Booking.com warns of AI’s next power shift

The platform that reshaped hotel distribution now cautions against an even more concentrated future driven by AI

Booking Holdings’ CEO Glenn Fogel is warning that AI platforms like Google’s Gemini and ChatGPT could reshape hotel distribution in ways that disadvantage smaller hotels. The irony is difficult to ignore. Booking.com itself played a central role in shifting power away from hotels over the past two decades, aggregating demand and becoming a dominant intermediary. Now, as AI platforms begin to sit on top of search, discovery, and booking, Booking is raising concerns about a similar dynamic unfolding again—this time with even fewer players controlling the customer relationship.

Key takeaways

• A familiar pattern repeating: Booking highlights the risk of AI platforms concentrating power, echoing the same structural shift that OTAs themselves once drove in hotel distribution.
• From disruptor to incumbent: Booking.com, once a challenger to hotel direct channels, is now positioned as a player potentially threatened by a new layer of aggregation.
• AI as the next aggregator: Platforms like Google and ChatGPT could become the new gatekeepers, sitting above both hotels and OTAs in the customer journey.
• Independent hotels at risk again: Smaller properties, which already lost leverage to OTAs, may face further visibility challenges in AI-driven interfaces.
• Control of demand remains the core issue: The battle is not about technology alone, but about who owns the customer relationship and booking flow.
• A shift in dependency, not its removal: Hotels may move from dependence on OTAs to dependence on AI platforms, rather than regaining true distribution control.
• Strategic takeaway for hoteliers: The lesson is consistent—diversifying demand sources and strengthening direct relationships is critical, regardless of which intermediary dominates.

Source: The Capital Forum

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