Booking Holdings wrote Kayak down. Now it's sending the brand to look for work in corporate travel. - The founders left to build Booking Holdings' AI bet, and this week the Kayak brand reappeared with a chatbot, hunting a defensible corner in corporate travel.

Jul 29, 2026 • Hospitality

Amazon's Alexa+ can finally close the booking in a chat — because it owns the wallet, not the room - Amazon revived its Wallet and aimed 180 million Prime members' stored cards at booking travel in a chat — the checkout ChatGPT and Google still can't close.

Jul 29, 2026 • Hospitality

The law that just fined Google has been running on Booking.com since December 2024. - Booking lost the rate parity clause in December 2024, and the money moved to paid placement. Google's ruling is heading the same way..

Jul 27, 2026 • Hospitality

Sabre made your rooms readable by AI agents, not recommended by them - Two million hotels are readable inside Sabre's platform, and an agent chooses between them on the room descriptions, photos and rates loaded the day you connected.

Jul 27, 2026 • Hospitality

China just made Trip.com pay hotels back. - China's market regulator fined Trip.com 5.2 billion yuan, made it refund the deposits it withheld from hotels, and barred it from forcing them into exclusive deals — something no Booking or Expedia fine in the West has ever done.

Jul 27, 2026 • Hospitality

Google's now selling placement inside the AI answer — starting with IHG, by invitation only - Google confirmed on its Q2 earnings call that the AI answer now carries paid slots — and IHG got the first hotel seat by invitation, not the open auction anyone could bid into.

Jul 27, 2026 • Hospitality

The independent wholesaler didn't die. It became a giant. - You keep a few wholesalers in the mix so you're not all-in on Booking. It's the right instinct — but look hard at what those wholesalers have turned into..

Jul 24, 2026 • Hospitality

The franchise agreement decides what the AI knows about your hotel - 579 reviews and a 4.4 rating, built over 18 years, stayed with the brand when the hotel walked away from it. The brand owns the Google page — and the Google page is what the AI reads..

Jul 24, 2026 • Hospitality