Hotels face a new kind of gatekeeper

AI assistants are taking over the guest journey — and without regulation, direct access could disappear again

The rise of AI-powered assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity is reshaping how travelers search, compare, and book hotels. With Booking.com and Expedia moving fast to embed themselves in these ecosystems, they’re poised to become the default intermediaries of the AI era—unless regulators act to keep digital markets open and fair.

Key takeaways

• AI assistants as new intermediaries: Tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are evolving from information providers into full travel distribution channels, deciding which hotels appear, in what order, and at what price.
• Booking.com and Expedia’s head start: By integrating early into OpenAI’s app marketplace, these OTAs have positioned themselves as dominant players within AI ecosystems, potentially locking hotels into a new generation of dependency.
• Digital Markets Act (DMA) blind spot: The EU’s DMA currently regulates big tech platforms like Google and Apple but excludes stand-alone AI assistants—leaving them free to act as unregulated gatekeepers.
• Risk for independent hotels: Without regulatory safeguards, small and independent hotels may disappear from AI-generated travel recommendations, forced once again to pay commissions to reach their own guests.
• Scale of potential dominance: Expedia already manages over 1 billion bookings a year; combined with access to AI assistants reaching 100 million daily users, their influence could surpass traditional distribution channels.
• Policy recommendations: Extend DMA rules to AI assistants, enforce transparency for rankings and paid placements, limit data cross-use, and require fair access for suppliers meeting technical criteria.
• Why it matters: Control of guest discovery is shifting from search engines to conversational agents. Without proactive policy intervention, AI-powered platforms could entrench a new duopoly—making hotels permanent renters in someone else’s ecosystem.

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