Booking Holdings全资推出AI助手Lola，由Kayak联合创始人Steve Hafner与Paul English打造，于周二上线。Lola并非Booking.com内的AI功能，而是定位为OTA本身，目标是在一次对话中把旅客从开放式想法带到完成预订。Hafner直接向CEO Glenn Fogel汇报，并获得“绿地”授权，从零开始写代码和建品牌。团队已开发五个月，约20名员工分布在纽约与马萨诸塞州剑桥。
Vrbo, Expedia Group's vacation rental brand, said it is transitioning hosts and property managers to a flat 12% fee starting October 29. Property managers connected to a property management system currently pay a 5% fee, while hosts not connected to a PMS pay an 8% commission. About 55% of listings globally connect to Vrbo through PMS software, including 51% in the U.S., according to AirDNA. The host note did not address guest fees, which currently sit at 11-14%, but a vacation rental expert familiar with Vrbo's plans said the company intends to drastically reduce them; Vrbo's FAQ said travelers will in most cases still see a service fee.
Skift reports that L Catterton's travel investment footprint keeps expanding. The firm led an $800 million investment in private aviation company Flexjet and backed river cruise operator AmaWaterways alongside co-investors with roughly $890 million; it had already invested in Despegar, Norwegian Cruise Line, OneSpaWorld and GetYourGuide. More recently it moved into live experiences through Fever and into hospitality via a new luxury hotel strategy. When Skift reported on the attempted sale of British luxury tour operator Audley Travel, L Catterton appeared as one of the final potential buyers, though the deal fell through. L Catterton manages about $40 billion and is one of the world's larg…
After several false starts since launching more than a decade ago, Airbnb relaunched its experiences business in 2025 with a sluggish start. CEO Brian Chesky said at Skift Global Forum that the company chose to focus on getting one city right — Paris — and that focus is paying off with growth of 6x year over year. Locals in Paris are now booking experiences in Paris, and Airbnb plans to take that playbook to New York and other cities. The company has also relaxed its long-held resistance to high-demand mainstream tours of landmarks like the Eiffel Tower.
Expedia is cutting 58 roles in Seattle, according to a Washington WARN notice filed this week, with the layoffs set to take place between November 21 and December 1. The notice lists several senior roles, including an SVP position Skift previously reported in August, and of 31 total technical positions, 18 are in data science and machine learning. In a statement, Expedia characterized the cuts as streamlining efforts mainly related to finance, saying its Global Finance team is making changes mostly to simplify its org structure, with some employees moving to new roles or locations and some roles being eliminated.
According to Skift, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky said at Skift Global Forum that the company will launch its own AI agent in 2027, adding that the new interface would be 'much richer than a chatbot.' Chesky has previously described Airbnb's future as an 'agentic app' and an eventual AI concierge. On the August earnings call, he said that within roughly 12 to 18 months travelers would be able to bring a broad request, such as planning a family trip to Europe, and have the platform help assemble the trip. Just two weeks before the forum, he told Goldman Sachs the company was still piloting richer AI interfaces.
Speaking at Skift Global Forum 2026, Expedia Group CEO Ariane Gorin said she wants to work with the newest generation of AI agents, including Meta's new agent Muse, but does not believe any single agent can take over the entire travel journey. Expedia had revealed on Tuesday that it would be available on Muse; its X post said only that users can tell Muse where they are headed and it can work with Expedia to sort hotels and everything in between, without detailing how it works. Gorin, participating via remote video, did not elaborate on the partnership but said she personally does not believe a large portion of bookings will become an end-to-end conversational experience, since travel plann…
Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel said at the Skift Global Forum in New York City that building an AI travel agent like Instinct wouldn't be that hard, but the real challenge is establishing trust. He argued there is more to travel than handling the transaction, and that travelers want to deal with real people when safeguarding credit card details and other sensitive information. Booking Holdings is still moving forward with AI initiatives, including its ad deal with OpenAI and integration on Google.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said at the Skift Global Forum in New York that the company's April launch of hotel booking in its app through a partnership with Expedia was part of a "generalized bet" on the direction of the travel industry. He said that because Uber operates in more than 70 countries and delivers in more than 100, the traveler comes to Uber.
