Google is seriously upping its travel game, evolving its search engine towards acting like a comprehensive travel assistant. They’re actively developing an AI tool, agent-based mind you, that can handle those tricky travel bookings all by itself. Right now, it’s tackling restaurants and local services, but flights and hotels are definitely on the horizon.
In a recent blog post, Google made known that “agentic restaurant bookings” are starting to roll out across the U.S., thanks to their new “AI Mode,” – which, by the way, doesn’t require you to be part of Google Labs. This also applies to event tickets and, say, beauty treatments. Julie Farago, Google’s Engineering VP, has confirmed that being able to “complete hotel and flight bookings completely in the AI interface” is the next step.
Just picture yourself describing what you want – dates, a rough budget, things you’d like to have – and the AI then compares options from different providers, showing photos, reviews, the schedules, and what it’ll cost you. After all that, it finalizes the booking with the partner you pick. This feature will be heavily reliant on being integrated with the big players in the travel scene.
Google has already locked in partnerships with some big names, including:
- Booking.com
- Expedia Group
- Choice Hotels International
- IHG Hotels & Resorts
- Marriott International
- Wyndham Hotels & Resorts
The exact payment bit is still a bit of a mystery (will Google handle payments, be the middleman, or just point you in the right direction at the end?), but the goal is clear: turn a simple chat into a done-and-dusted booking with as little fuss as possible.
The Broader AI Travel Arms Race
This move puts Google squarely in competition with OpenAI. Given their relatively recent arrival, OpenAI has moved surprisingly fast into travel, especially when you consider Google’s search dominance over the last couple decades.
OpenAI has developed ChatGPT from a simple chatbot into its own platform through custom “GPTs” and more importantly, “third-party actions”, which are essentially plugins that let external services do things right inside the chat. Expedia and Booking.com were among the first partners to bring these to life.
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And ChatGPT instantly displays current hotel options, with images, prices, and details straight from Expedia. Clicking on an option takes you to Expedia to finish the booking, though OpenAI has hinted that fully in-chat transactions are planned.
Booking.com has a similar deal going, meaning that the two biggest online travel agencies are in both Google’s and OpenAI’s worlds – often at the same time.
Same Partners, Different Approaches
The interesting thing is that Expedia and Booking.com are spreading their chips around. They’re partnering aggressively with the AI giants instead of picking a side. From a travel industry standpoint, distribution is everything, and neither wants to risk being absent from the conversational interface that so many people use first when planning a vacation.
Google’s advantage is that it’s everywhere (billions of searches every day) and can easily present rich, visual comparison tables right in search results. OpenAI’s strength is in that natural back-and-forth chat, and the rapid adoption of ChatGPT, which has gotten a lot of people used to “just asking the AI.”
So, What’s Next Step?
Both companies have only just started:
Neither actually processes payments completely inside the AI just yet (you get redirected to checkout). Cancellation stuff, loyalty points, and those tricky multi-stop trips are still hard for automated agents to handle.
Concerns about accuracy and making stuff up are still valid when actual money is involved.
However, the trend is undeniable. Probably sometime within the next 12–18 months, a significant amount of travel bookings will be done through conversational AI. The way people shop online might change. Instead of going to websites or using apps, they might just talk to AI mode helpers through whatever platform they’re already using.
When it comes to travel, the best system will probably be the one that’s quickest, most reliable, and cheapest, all while being super easy to use. Right now, Google and OpenAI seem to be pushing each other really hard, and they’re pulling the whole travel industry along for the ride.