AI In Travel Technology

Hilton and Marriott International just added AI to their risk factors in regulatory filings this week. The two largest hotel companies in the world are formally warning investors that AI could erode brand loyalty, shift bookings away from direct channels, and increase distribution costs. Most of the industry conversation around AI and travel has focused on what happens to OTAs. Will ChatGPT replace Expedia? Will Gemini kill Booking.com? Those are the wrong questions. The bigger question is what happens to the brands themselves. Think about what hotel brands actually do. They aggregate supply, create trust, and give consumers a reason to book direct instead of shopping around. Hilton and Marriott are, at their core, distribution companies. The loyalty program IS the moat. Now imagine a world where AI knows your preferences better than any loyalty program. Where your agent can search every hotel in a market, read real reviews, match your exact needs, and book instantly; no app downloads, no rate plans to wade through (should I use points??), no brand allegiance required. In that world, what exactly is the value of the brand? Here's my take: supplier direct always wins. It has to. The hotel, the actual property, the people, the experience, is where all the value is created. Every intermediary layer between the guest and the hotel is a tax on that value. OTAs were the first tax. Brands, increasingly, are the second. AI doesn't just threaten the middlemen. It threatens anyone who sits between the guest and the property without adding real value. The hotels that win in the new era won't win because they're part of a larger brand. They'll win because they own their guest relationships, control their own commerce, and deliver experiences that no algorithm could ever curate for them.

Let’s stop pretending. AI is not “coming” to travel. It’s already rewriting the rules. Most of the industry is still debating: • Direct vs OTA • TMC vs Supplier • GDS vs NDC • Commission vs margin • Loyalty vs distribution But AI just walked in and flipped the table. No ads. No bidding wars. No SEO games. No “preferred partners”. Just one simple question: 👉 “What’s the best hotel for me?” And one terrifying reality for hotels: You don’t control the answer anymore. Sam Altman wasn’t talking about a feature. He was talking about the death of the traditional booking journey. We’re moving from: Search → Compare → Click → Book to Intent → Conversation → Decision And AI doesn’t show 48 results. It shows one. So ask yourself: • Will your hotel even be mentioned? • Can AI describe it accurately? • Is your story clean… or messy? • And when AI recommends you… can it actually BOOK you? The real irony? We spent 20 years fighting OTAs… only to ignore the one thing that could make them irrelevant. This isn’t a “tech trend.” This is a power transfer: From platforms → conversations From budgets → truth From who paid → who deserves And here’s the uncomfortable part: Most hotels are still optimizing for: • Google • OTAs • Brand.com • Rate parity • Channel mix While the next generation of travelers will simply say: “Book it.” No UI. No website. No scrolling. Just trust. So the question isn’t: “Is AI going to impact travel?” It’s: 👉 By the time it’s obvious to everyone… will your hotel still exist in the conversation? Because in an AI-driven world… You are not fighting for ranking. You are fighting for relevance. And relevance is earned. Not bought. Travel doesn’t need more channels. It needs more truth. Who’s ready for that conversation? 👇 #FutureOfTravel #ArtificialIntelligence #Hospitality #TravelTech #OpenAI #ChatGPT #HotelDistribution #Innovation #Leadership

OpenAI just quit the booking business. Expedia jumped 12%. Booking Holdings up 8%. The headline everyone ran: AI won't replace OTAs. Wrong read. OpenAI didn't fail. They confirmed exactly where generative AI hits its ceiling in travel. And where agentic AI will need to pick up. Google tried owning bookings from 2015 to 2022. "Book on Google." Killed it. OpenAI tried the same play. Same outcome. The pattern is clear. Generative AI captures discovery, not transactions. Agentic AI might close that gap. But only with the right data underneath. ChatGPT usage for travel research grew 124% in one year. But only 2% of travelers trust AI to book without human oversight. People browse inside AI. They buy through brands they trust. McKinsey calls this "selective delegation." From the new Skift + McKinsey report on agentic AI in travel. So the real question isn't who builds the best agent. It's whose data is clean, real-time, and structured enough for those agents to work with. Today, fewer than 15% of brands are built to show up in AI-generated answers. In hospitality, that number is probably lower. The companies that will define the next era of travel distribution aren't building agents. They're building the data layer agents depend on. Everyone asks, "When will AI book my trip?" Better question: Whose data will the agent trust enough to recommend?

