Duff on Hospitality Law

Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, September 5, 2025, is below. The federal court’s recent decision in the much-publicized Google anti-trust case captured most of the week’s headlines in an otherwise quiet week in online travel. Enjoy.

• • Artificial Intelligence Will Pose New Challenges to Suppliers’ Systems. For those distribution executives with too much time on their hands (after all, who doesn’t have endless amounts of time with all of the other anticipated AI driven changes in distribution), you now need to consider the systematic challenges associated with travelers’ increasing use of AI tools, most notably agentic AI. As the story below details, the number of travelers’ “looks” to actual bookings has increased steadily over the past twenty plus years and are poised to explode with travelers’ use of AI-enabled agents to search and book travel. This unprecedented increase in looks will tax suppliers’ existing systems (and systems’ processes like caching), resulting in the need for more technology that comes with a hefty price. Will suppliers soon need to impose fees for searches of their content? Maybe.
  • WiT Releases Documentary on Online Travel in Asia. Over the past several weeks, WiT has released chapters of a new documentary on the history of online travel in Asia – “Online Travel in Asia – The Untold Story.” The entire documentary is now available (and is included in the story below). For all of you distribution nerds, this is essential viewing.
  • Effect of Google Decision on Online Travel Is Unclear. Reactions from the online travel world to last week’s U.S. federal court decision in the long-running Google anti-trust case have been mixed. Unlike ongoing investigations in the EU that have focused on Google’s search and display practices (among others), the U.S. decision says nothing about search or display. Nor did the decision force Google’s divestiture of Chrome, as some speculated would happen. Instead, the decision forces Google to share certain search results with its competitors and limits Google’s ability to enter into exclusive distribution and licensing deals. So, what does this mean for online travel – if anything? It is unclear at this point. Some notable industry analysts believe that the decision is good news for online travel agencies that can now enter agreements with Apple and other device manufacturers to pre-install the online travel agencies’ mobile applications on phones and devices. Apple and other manufacturers could also re-introduce their own search or recommendation tools that rely heavily on online travel agencies. Others industry members question whether online travel agencies have the resources to enter into such deals with Apple or other manufacturers.
  • Google’s New Flight Deals Tool Promises Better Search Results. Google has launched a new AI-powered tool on Google Flights. Using natural language search queries, travelers in the U.S., Canada and India can now obtain AI-powered “contextual” search results tailored to their specific needs – financial and otherwise. Anticipated future updates will include filters that allow travelers to remove undesirable fare classes, itineraries, etc., from their custom search results.

Have a great week.

Good Monday afternoon from Seattle . . . For those of you enjoying a long holiday weekend, Happy Labor Day. Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, August 29, 2025, is below. With the summer doldrums coming to an end, activity across the online industry has picked up starting with Booking.com’s newly announced partnership with TikTok, which dominated industry headlines (and our many of our clients’ attention) this past week. Enjoy.

• • Booking.com’s Growing Interest in Social Media. For the past several quarters now, Booking Holdings, CEO, Glenn Fogel, has made reference to Booking’s increasing interest and investments in social media and AI. While many (this author included) focused largely on Fogel’s statements on AI, Booking.com’s newly announced partnership with TikTok provides some of the strongest evidence yet of Booking’s efforts to leverage social media and to transition social media from a historically marketing focused channel (a source of traveler inspiration) into a booking channel. So, what does this newly announced partnership mean for hotels (and particularly, hoteliers’ direct booking efforts)? I think it is too early to tell. Many questions remain about both social media and artificial intelligence and travelers’ (across all ages and demographics) general willingness to use (and trust) either platform. For me, one thing is clear. Booking.com’s latest announcement (which is only the latest in a growing list of newly announced partnerships between leading distributors and their new AI and social media partners) has brought back memories (not all good) of OTAs’ early dominance of online search and the many bookings that resulted.

• • Acrimony Between Hoteliers and Booking.com? Not sure I agree with this one, at least for the reasons noted in the attached article.

• • Ryanair and Booking Holdings Bury the Hatchet – For Now. For years now, our Update has followed the acrimonious (and sometimes amusing) relationship between Ryanair and distributors. With this newest announced deal, Ryanair has done a complete about face in its view of (and willingness to work with) the online platforms. According to reports, the newly announced deal features some unique deal terms (at least when compared to hoteliers’ typical terms and conditions) – passengers who book through Booking.com will have access to their Ryanair accounts and Ryanair will receive passengers’ actual contact information (not fictious email addresses) through which Ryanair is able to communicate directly with passengers.