TravelDaily China reports Fliggy upgraded its domestic flight refund protection standard: for Fliggy F4, F5, F6 and all 88VIP members, refund fees on self-purchased domestic tickets booked via the Fliggy app or Taobao's Fliggy entry can get an 88% discount off the airline standard, i.e. Fliggy subsidises 12% of the fee. It applies to one-way direct, stopover, connecting and round-trip domestic itineraries, stacks with airline benefits, and gives five entitlements per person per calendar year deducted by flight segment. Public data shows Fliggy has over 500 million registered members and about 64 million 88VIP members. The China Air Transport Association says it is drafting a dedicated group…
TravelDaily China's industry documentary 'Tide: Fliggy Chapter' is scheduled to launch on the morning of September 16 across WeChat Channels, Xiaohongshu, Douyin and other platforms. The film focuses on Fliggy, featuring in-depth interviews with core management and reviewing its journey from the 2006 emergence of Taobao air-ticket transactions, the 2010 launch of Taobao Travel, the 2014 introduction of credit-based hotel stays and one-click refund/change under 'Alitrip', the 2016 rebranding to Fliggy, its strategic partnership with Marriott, pandemic-era organizational reform, to its 2025 integration into Alibaba's broader consumption strategy and bet on AI.
Pinchain Tourism released its Week 38, 2026 online travel highlights, aggregating multiple industry developments. Tongcheng Travel showcased four self-developed AI cultural tourism products at the 2026 China Culture and Tourism Industry Expo. Qunar data showed that this week's Mid-Autumn and National Day flight and hotel bookings rose 119% week on week, while searches for Mid-Autumn "moon-viewing flights" doubled year on year. Tuniu released its 2026 Mid-Autumn and National Day travel trend forecast, showing that outbound and long-haul domestic bookings and travel periods shifted notably earlier. On September 10, Fliggy and Eastar Jet signed a cooperation agreement in Hangzhou to deepen col…
WiT releases its follow-up documentary 'Online Travel in Asia: The Unwritten Story', featuring interviews with executives from Agoda, Booking.com, Klook, and others. The film explores AI's impact on travel search, planning, and booking, and the industry's future. It premieres at WiT Singapore on October 1.
Airbnb has appointed Pepijn Rijvers, former head of Booking.com's hotels and short-term rentals and most recently president of Tripadvisor's Viator, as its new chief business officer. The move underscores Airbnb's strategic focus on expanding its hotels business, following the addition of thousands of boutique hotels across 20 cities in August. Rijvers will focus on homes and hotels, while experiences and services shift to chief experience officer Hiroki Asai. This marks Airbnb's second high-profile C-suite exit in nine months, after CTO Ari Balogh's departure in December 2025.
Google introduces hotel booking in AI Mode in Search, allowing US English-speaking users to discover and book hotels through conversational search. Initial partners include 10 travel websites and hotel chains such as Choice Hotels, Hilton, and Wyndham.
Pinchain Tourism summarizes this week's online travel news: Tongcheng Travel's Mid-Autumn and National Day booking heat rose 116% month-on-month; Ctrip and Hertz launched deposit-free car rental for US-bound Chinese travelers; Fliggy and Ryanair direct connection; Tuniu profitable for sixth consecutive quarter; Hilton exceeds 1,100 hotels in China; Royal Caribbean returns to Hong Kong homeport in 2028; China suspends electronic border passes for Shigatse; Foreign Ministry advises against travel to Eswatini.
