Duff on Hospitality Law

Good Sunday afternoon from Seattle . . . For those of you who follow American football, Happy Superbowl Sunday (apparently the number one sports betting day of the year). Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, February 6, 2026, is below. This week’s Update features a new story from the Technology Travel Association on state efforts to regulate technology pricing. I’ve also included an update on the much discussed collective action against Booking.com and offer further evidence as to why I believe Google will inevitably become the most widely used AI platform – even for travel. Enjoy.

• • Travel Technology Association Defeats Proposed Pricing Technology Legislation. You might ask why we are featuring a story this week on the Travel Technology Association’s successful defeat (at least for now) of proposed pricing technology legislation in Virginia. The story is only one of several important updates on pricing legislation that we received last week, including a detailed national overview of current state efforts to regulate the use of pricing technology by AH&LA’s Sarah Bratko. According to Sarah, 17 states have pricing legislation currently pending (not including already enacted legislation in California and New York). (So much for the Trump Administration’s attempt to restrict state-level regulation of AI.) If you’ve haven’t looked into this issue or its potential effects on your loyalty program or targeted promotions, I encourage you to do so. If you have questions, please let me know.
  • Siteminder Releases Annual Hotel Bookings Trend Report. This past week, Siteminder released its annual Hotel Bookings Trend report for 2025. Highlights in this year’s report include (a) revenue share among booking channels stayed relatively flat (95% of markets reported only a 1.5% change over last year), (b) AI and OTAs are gaining share on research, but directly bookings remain stable, (c) among available channels (direct, wholesale, GDS and OTA), bookings generated through direct bookings produced the highest value per booking ($516) and (d) by 2030, Asia will account for 3.5 billion middle class travelers – approximately two thirds of the global total.
  • Hoteliers File Collective Action Against Booking.com. For the past year, we have had stories about a possible collective action by European hoteliers against Booking.com over its allegedly anti-competitive contracting practices (namely, parity). This past week, the Dutch foundation representing the hotels formally initiated action before an Amsterdam Court. While “several thousand” hotels were part of this initial filing, Hotrec reports that extensions of the collective action will be brought later this year to add more hotels.
  • ChatGPT and Booking.com Launch SME AI Accelerator. While the majority of announcements over the past year regarding artificial intelligence and travel have focused on leisure travel, last week’s announcement by ChatGPT’s and Booking.com changed that dynamic. This latest ChatGPT/Booking.com partnership intends to help small and medium sized enterprises use AI to boost business (according to European reports, only 17% of European small businesses have adopted AI). Apparently, Booking.com hopes to capitalize on the effort by including corporate or managed travel in the list of AI-enabled functions. The program is available to business owners in 6 European countries – France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Ireland and the U.K. Just another attention grabbing headline with little to no likelihood of meaningful success? I think so.

Have a great week everyone. Go Seahawks.

Good Sunday afternoon from Manson, Washington . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, January 30, 2026, is below. Accor garnered much of the travel industry’s attention this past week as it became the first lodging supplier to announce the launch of its own ChatGPT mobile app. Other headlines underscore several of the themes I expect to talk about this upcoming year – the growing influence of credit card travel platforms and AI-based or surveillance pricing. I hope you enjoy.

• • Accor Launches the “ALL Accor” App on ChatGPT. Today’s Update features two stories on the recent launch of the Accor AI application, including the Accor press release. Highlights (at least to me) from the recent launch include the following:
    
    • Accor manages to be the first major international lodging provider to launch a dedicated AI (ChatGPT) mobile application.
    • Users may access the app through the platform’s application store (prompts outside the application return content from multiple sources).
    • The app displays both pricing and basic property details before referring users to the Accor platform to complete the booking.
    • For now, referrals from the app to Accor’s platform are free (though Accor’s Chief Commercial, Digital and Tech Officer, Alix Boulnois, recognizes things might change).
    • Accor views the application as a direct channel and is providing its best rates to users of the channel, including loyalty program rates.
    • The app was first launched in the U.S. as a test market, but it is now available in countries where ChatGPT apps are supported.
  • Capital One Adds Discover Cardmembers to Travel Platform. In a move that is expected to grow its member base significantly (and further escalate the high-stakes competition among major credit card travel platforms), Capital One announced this past week that it plans to provide access to its travel platform (Chase One Travel) and other cardholder benefits to certain Discover cardholders. The phased integration will take several years to complete. Discover has approximately 60 million cardholders. This latest announcement comes on the heels of Capital One’s recently announced purchase of the payment management system, Brex, which will likely position the platform to be better able to pursue corporate or managed travel.
  • Travel Technology Association Sounds Alarm Over State Regulation of Surveillance/AI-Based Pricing. In late January, the Travel Technology Association (whose members include the major OTAs, GDSs and other booking platforms/intermediaries) issued a statement raising concerning over states’ ongoing efforts to regulate so-called surveillance pricing. While the effectiveness of these efforts remains somewhat unclear (see Trump Administration’s recently issued Executive Order purporting to limit state regulation of artificial intelligence), the concern appears real. According to the Association’s president, Laura Chadwick,

“[t]he consequences of these new state laws would increase operational costs, constrain revenue management strategies, and make it difficult, if not impossible, to align pricing with real-time market conditions automatically. Instead of helping the market work better, these bills would lock in inefficiencies and push companies toward blunt, one-size-fits-all pricing.”

Have a great week everyone.