👀 PayPal, Sabre Corporation and Silicon Valley startup Mindtrip, Inc. just announced what they call the travel industry’s first end-to-end agentic AI experience. Here’s what that actually means: Instead of: • Searching flights on one site • Comparing hotels on another • Switching tabs • Entering payment details separately You’ll: ► Describe your trip in plain language ► Get personalized flight options ► Refine hotels conversationally ► Book and pay instantly — inside the same AI interface No tab switching. No checkout friction. No broken flow. What’s interesting here? Under the hood: Sabre powers real-time pricing, availability and fulfillment (420+ airlines, 2M+ lodging options). Mindtrip owns the conversational AI layer. PayPal embeds identity, wallet, Pay Later (BNPL), rewards and protection directly into the booking moment. And that last part matters. We’re moving from: 👉 “AI helps you discover” to 👉 “AI executes the transaction” That’s a big shift. Travel is one of the most complex consumer purchases: High ticket size. Multiple variables. Cross-border. Refunds. Changes. Identity checks. If agentic commerce works here, it can work almost anywhere. What do you think?

#WiT2025 Singapore (10/10) on Predictions for the Future of Travel and Hospitality: What changes, what doesn’t. Two lenses were brought on stage: Filip Filipov (COO, OAG) on the tactical now of AI in travel, and Chris Hemmeter (Thayer Investment Partners) on the structural next. Together they sketch a future that is both practical and bold. 1) The AI inflection, tactical and immediate by Filip Filipov Look back 20 years: online overtook offline, mobile became the remote control, payments moved on-platform, new supply exploded, and “connected trip” emerged mostly to sell more efficiently. Today, AI finishes that arc. It’s already in the workflow from inspiration to claims, and adoption is vertical (ChatGPT reached 100M users in ~2 months!). The contrarian point: incumbents may win the AI race because they control scale, data, and distribution and can plug new capabilities in faster than greenfield startups. Filipov’s “won’t change” list resonates: 1- Travel is stressful → AI agents will anticipate & de-stress. 2- We hunt value → deals get deeply personal. 3- We want control → agents recommend, humans decide. 4- We’re lazy → less planning work for the traveler. 5- We crave magic → serendipity engineered into journeys. 6- Supply stays fragmented → orchestration, not elimination. 7- Infra lags apps → intelligence squeezes capacity from what exists. 8- Overtourism → discovery widens beyond 4% of places. 9- Trust compounds → AI agents must prove reliability over time. 10- Believers build → scale + aggregation = incumbent advantage. 2) Structural shifts, ambitious and a bit edgy by Chris Hemmeter - Living as a Service: the walls between hotels, rentals and long-stay soften; users buy flexible living, owners monetize dynamically. - Africa rising: demographics + digital leapfrogging make it a 2045 powerhouse. - Virtual embodiment: execs “attend” via photoreal avatars/robots, trained on their style. - Analog luxury: as automation saturates life, disconnection becomes the new luxury. - Medical tourism, mainstreamed: longevity protocols stitched into resort products. - Extreme ancillaries: airlines unbundle into micro-rights sold dynamically. And yes, the “moonshot” ideas such as suborbital hops, code-governed sea communities, even lunar resorts are provocation by design, but the throughline is clear: physics changes slower than software (still we can expect major changes with robotics); capital and imagination will test the edges. My takeaway of these two inspiring talks: Short term, the winners get boringly excellent at AI-enabled orchestration (service, revenue, risk). Long term, they position for the real estate, wellness and identity shifts already in motion. The topic which was repeated across these talks and many others: trust, which needs to be earned both through humans and AI. #WiT2025 #TravelTech #AI #Future #Hospitality #ConnectedTrip #Orchestration #Innovation #TheWayForward