Google is rolling out hotel booking within AI Mode in the U.S., allowing travelers to search, compare, and book hotels through natural language chat and pay with Google Pay. The hotel or OTA remains the merchant of record, handling charges, confirmations, and support. Launch partners include Booking.com, Expedia, Hilton, Marriott, IHG, Choice, Wyndham, Priceline, Hotels.com, and Trip.com. Google emphasizes the tool is not fully autonomous, but it reduces partners' visibility into the customer's decision journey.
Booking Holdings announced that CFO Ewout Steenbergen will participate in a fireside chat at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference in San Francisco on September 9 at 10:10 a.m. PT.
Booking Holdings announced that CEO Glenn Fogel will participate in a keynote session at the Citi 2026 Global TMT Conference in New York City on September 8. A live audio cast will be available, with a replay later.
Bernstein analysts argue that Airbnb's recent revenue acceleration is structural rather than temporary, with management guiding to a fifth consecutive quarter of roughly 10%-plus room-night growth, helping push shares up more than 25% since early August. Growth drivers include Reserve Now, Pay Later; single-fee migration lifting take rate to ~15.5%; dynamic pricing; hotel expansion; AI search; loyalty program; ancillaries; sponsored listings; and Asia growth. Bernstein views current 13% revenue growth as conservative but flags risks: unproven AI and dynamic-pricing assumptions, execution strain, rising regulation, and uncertain success in new Asian markets.
Expedia Group has cut eight senior leaders, including Sachin Singh, SVP of book-to-trip technology, and seven other VPs covering payments, fraud and risk, and self-service tools. Their responsibilities will be divided among remaining tech executives, the CISO, and finance. The reorganization aims to shift authority to smaller AI-focused squads that can build closer to the brands they support. Roughly half of Expedia's 16,000 employees work in technology, with about 5,000 engineers.
Airbnb has quietly reversed its pandemic-era marketing pullback. SEC filings show search engine marketing resumed growth in 2022, brand and performance spending surpassed 2019 levels by 2023, and grew ~32% in H1 2026 against 17% revenue growth. The company's public claim that '90% of traffic is direct or unpaid' increasingly diverges from its actual paid growth initiatives.
Agoda's VP of Corporate Development Tim Hughes said at WiT Queenstown that online travel's promise to simplify the messy process between customers and suppliers remains unfulfilled, with content and booking increasingly separated. He noted that AI models like ChatGPT source most travel content from Reddit, which is not good advice, and OTAs should be the solution to this dilemma. He emphasized a commercial rather than moral responsibility, and discussed Asia's QR-code payment advantage and friction for inbound travelers.
On August 10, Fliggy officially launched its new AI product 'Fliggy Bangbang', positioned as 'think what you think, truly reachable, full companionship', covering flights, hotels, homestays, and more. Before National Day, features such as multi-person travel planning, flight monitoring, and alternative route recommendations will be implemented, and it will integrate with Taobao Flash Purchase and other life service scenarios.
Tripadvisor announced that a selection of its Viator and Tripadvisor experiences will become bookable on Airbnb later this year. This marks a strategic shift for Airbnb, which had previously tried to scale its experiences business organically with limited success. In May 2025, Airbnb relaunched with about 3,000 landmark experiences across roughly 100 cities, but later narrowed focus to Paris. The partnership helps Airbnb scale experiences and provides Tripadvisor with a distribution channel.
Thailand's digital economy reached $56 billion in 2025 and is on track for $90 billion by 2030, but online travel growth cooled to just 6% year-over-year to $11 billion after a 34% jump in 2024. Thailand accounts for 28% of Southeast Asia's total gross travel bookings. Thai consumers are highly enthusiastic about AI, with 98% of respondents excited, and ChatGPT's weekly users have quadrupled in a year. Microsoft is investing over $1 billion in cloud and AI data centers in Thailand, Google Cloud launched a national agentic-AI program, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand has built its own GPT-powered travel assistant.
