For the past year, there’s been plenty of chatter about AI agents bypassing OTAs and booking travel directly inside tools like ChatGPT. Turns out that it may take a little longer than expected.
OpenAI is reportedly backing away from building checkout directly into ChatGPT and will instead focus on discovery and search, leaving transactions to third-party apps. In other words, AI may help travelers plan trips, but actually completing the booking is still someone else’s problem (sound familiar, Google?)
Investors in Booking and Expedia seemed relieved. Both stocks jumped after the news, and Booking’s CFO recently noted that traffic from large language models remains “very small.”
So for now, OTAs are still in the driver’s seat. The AI revolution may start with trip inspiration, but the checkout page isn’t going anywhere just yet.