🤖 "I Let AI Plan My Family Holiday - Here's What Happened..." My annual holiday locating challenge: Finding a European holiday spot that satisfies a value-conscious husband, three teenagers, and my desire for an authentic experience. Enter Claude AI, my unexpected travel consultant. 🌍 After months of using AI for my business, I decided to experiment. Could AI tackle the complex dynamics of family holiday planning? Here's how it transformed my approach: 1. Instead of endless Google searches, I asked Claude to find destinations similar to our favourite past experiences 2. It conducted a detailed villa vs. all-inclusive analysis based on our specific needs 3. Most impressively? It vetoed my own suggestions when they didn't align with my original criteria! (Talk about keeping me accountable 😅) The result? We've found a beautiful villa in a location I'd never considered, complete with personalised recommendations for local experiences that match our family's interests. 🔑 Key Learning: AI isn't just for business efficiency - it's a powerful tool for tackling those "analysis paralysis" moments in our personal lives. As a neurodivergent professional, I've found it particularly valuable for breaking down overwhelming tasks into manageable decisions. And lets be honest chosing a family holiday is certainly that! 💡 What time-consuming personal task could AI help you simplify? I’d love to hear your ideas below! #ArtificialIntelligence #ProductivityHacks #FamilyTravel #WorkLifeBalance #Innovation #AI #PersonalDevelopment #NeurodiversityAtWork

🚀 AI is now my go-to travel planner I travel extensively—both for work and personal vacations. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that planning a trip can be exhausting. From picking a destination to figuring out flights, hotels, visa requirements, and local transport—travel research used to take hours, sometimes days. Now? AI does most of the heavy lifting for me. It’s like having a personal travel assistant that helps with every step: ✅ Shortlisting destinations – I just describe what I’m looking for, and AI suggests options based on preferences, budget, and time of year. ✅ Weighing pros and cons – Instead of going through multiple websites, I can ask AI to compare weather, cost, activities, and travel restrictions. ✅ Planning the details – Flights, hotels, visa requirements, local transport—AI pulls up all the relevant information instantly. ✅ Creating itineraries – It suggests the best places to visit, organizes the days efficiently, and even provides tips on local customs, packing lists, and food recommendations. Memory in AI tools like ChatGPT is making this even better. Instead of starting from scratch every time, AI remembers my family’s preferences. 💡 It knows we love cultural experiences over adventure sports. 💡 It remembers we prefer apartment stays over hotels. 💡 It factors in that we like planning buffer time in itineraries. So now, when I ask for travel suggestions, I don’t get generic recommendations. I get suggestions tailored to my family's travel style. And Google is taking AI-powered travel a step further: ◾ Google Maps now automatically organizes your trip research. It identifies places you’ve searched for and groups them into lists—so you don’t have to manually save them. ◾ Gemini now lets users create their own AI travel expert for free. Want a custom trip planner? You can build an AI assistant that understands your preferences, suggests destinations, helps with packing, and even gives real-time tips. ◾ Google Lens is adding more languages for instant translation of signs, menus, and more—making international travel even smoother. New languages include Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. For travelers like me, this means less stress and more seamless experiences—no more juggling multiple apps and websites. For companies in the travel space, AI is reshaping how people plan and book trips. Businesses that integrate AI-powered recommendations, itineraries, and real-time assistance will have a clear edge in delivering personalized and frictionless experiences. The future of travel is AI-powered, and it’s already here. I write about #artificialintelligence | #technology | #startups | #mentoring | #leadership | #financialindependence   PS: All views are personal Vignesh Kumar

