ChatGPT is testing hotel ads. Someone else can run yours.
OpenAI's hotel ad pilot, open only to approved advertisers and US travelers, carries a fixed "from" price instead of live rates, and the advertiser doesn't have to be the hotel
by Markus Busch
Driving the news. OpenAI has published documentation for a hotel ad format in ChatGPT. It runs on a "hotel property feed," and it is closed: "Hotel property feeds are available only to approved pilot advertisers. This is not an open beta." The page carries no date. We read it on November 13.
Koddi, the ad-tech company whose partners include Booking.com, has told advertisers it has OpenAI advertising feeds "built and ready" for its clients. Koddi sells that setup. Everything below comes from OpenAI's own documentation.
One row per hotel, not per room. The feed describes a property. In OpenAI's words, each row is "one property, not a room, offer, or dated stay." A hotel's row needs a name, a description, photos, a landing page and a location. Optional fields add a starting price, a star rating, guest scores from up to 20 review sites, a brand and labels for grouping properties.
The ad that comes out of it reads "Stay at" plus the hotel's name, with the starting price and the guest rating when the feed has them.
No live rates, only a "from" price. OpenAI is plain about it: the starting price is "a static starting price, not a quote for a particular stay or a statement of room availability." Live rates, availability for the guest's dates, rooms and offers are all listed as outside the format's scope. Columns for a sale price, taxes, fees or a check-in date are ignored if a feed includes them. There is no field for a member rate or loyalty points.
US travelers only, paid by the click. Hotel campaigns buy clicks at a fixed bid, and the audience is "the entire United States." Narrower targeting isn't supported. OpenAI's sample campaign uses a $1 bid, but it publishes no prices.
The catch. This is a pilot, and OpenAI warns that field definitions and capabilities "may change during the beta." It has not said how many advertisers or hotels are in it, or when it opens to more. Koddi expects the ads to add live rates, availability and loyalty benefits over time. That is Koddi's forecast, not anything OpenAI has documented.
What it means for hotels. The ad sends its click to whatever landing page the advertiser lists. The feed's brand field is, in OpenAI's words, "separate from the advertiser's display identity." The format is built so that the company buying the ad and the hotel in it can be two different businesses. An OTA in the pilot can list your hotel, show a "from" price it set itself, and send the guest to its own page.
And a starting price is a promise without a date. A guest who clicks "from $149" and finds $260 for her weekend takes that up with the hotel, not with the ad.
Google Hotel Ads work the other way around. Since September 30, Google no longer fills in rates for hotel ads on an advertiser's behalf. To appear, a hotel or an OTA needs a direct price feed, through its own Hotel Center account or a connectivity partner. Google grades those prices against the booking page and drops the ones that don't match. The price in a Google hotel ad is a rate for the dates the guest searched, and it has to hold when she clicks.
So in 2026, Google's hotel ad is for whoever can send a live rate: the chains, the OTAs, and an independent whose booking engine connects to Hotel Center. The current version of ChatGPT's hotel ad is for approved pilot advertisers, reaches only US travelers, and asks for one price that never changes. OpenAI's documentation says nothing about checking that price against anything.
On November 10, OpenAI bought Odessia, a travel agent that booked rooms at live rates for real dates. Whether that moves OpenAI's hotel ad in Google's direction, or somewhere new, only time will tell.
Read also: Google stopped filling in your hotel rate on September 30 · ChatGPT's ad slots don't go to the brand it recommends · Why OpenAI bought an AI travel agent
Enjoying this analysis? Hospitality.today delivers daily insights on hotel distribution, AI trends, and travel commerce — straight to your inbox. Subscribe for free at Hospitality.today →