Google wants hotels to buy stuff.
Not just books a room. Agentic shopping. This means algorithms booking the whole trip on your behalf, making decisions humans used to guard jealously.
Accor Plays the Long Game
Asia’s shifting. Andrew Langdon, head of development at Accor, says generational changes are forcing brands to adapt. Or die. Competition is heating up, mostly in the mid-scale and economy segments. The luxury suite isn’t where the growth lives. It’s the budget bin. Conversions are accelerating because the old models are bleeding out.
The AI Hangover
Uber’s CEO is asking a scary question.
Is AI actually improving lives? The answer feels murky. A backlash is coming. Sure thing. People are getting tired of being optimized.
Then there’s Expedia. CEO Ariane Gorin admits they got it wrong.
Roamie failed. It was a test.
The lesson? End-to-end AI chatbots are not practical right now. Too much friction. Maybe later. But for now, humans still need humans, at least part of the way through the booking process.
The Squeeze
Expedia is stretching.
Meta. Uber. Clear. They are partnering with everyone who holds your data upstream (inspiration) or downstream (day of travel). They don’t want to reinvent the Online Travel Agency. They want to expand the definition. Booking is just one step. They want the whole journey.
So, does convenience matter more than privacy? Or are we just too tired to care?
The algorithm knows your budget. It knows your layover times. It might know where you want to go before you do. The door is opening.
