Airbnb says "probably not" to Meta's agent
Airbnb's CEO says guests don't want an AI to book a $1,000 stay in four seconds. Expedia's CEO, a day after joining Muse, made the same argument.
by Markus Busch
The answer. Meta launched Muse, its AI agent, in the US on September 8. It searches, fills in forms and buys on the user's behalf, checking with them before it pays. On September 22, Expedia said it was joining. Asked in an interview with Nikkei whether Airbnb would let outside agents like Muse book its stays, Brian Chesky said "probably not."
His reason. Chesky's case is that choosing the trip is the part people enjoy. "Planning travel is entertainment," he told Nikkei. Guests want to pick the place themselves, and the price makes the point sharper. He waved off the idea that anyone wants to book a stay in four seconds: "not if it's $1,000." The more expensive the trip, the more control the guest wants.
He also doubts the format. An agent squeezed into a chat window strips out the photos and the browsing people use to judge a place, and with them, he said, the choice. Then two practical worries any GM will recognize: confirming who the guest actually is, and making sure they've read the house rules before they turn up.
The same answer from inside the deal. Expedia made the opposite call on Muse and reached the same conclusion. At Skift Global Forum on September 23, the day after the Muse announcement, CEO Ariane Gorin said: "I certainly personally don't believe that a large portion of bookings are going to be an end-to-end conversational experience." Most trips involve several people and several rounds of back and forth, she said, and for some travelers the planning itself is a pleasure. Expedia had already dropped its single do-everything agent for smaller ones that each handle one part of planning. Its AI tools, Gorin said, haven't lifted bookings yet.
So the company that said yes to Meta and the company that said probably not agree on one thing. The agent helps find the trip. The guest still picks it.
The catch. Both have reasons to say so. Airbnb announced its own AI search on September 30, built to keep that choosing inside its app. Expedia sells advertising to hotels on the pages travelers browse, and it is still building a way for Muse users to book hotels, with Expedia's name on the booking. "Probably not" is a position, not a lock: Muse can read Airbnb's public pages the way it read Expedia's before any deal existed. Two CEOs make an argument. Nobody has measured it yet.
What it means for your hotel. If they're right, the guest booking a higher-priced room still makes the call herself, often after a machine has narrowed the list. Then the hotel wins or loses on what she sees while deciding. That includes the moment she leaves the shortlist and opens your website, to check the room and to picture herself in it. The photos, the room types, the view from the terrace: everything a chat window flattens into one line.
The Monday test. Open your website and your listing next to two competitors, as a guest choosing between the three. Find the photo, the room detail or the specific that would make her pick you. If you can't find it, she won't either.
Two CEOs on opposite sides of Meta's deal said it within two weeks of each other. The guest still chooses.
Read also: Airbnb added your hotel to stop travelers from leaving its app · Your AI recommendation is not for sale. But a resort like yours can earn it.
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