• • Google Continues to Add AI Capabilities. In its latest round of AI-related announcements, Google has announced that AI Mode (which is currently available to users in the U.S., UK and India) is expanding to over 180 new countries and territories. Google Ultra AI subscribers will also soon be able to leverage “agentic capabilities” in AI Mode to search and make restaurant selections and reservations and other services bookings.

• • Agoda Launches “Ask Me Anything”(AMA) Property Bot. Leveraging ChatGPT and the information it is able to access and use, Agoda has introduced a new AI chatbot on its website and mobile application that provides travelers detailed information about potential properties. The chatbot now answers 30,000 questions a day about Agoda’s listed properties. Users of the chatbot can now avoid messaging properties directly with questions regarding their stay. Hoteliers take note – this latest functionality seeks to make available to Agoda users detailed property information that hoteliers may have never intended to make available through a third party platform. Content differentiation may now be more difficult than ever.

Have a great week everyone. 

Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, August 8, 2025, is below. For several weeks now, we’ve all seen and read the many headlines regarding American Airlines planned use of AI for rate setting. This week’s Update features several stories on the controversy, including a report into the art and science of rate setting. Enjoy.

• • Expedia Reports Strong Second Quarter.  Buoyed by its B2B, advertising and international lines of business, Expedia this past week reported strong second quarter performance and increased its guidance on gross bookings and revenue for the full 2025 calendar year.  Like other hospitality companies that reported this past week on weakening U.S. demand, Expedia experienced some of the same slow down but managed to offset the weakness through its other businesses.  Of the three primary Expedia Group companies (Expedia, Hotels.com and VRBO), Expedia faired the best as the remaining two continue to experience platform transition challenges.  Expedia continues to work with AI platforms – namely OpenAI and Google – to drive traffic to its websites, which according to Expedia CEO, Ariane Gorin, converts “well.”

• • Southwest Tickets Now Available on Booking Holdings’ Websites.  Southwest Airlines announced last week that its tickets are now available on Agoda, Booking.com and Priceline (among other BH websites).  This latest announcement further evidences Southwest’s complete transition from being an exclusively direct channel retailer to embracing a wide variety of third party intermediaries.

• • Booking.com Launches Co-Branded Credit Card in U.S.  After months of rumors and speculation, Booking.com finally revealed its first U.S. co-branded credit card, the Booking.com Genius Rewards Visa Signature Credit Card.  Cardholders will receive travel credits (each worth $1.00) in varying amounts for purchases – up to 6% for hotels and short term rentals booked on the Booking.com app.  Cardholders will also be immediately enrolled in the third (highest) tier of Booking.com’s Genius loyalty program.  Hoteliers must keep a close eye on the card and any future cardholder promotions to ensure the card doesn’t undermine pricing on the Booking.com platforms.

Our next Update will be for the week ending Friday, August 29. 

Good Sunday evening from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, August 1, 2025, is below. It was another slow week in the online travel world with Booking Holdings again capturing most of the industry’s headlines. Enjoy.

• • Booking Holdings Reports Strong Second Quarter. This past week Booking Holdings issued its second quarter earnings release (for those interested, a copy of the earnings call transcript is linked below). Booking Holdings’ strong market position in countries outside the United States (as compared to its primary competitors, Expedia and Airbnb) once again proved to be its saving grace as the U.S. leisure market continued to struggle. Highlights from the recent release for me include the following:
    • Booking.com’s loyalty program, Genuis, showed meaningful growth. Booking.com plans to soon add additional travel products (beyond accommodations) to its awards program.
    • In an effort to head off the effects of Google’s AI summaries on traditional search engine marketing, Booking Holdings is diversifying its marketing investments, including a 25% (YOY) increase is spending on social media platforms. According to Booking Holdings CEO, Glenn Fogel, these investments will allow Booking Holdings to engage with customers earlier at the inspiration stage of the travel funnel.
    • With regard to AI and its growing importance within Bookings Holdings, Fogel provided updates on efforts at Priceline, Agoda, Booking.com, Kayak and OpenTable to grow their use of AI organically. Fogel also confirmed previously reported collaborations with OpenAI (including OpenAI’s recently announced ChatGPT Agent), Microsoft and Amazon as a means of expanding Booking Holdings’ sources of future travelers.
  • Trust Remains a Concern for Most Users of AI. Booking Holdings released last week The Global AI Sentiment Report, which shares important insights gained by Bookings Holdings from over 37,000 consumers in 33 markets. While the Report details consumers’ overwhelming excitement about the new technology (and growing interest in using the technology in the future), concerns among consumers remain. I encourage everyone to take 30 minutes to review the Report.
  • Yet Another Class Action Targeting Booking.com. This past week saw news of yet another potential class action against Booking.com over its pricing (e.g., rate parity) practices. This latest claim is being brought by the UK’s Bed and Breakfast Association on behalf of thousands of UK accommodation providers. The same concerns I expressed earlier over similar previously announced class actions (particularly for those providers with negotiated portfolio-wide contracts with Booking.com) apply equally to this newly announced effort.