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says AI is dramatically speeding up product development, citing airport pickups launched in six weeks versus nine months for groceries. Core rental business grew nights and seats booked 10% in Q2, outpacing Expedia (6%) and Booking (5%). Expanding into hotels, experiences, and services as it builds a one-stop travel platform. Q2 revenue rose 17% to $3.6B, net income up 27% to $816M, and raised full-year guidance.
Expedia Group's Q2 2026 results exceeded guidance: gross bookings grew 12% YoY, revenue grew 14%, and adjusted EBITDA grew 23%. B2B segment performed strongly with bookings up 21% and revenue up 23%. The company raised its full-year guidance.
Booking Holdings announced that its Q2 2026 financial results will be released on August 4, 2026, at approximately 4:00 p.m. ET via a press release on its investor relations website. A conference call will be held at 4:30 p.m. ET, webcasted and available for replay for seven days.
MakeMyTrip reported Q1 FY27 results with gross bookings up 19.9% YoY to approximately $2.9 billion, and revenue up 16.1%. Despite external headwinds, adjusted margins grew double digits across segments. The company launched Myra 2.0, an AI assistant handling over 85,000 daily conversations and resolving over 50% of post-booking queries.
MakeMyTrip Limited announced it will report its fiscal 2027 first quarter financial and operating results on August 3, 2026. The release will be posted on its IR website, followed by a live Zoom webinar.
Indian online travel platform Ixigo has agreed to acquire a 54.66% stake in Brevistay for about $6.9 million. Brevistay specializes in flexible-duration hotel stays. Upon completion, Brevistay will become a subsidiary, and the combined network will include over 10,000 directly contracted hotels.
In Q1 2026, major OTAs increased marketing spend. Booking Holdings invested $2.1 billion, up 16% YoY, representing 38% of revenue. Expedia Group's sales and marketing spend reached $1.9 billion, up 6% YoY, 54% of revenue. Airbnb invested $751 million, up 33% YoY, 28% of revenue. Despite AI-driven efficiency efforts, companies continue to boost spending to compete for customers and highlight direct channel growth.
Expedia Group reported its highest Q1 profitability in history, driven by an AI-focused overhaul. Adjusted EBITDA rose 83% year-over-year to $542 million, gross bookings reached $35.5 billion (up 13%), and revenue totaled $3.4 billion (up 15%). AI improved personalization, conversion, and operational efficiency. B2B revenue grew 25% to $1.2 billion. The company also announced a partnership with Uber to distribute hotel inventory.
Tripadvisor reported Q1 2026 revenue of $382 million, down 4% YoY. Net loss was $13 million, and adjusted EBITDA was $22 million, down from nearly $44 million. Experiences revenue grew 4% to $168 million, with bookings up 11%. The company is restructuring and exploring AI partnerships.
New Despegar CEO Gonzalo Estebarena shared that the company is investing $100 million annually for three years in AI development and plans to triple in size. As part of Prosus, Despegar will leverage the Prosus ecosystem, focus on Brazil expansion, and develop a 'large commerce model' to predict customer actions.
Booking Holdings announced that CEO Glenn Fogel will participate in a fireside chat at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference in Boston on May 20. A live audio cast and replay will be available.
Booking Holdings reported first quarter 2026 results: room nights grew 6% year-over-year, gross bookings increased 15% (8% on a constant currency basis), and revenue grew 16% (10% constant currency). Net income rose 225% and adjusted EBITDA grew 19%. The Middle East conflict negatively impacted room night growth by approximately 2 percentage points. The company effected a 25-for-1 stock split on April 2.
Booking Holdings will release its first quarter 2026 financial results on April 28 and hold a conference call to discuss the results.
eDreams ODIGEO announced AI updates including a proprietary AI trip planner and a ChatGPT app. The planner, integrated into mobile apps, uses natural language in English to generate day-by-day itineraries and allows booking directly. The ChatGPT app enables conversational flight search, redirecting users to eDreams for purchase. Additionally, the company scaled its agentic voice AI to handle 90% of inquiries in five languages, reducing transfers by 33% and improving resolution velocity by 15%.