Travel booking is about to change in a big way. The customer is changing: from human to AI agent. This shift breaks the assumptions travel sites are built on and creates a large opportunity.
AI assistants are learning to use the web. OpenAI and Anthropic are investing heavily in this capability. Soon, people will book travel through AI assistants instead of clicking around on websites or apps themselves.
The problem
Traditional travel sites were never designed for AI assistants - their modern interfaces are full of dynamic elements, complex workflows, and CAPTCHAs that constantly trip up even the most sophisticated agents. But the problem goes deeper than technical barriers.
These sites don't actually want AI assistants to use them. Their whole business is built around getting humans to click on expensive ads and respond to "Only 2 rooms left!" messages. They spend billions on advertising to acquire and re-acquire customers, then use carefully crafted conversion funnels to drive human bookings. AI assistants ignore all of this - they just find the best deal.
The response
So what are travel sites doing? The same thing Reddit and YouTube just did: block AI assistants entirely. For incumbents, supporting AI agents doesn't just require technical or design changes; it would fundamentally undermine their core business model. This is the biggest shift in how people book travel since they first went online 30 years ago - and incumbents are choosing to fight it rather than adapt.
The solution
We're building what these AI assistants need: a travel platform designed to work with them instead of against them. Our automation-friendly interface makes it easy for AI to search and compare travel options, while maintaining comprehensive offerings (starting with hotels).
The team
Our team has done this before. We previously built a travel company from zero to nearly $1B in bookings. Booking.com acquired it, where it continues to be a major driver of EBITDA in their portfolio. We understand both the technical complexities of travel and how to build successful partner relationships at scale.
The timing
- Major platforms are actively blocking AI agents, creating urgency for AI-friendly alternatives
- OpenAI just launched Operator, their cloud-based browser environment for AI agents
- Anthropic is investing heavily in Claude Computer Use, enabling web browsing by LLMs
- Travel booking is a flagship use case for agent automation
Our platform eliminates the need for risky workarounds like scraping and fake IPs, providing a legitimate, efficient path for AI-assisted travel booking. Our revenue model combines industry-standard commissions with significantly lower operating costs than traditional OTAs.
The shift to AI-assisted travel booking is inevitable. The only question is whether it will happen on a platform designed for it, or whether we'll spend years trying to force it to work on platforms designed to resist it.