Have a great week everyone.

With summer in full swing, it is no surprise that this past week was another slow week in the online travel industry.  Our recommendation?  Enjoy this week’s Update with a drink in hand by your pool or other favorite body of water.  Enjoy:

• • OpenAI Launches Agent Mode.  On Thursday this past week, OpenAI officially released new functionality (ChatGPT Agent) that can search and book hotels, activities and flights on behalf of its ChatGPT chatbot users.  Pro, Plus and Team users of ChatGPT have or will soon have access to the new agent with Enterprise and Educator users to follow.  According to ChatGPT, the agent can create custom travel plans (using users’ provided destinations and preferences) and itineraries complete with maps and hotel and activities bookings.   Over time, as the agent learns of users’ preferences, the agent will factor those preference into its proposed plans and itineraries.  A demo released as part of the launch shows a user using the new agent to plan and book a trip for an upcoming wedding.  In the demo, the agent uses Booking.com to review hotels’ availability and rates and then book. 
    
    
  • New Intermediary Seeks to Help Hoteliers Leverage AI Platforms.  DirectBooker, a startup backed former TripAdvisor CEO, Steve Kaufer, and ex-Google Travel head, Richard Holden, is building a B2B platform to feed rich (differentiated) hotel content (ARI) to AI platforms directly and allow hoteliers to bypass the emerging content stranglehold held by OTAs.  What’s the business model you might ask?  Early indications from DirectBooker are that they are looking at traditional CPC or CPA models.  Additional details about the startup’s plans are available on the DirectBooker website. 

Google captured most of the online travel industry’s headlines this past week as it seeks to “balance” the competing interests of regulators, on the one hand, and intermediaries and direct sellers, on the other hand. As long as traditional search maintains its outsized influence on online travel, the outcome of these discussions will have a significant effect on the industry. Whether AI makes irrelevant this entire controversy remains to be seen – for now.

• • Closed Door Negotiations Produce No Definitive Solution for Google. This past week the European Commission conducted two days of closed door workshops between Google and online intermediaries and direct sellers from the retail and travel industries. At issue were Google’s latest proposals for presenting search results in compliance with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) (or at least Google’s interpretation of the DMA). Failure to reach a solution will likely lead the EU to impose significant fines against Google.
    
    Two options were presented at the closed door meetings. The first option placed intermediaries at the top of search results where users could open an accordion style listing of the intermediary’s products and services. Under this first option, direct sellers could only place links within the intermediaries’ search results. The second option featured a box (below and separate from the intermediaries) where direct sellers could place links to their products and services. Between the two presented options, direct sellers generally favored the second option though questions around which sellers are featured in the box, how sellers are ranked, how sellers’ content is sourced and how much content can be displayed remain unanswered.
    
    Google’s latest proposals underscore the challenging position that hoteliers find themselves. While Google is understandably motivated to avoid significant penalties under the DMA, its interpretation of the DMA, specifically, the requirement that it not discriminate against competing service providers (e.g., travel intermediaries) is leading it to favor competing intermediaries (e.g., Booking.com / Expedia) over hoteliers, who are owed, at best, an obligation to be treated fairly.

Good Sunday afternoon from Seattle and for those of you celebrating in the United States, a belated Happy Fourth of July . . . A shortened holiday version of our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, July 4, 2024, is below. Not surprisingly, this past week was a relatively quiet week in the online travel world. Enjoy.

