions charged by OTAs, giving hotels more direct control over guests.
- Investor skepticism: Analysts warn OTAs could “lose in an AI-first world,” with share prices lagging broader tech gains and Airbnb stock down 6% this year.
- OTAs stress advantages: Platforms argue their vast datasets, property inventories, and customer support networks are hard for tech giants to replicate.
- Early-stage reality check: AI travel planning remains limited — OpenAI’s GPT-4 completed complex tasks correctly just 0.6% of the time — but OTA executives admit the risk is real and are preparing defensively.
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