Booking, Expedia and Airbnb sold Wall Street an AI story. The profits came from the old machine. - All three beat estimates and raised guidance last week, Booking with a record buyback — but the growth came from the same distribution machine hotels already pay for, not the AI they talked up to investors.

Aug 10, 2026 • Hospitality

Google just put agentic hotel booking into testing - Google confirmed a limited US test last week, with Booking, Expedia, Marriott, Wyndham and IHG among the companies it has worked with and Sabre and Amadeus on the rails.

Aug 10, 2026 • Hospitality

IHG's new AI is attribute-based selling finally finding its interface - For a decade hotels have been able to describe a room feature by feature, and had nowhere to sell it that way. IHG just shipped the storefront — and never used the word.

Aug 3, 2026 • Hospitality

Expedia shows you the price of moving up its results before you pay it - Pay a bit more commission and your listing climbs the OTA's results — Expedia even shows you the new spot before you commit.

Aug 3, 2026 • Hospitality

Travel agencies grew hotel bookings twice as fast as the OTAs - Commissionable room nights rose 11.8% in the first half. The commission per night rose 0.8% — everywhere else in distribution, growth is the thing that gets repriced.

Aug 3, 2026 • Hospitality

Booking's commission is the cheapest thing it takes from you - Booking collects your guest's money now, holds $8.2 billion of it at a time, and pays you weeks later — and unlike your commission rate, nobody negotiated any of it.

Jul 31, 2026 • Hospitality

Airbnb added your hotel to stop travelers from leaving its app - Thousands of independent hotels are now bookable inside the Airbnb app, and every featured hotel booking hands the guest credit toward a home — the fine print on what your rooms are really for.

Jul 31, 2026 • Hospitality

Trip.com just put a number on what squeezing hotels was worth to it - The bot that held hotels to the lowest price online is gone — and Trip.com's sales growth fell from 17% to as little as 3%.

Jul 31, 2026 • Hospitality