• • DMA Under Attack. Anyone hoping to see meaningful change to the largest online platforms as a result of the EU’s Digital Markets Act may soon be disappointed. Ongoing trade negotiations between the U.S. and the EU have reportedly included discussions to allow U.S. companies to influence implementation of the DMA’s requirements. Not surprisingly, small online platforms competing against the DMA’s so-called, gatekeepers, are not happy by the rumored discussions. It is unclear how discussions might affect Booking.com – the European travel platform with a U.S. parent.
  • Additional Details on Planned Class Action Against Booking.com. Consumer groups, the Stichting Consumer Competition Claims Foundation and Consumentenbond, are leading the effort and have formally commenced the action by requesting that Booking.com seek a negotiated solution. The groups claim that Booking.com’s parity provisions (which have been previously determined to be anti-competitive in the EU courts) prevent hoteliers from offering lower rates through Booking.com’s competitors (and ultimately driving hotel prices higher). Further details about the claim and the consumer groups’ pitch to get EU residents to join the potential class action are available here.

Have a great week everyone.

Good Saturday evening from Seattle . . . Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, June 27, 2025, is below. This week’s Update features news of yet another claim being brought against Booking.com over its commercial practices and updates on Alibaba’s planned restructuring of its travel platform, Fliggy. Going forward, expect to see more stories on social media and its use as legitimate distribution channel. While the industry (and world) is focused on AI and its influence, don’t overlook the power and influence of social media. I know I have. Enjoy.

• • Dutch Consumer Groups Announce Plans to Bring Claims Against Booking.com. The news of competition authority claims and fines and potential private class actions never seems to end. Buoyed by the EU court’s recent determination that Booking.com’s parity provisions could be anti-competitive (which is the same decision allegedly serving as EU hoteliers’ new claims against Booking.com), two Dutch consumer groups announced this past week that they were seeking affected Dutch travelers to serve as claimants in a claim against Booking.com over its (allegedly) over-inflated hotel prices.
  • Cloudbeds Offers Insight into Hotel AI Visibility. Ever wonder what hotels can do to improve the likelihood of being featured in the recommendations provided by the leading AI platforms – ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity? In a post search / keyword world, I field this question often (or conversely, how do I stop OTAs from being featured). Cloudbeds recently released a report titled, “The Signals Behind Hotel AI Recommendations,” which tries to address that question. A few key takeaways for me . . .
    
    • Branded hotels have far greater visibility than independent hotels.
    • OTAs (Expedia, Booking.com and TripAdvisor) are dominant in AI generated recommendations. Shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone given the number of recently announced partnerships between the leading AI platforms on these three OTAs.
    • Reputation is critical. Recommended hotels all maintained “excellent guest ratings” and a large number of online reviews on the major platforms.
    • Broad online visibility is a quality indicator to the AI platforms. Recommended properties were on You Tube (98%), travel blogs (97%) and Reddit (95%).

As you think about third parties’ competing AI initiatives, keep in mind that OTAs, metasearch sites and tour operators are likely seeking to leverage these same points and may be far better equipped to succeed.

• • Google to Introduce AI Overviews to YouTube. By now, everyone should be familiar with AI Overviews and their widespread use in Google’s traditional search engine results. Google is now testing similar overviews on YouTube (at least for a select group of premium users). According to Google, the new feature will produce a video carousel and short narrative description for premium users searching in the areas of shopping, places or things to do in specific location. A short video demonstrating the new feature is available here.

Finally, for anyone interested in reading a copy of the Booking.com book, The Machine (which I wrote about briefly in a prior Update), our amazing firm marketing coordinator found me a copy of the book available online in English. Let me know if you want the details. I cannot wait to read it. Yes, I’m officially a distribution geek.

Have a great week everyone.

Good Sunday evening from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, June 20, 2023, is below. Given summer’s official arrival this past Friday, it should be no surprise that the past week was a relatively quiet week for online travel. Enjoy.

• • Google Hotels Feeling the Pressure. One of the most interesting stories this past week came from Skift. Facing the effects of recent DMA mandated changes and its own AI initiatives, Google’s metasearch engine, Google Hotels, may be struggling – at least a little. And while Google may be struggling to find its footing, other industry players - Expedia, Trivago and TripAdvisor (and newcomer, Super.com) - are taking advantage. With so many changes afoot in the industry, I question how anyone is able to do a long-term distribution deal these days (let alone decide on a long-term distribution strategy). Definitely an interesting time to be part of the industry.

Have a great week everyone.

Good Sunday evening from Seattle and for those of you celebrating, Happy Father’s Day. Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, June 13, 2025, is below. This week’s Update features an update on the DMA and the negative effects that Google’s ongoing compliance efforts are having on travel suppliers. We also include further information on European hoteliers’ plans for a class action against Booking.com over its parity practices. Enjoy.

Have a great week everyone.