Hostie AI, founded by a restaurant operator, offers a virtual concierge that automates inbound calls, texts, reservations, and orders, integrating with POS, table management, and event systems. Over the past year, it managed over 2 million conversations and helped book over 400,000 covers.
Swiss startup Zerolook raised $1.9 million in pre-seed funding for its machine learning product that predicts flight prices and itineraries, aiming to reduce search volumes on airline systems. According to OAG, up to 20,000 searches are currently needed to generate one ticket sale, and agentic AI could push that to 200,000. Zerolook's model is trained on historical fare, schedule, and availability data, providing predicted itineraries and prices with confidence scores.
PhocusWire covers startup Strut, founded by Matt Rose, building booking engines for independent American motels and hotels. Strut offers booking software and guest information integration, priced at $999 setup plus $349/month for Front Desk, $449 plus $149 for Network, taking 7% only on Strut-delivered guests.
India-based startup Bizey, founded in 2025, offers an AI-powered travel procurement and expense compliance platform that integrates travel booking, expense management, approvals, policy compliance, and more. It uses a SaaS subscription model and plans to add premium features to increase revenue.
Waltru is a Barcelona-based startup offering a personalized travel companion that generates itineraries based on traveler preferences and pace, and narrates each place's story via audio. Currently in beta, it plans to expand to Madrid, Paris, Rome and London. The business model is pay-per-trip via in-app purchases, with B2B2C distribution planned. The founding team consists of three Argentines with software and travel backgrounds.
Australian startup Chaty offers an AI receptionist that integrates with booking systems to help tour and activity operators handle inbound calls and website inquiries, checking live availability and completing bookings. It uses a usage-based SaaS model with monthly fees from $29 to $379, and integrates with platforms like FareHarbor and Rezdy.
At Phocuswright Europe 2026, investors said AI remains the biggest buzzword, but software alone is no longer a moat. Startups need to integrate AI into their own systems and workflows, not just as a wrapper. Companies like Nuitée have successfully raised capital through partnerships.
Kuwait City-based startup Seatlr, founded in 2025, offers a city-based social network for travelers. Users enter their flight number to join a destination city's chat room, with AI translation supporting 59 languages. Seatlr aims to fill the gap in traveler connection and plans to monetize through AI-powered recommendations and commissions.
Startup Hotel Splitter has launched a hotel booking platform that compares traditional single-hotel stays with split-stay itineraries to identify cost savings. Launching first in London, it targets longer city breaks where nightly rates fluctuate. Founder Aaron Johal aims to make split stays a mainstream booking option and expand to other expensive urban markets.
Pintours, a San Francisco startup, has developed an AI platform that combines audio narration, navigation, augmented reality, and conversational AI to deliver personalized, context-aware travel experiences. The platform adapts to location, interests, and language in real time, and allows guides to license content and earn revenue. The company generates revenue through revenue-sharing and direct bookings, with an annualized run-rate of approximately $7 million, and has partnered with distribution platforms.
HostProfit.ai is a startup building an intelligence layer for short-term rental operators, founded by Erwan Le Roy. The platform combines pricing, listing quality, distribution, advertising, and AI visibility data to help operators identify revenue opportunities. Le Roy, who operates 42 short-term rental properties, argues that operators face challenges from fragmented tools and the rise of AI-powered travel discovery. The company uses a subscription model of $58 per listing per month and offers a guarantee of 5x the annual fee in recoverable revenue.
Dutch startup Loook has launched a GPS-triggered storytelling platform with a proprietary library of over 17,000 stories, combined with an AI-assisted content engine. It helps tourism organizations engage visitors before, during, and after arrival, promoting visitor dispersal and local discovery. Operating a hybrid B2B2C model, Loook partners with cities, tourism boards, and mobility providers, generating revenue through licensing, subscriptions, and activation-based models.
The Philippines' digital economy reached $36 billion in 2025 and is forecast to nearly double by 2030. 94% of Filipino consumers are willing to share data with AI agents, and 74% interact with AI tools daily. Despite rapid digital growth, international OTAs like Agoda and Booking.com dominate online bookings, with no homegrown heavyweight. Startups like Barkota, BookTickets.ph are tackling the fragmented ferry network, and Cocotel absorbs revenue risk to help small island properties accept digital payments. VC funding is thin, but the market is wide open.
Danish startup Opally offers an AI receptionist platform that handles guest communication across email, chat, voice, WhatsApp, and social media. Integrated with hotel management systems like Mews and Apaleo, it has grown to over 50 hotels in five European countries in less than a year.
TravelOne Technologies has launched a Traveler DNA platform that analyzes 30 behavioral and psychological markers to generate personalized travel recommendations and itineraries. The startup targets consumers, travel agencies, and tour operators through paid Traveler DNA reports, vacation bookings, and subscription-based advisor tools. It positions itself as an alternative to traditional search-based travel planning.
Globe Thrivers, founded in 2023, uses AI to convert creator content from platforms like TikTok and Instagram into structured, collaborative, and bookable itineraries. The company generates revenue through hotel booking margins and platform fees on advisor-led bookings, and has partnered with Nuitée to expand lodging inventory. Its goal is to provide social-commerce infrastructure for travel and experiences, capturing and monetizing socially-driven travel demand, and addressing fragmented travel planning and broken attribution.
Startup Voyagier launched an AI-powered luxury travel platform combining AI trip planning, community discovery, embedded luxury travel advisors, and booking infrastructure. Founded in 2025, it publicly launched in March 2026. Its proprietary AI agent VIA uses MCP protocol to enable AI agents like ChatGPT and Claude to execute real bookings via API. Voyagier has integrated with Sabre Mosaic GDS for real-time flight and hotel inventory and uses Stripe for payments. Revenue comes from travel design fees, commission splits, and property placement.
Miami-based startup First Wave AI offers an AI platform for hotels that integrates guest communication, staff support, and sales intelligence. It processes conversations across channels to automate responses, provides real-time AI coaching, and turns conversations into structured data for revenue and operational decisions. Founded in 2024, the company aims for an IPO in 7-10 years.
Hong Kong-based startup Roameo offers an AI-powered travel planning platform with a 'swipe-to-match' interface, integrating discovery, group coordination, and itinerary building. The platform gamifies group planning and captures high-intent behavioral insights for partners. Monetization includes B2C and B2B models: transaction revenue, freemium, and enterprise SaaS.
Startup Drifter has launched Currents, an AI visibility analytics platform that helps destination marketing organizations (DMOs), hotels, and attractions monitor how they appear across AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. The platform runs real traveler queries to analyze whether a place gets mentioned, what sources AI cites, and how it stacks up against competitors. Drifter also offers Dock, an embeddable on-domain AI layer that captures traveler intent data. Paid tiers start at $4,999 per year.
San Francisco-based startup Q Concierge offers a voice AI digital concierge that integrates into hotel systems to handle guest interactions, capture missed revenue, and improve operations. Founded in 2024, it works with brands like RIU Hotels and Olive Hotels, capturing $1.2 million in annualized booking revenue at a single resort. Its AI connects directly to PMS to perform tasks like reservation changes.
Startup Go With Rosie launched this month offering a free platform that recommends destinations and properties for families. The platform scores venues from 0 to 100 for family-friendliness and provides itinerary tools that account for nap times. The company makes money from hotel bookings. Founder Tyler Heilberger says the beta generated $30,879 in bookings with zero marketing spend.
Business travel AI platform BizTrip AI raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding, bringing total funding to $2.5 million. The company aims to replace fragmented booking tools with an AI assistant that dynamically recommends compliant options, reducing exceptions and improving compliance, saving costs for enterprises.