Booking.com stock is falling rapidly. Is the AI revolution already knocking on its door? We might be witnessing the beginning of a structural shift in travel. For 20 years the model was simple: Guest → Google → OTA → Hotel But what happens when the journey becomes: Guest → AI Agent → Direct booking API → Hotel AI agents will soon: • Compare rates instantly across platforms • Bundle flights + stays + mobility • Personalize recommendations in seconds • Book automatically based on user preferences If search friction disappears, the traditional OTA moat weakens. The real risk for Booking.com isn’t that people stop traveling. The risk is losing control of the interface. That said, let’s not underestimate them. Booking still controls: • Massive global inventory • Payment infrastructure • Fraud systems • Reviews at scale • Hotel integrations worldwide AI agents will still need structured inventory and reliable APIs. And Booking is perfectly positioned to become the infrastructure layer powering those agents. The question is not whether AI changes travel. It will. The question is: Who owns demand in an AI-driven world? For operators (hotels, serviced apartments, hybrid living concepts), this is the moment to: • Strengthen direct booking • Own guest data • Invest in revenue tech • Integrate APIs properly • Use AI before it uses you AI won’t destroy travel platforms overnight. But it will compress margins, increase transparency and reward agility. Big changes are coming. Are we ready? #AI #TravelTech #Hospitality #RevenueManagement #OTA #Innovation #FutureOfTravel #PropTech

Hot take but I’ve genuinely realised that taking holidays as an adult sucks?? Not the being on vacation part. The getting to it part. Because suddenly, YOU have to do everything. Where to go. When to go. How much to spend. How many leaves you can afford. Who’s coming, who’s cancelling, who’s making you rethink the whole thing. You grow up romanticising travel. And then one day, you open 17 tabs to plan a trip… and suddenly it feels like your second job. I’m not someone who hates planning. I like being in control. But I’d be lying if I said it hasn’t started to feel… heavy. Which is exactly why Agoda’s new AI tool actually stood out. Not because it used AI for the sake of buzz. But because it used AI to solve a real, frustrating, everyday problem. The experience is kind of genius! You answer a few quick questions: → What kind of vibe are you on? Nature, party, city, mountains? → Who you going with? Solo? Parents? Partner? → What’s your budget, dates, duration? And boom! it gives you a destination and an itinerary. Personalized. Practical. Actually usable. It’s like having a personal conversation with someone who gets you, powered by AI. And yes, AI collabs with celebs are everywhere now. But using it to drive 1:1 experiences at this level of quality? That’s different. That’s smart UX. Agoda’s not just playing with tech. They’re building better top-of-funnel experiences with it. If you’re someone who’s been putting off a trip just because planning feels like a chore, Try this. Because sometimes, you don’t need a break from work. You need a break from planning the break. #AgodaAI #smartertravel #Planning

We just ran the first study of its kind on AI booking behavior in travel. 300 booking tasks. 71,000 words of transcripts. One clear finding: When AI gives travelers a recommendation that matches their preferences, they trust it. And they stop searching. This isn't how travel research used to work. Expedia's 2023 study found travelers look at 277 pages of content over 45 days before booking. That research journey is compressing fast. When ChatGPT Atlas or another AI agent says "based on what you told me, here's the best option," most people take it. They don't open five more tabs. They don't compare across booking sites. They book where the AI sends them. So the real question isn't "will AI agents change travel search?" The question is: which travel companies will AI agents recommend? Because if your brand isn't in the training data, isn't cited as a source, or isn't accessible through API partnerships, you're invisible to these systems. And being invisible means being out of consideration entirely. This is a bigger shift than SEO ever was. With Google, you could optimize your way onto page one. With AI agents, you need to be part of the answer before the user even asks the question. You need to be in the knowledge base, in the partnerships, in the data these models pull from. The implications are huge: Brand visibility now depends on AI citations, not just search rankings. Direct bookings will increasingly flow through whoever controls the AI recommendation. Smaller brands without partnerships or strong online presence risk getting locked out completely. We're moving from a world where travelers compared 10 options to a world where they trust one AI-recommended option. That's not a small change. That's everything. For more travel marketing insights, subscribe to our bi-weekly deep dive, the NavLog. You can find it at propellic[dot]com/navlog #travelmarketing #AI #digitalmarketing #travelbooking #futureoftravel