Duff on Hospitality Law

Good Sunday afternoon from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, March 13, is below. Given everything else going on the world (none of which is very helpful to travel), it was a relatively quiet week in online travel. Much was written about Amazon’s preliminary victory over Perplexity early in the week, but little else gained much attention. Enjoy.

• • Hilton Introduces AI Trip Planner While Marriott Plans Launch of Conversational Search. Hilton announced this past week that it was beta testing a new AI enabled trip planner (“Hilton AI Planner”) that would allow users to use conversational tools to search destinations, hotels and amenities across the entire Hilton portfolio. The beta version is currently available to select users of Hilton.com. Hilton expects to gradually expand the rollout as it improves the platform based on early beta interactions. Marriott plans to rollout similar technology to its website and mobile app in pilot form in the next months and then a wider rollout later this year.
  • Amex GBT Share AI Enabled Efficiencies. During Amex GBT’s fourth quarter earnings call this past week, Amex GBT CEO, Paul Abbot, shared details about the TMC’s increasing leverage of AI. Some key takeaways:
    • 83% of the TMC’s total transactions are now digital transactions with that number expected to increase with the increasing reliance on AI
    • Amex GBT expects to launch Egencia AI next month, which will allow users to use natural language queries for both bookings and travel management (all in accordance with applicable travel policies)
    • Egencia’s current average booking time is 3 minutes, with that number expected to go down as fewer bookings require human intervention
  • Amazon Claims Early Round One Victory in Ongoing Agentic Lawsuit Against Perplexity. This past week, a U.S. federal district court issued an order temporarily enjoining Perplexity’s Comet web browser agents from accessing certain password protected sections of Amazon’s systems to complete purchases on behalf of Perplexity users. According to Amazon, Perplexity’s failure to disclose its agents’ activities on behalf of shoppers and subsequent failure to stop the activity when asked by Amazon constituted computer fraud. The court’s order is only temporary, however, while to the two sides continue to argue over the legality of Perplexity’s actions. Perplexity has vowed to appeal the order, the effect of which was suspended specifically to allow Perplexity to file an appeal. For those of you interested in the recent order, we’ve linked to a copy of the court’s order below.

Have a great week everyone.

Good Sunday afternoon (for some of us, a dreaded “spring forward” afternoon) from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, March 6, 2026, is below. This past week began with news out of the UK of a new CMA investigation into the hotel industry and ended with ChatGPT’s apparent recognition that platform transactions may be harder than first thought. Our stories below provide the details. Enjoy.

• • ChatGPT Scales Back Platform Purchasing – For Now. A report this past week by The Information (which was later confirmed by ChatGPT to Skift) indicated that ChatGPT is scaling back efforts to provide users the opportunity to buy (or book) directly within the platform. Instead, ChatGPT intends to focus its efforts on product search and discovery while deferring to merchants to handle the actual booking process via their ChatGPT apps. Good news for Expedia and Booking.com, which in recent weeks have seen drops in their stock prices over disintermediation concerns. So why the change? Commentators suggest that “AI commerce” is far more difficult than originally anticipated – technology, user habits (and trust) and regulations all present significant hurdles. What does this mean for suppliers? My view of these platforms as natural language meta search sites continues to ring true. Assuming prospective travelers’ use and trust in AI continues to grow, I believe that it remains critical for suppliers to be present and part of travelers’ “search and discovery” on these platforms. Differentiation will become the challenge. In this world, OTAs will lean into the AI platforms and double their efforts to capture (and re-direct) as many travelers as possible early in the sales cycle/funnel via content, discounted pricing and ultimately advertising.
  • State and Federal Legislators Focused on Technology-Based Pricing. For the past several weeks, we have featured stories on state and local efforts regarding technology-based pricing (sometimes referred to as “surveillance pricing”). This past week, the U.S. House Oversight Committee sent letters to the CEOs of five companies, including Expedia and Booking.com, asking whether they used surveillance pricing (in the form of pricing algorithms and personal data) in setting online prices. At the state level, pending legislation in Connecticut, Maryland, Ohio and Tennessee prompted the Travel Technology Association to send letters to legislators in each state warning that the proposed legislation would limit the ability for online retailers to offer consumers discounts, loyalty programs and other promotions.
  • Booking Holdings Claims Partial Victory in Ongoing Hotelier Claims. In a press release last week, Booking Holdings claimed that the Dutch court overseeing competition claims by German hoteliers has agreed with several of its positions, including the fact that German hotels have yet to provide enough evidence that Booking.com’s use of rate parity provisions prior to 2016 violated competition laws. More importantly, according to Booking, the court expressed concerns regarding the narrow market definition applied by German competition authorities and courts, suggesting that they failed to take in account the threat posed to Booking by other available sales channels as required by the European Court of Justice’s ruling in 2024. Expect more on this case and others currently pending against Booking Holdings in the weeks to come.
  • UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) Opens Investigation. Hoteliers Hilton, Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) and Marriott, together with real estate analytics firm, CoStar (owner of STR), are under investigation in the UK. According to the CMA’s statement announcing the investigation, the sharing of competitively sensitive information among competing companies, even via a third party services provide, has the possibility of reducing how strongly the companies will compete. Recall that similar claims were made (unsuccessfully) in the U.S. against hoteliers a year ago. The CMA’s investigation is expected to continue through August.

Have a great week.

Good Sunday afternoon from Seattle . . .  Our weekly Online Travel Update for Friday, February 27, 2026, is below. This week’s Update features a variety of stories, including a few new perspectives on the existential threat posed by AI to the existing online travel behemoths. For reasons I cannot explain, this week’s Update features as many questions (perhaps more) than answers. Enjoy.

• • Major OTAs Set New Record in Annual Marketing Spend. Booking Holdings, Expedia Group, Trip.com Group and Airbnb spent a combined $20 billion in sales and marketing in 2025. Despite OTAs’ efforts to boost direct bookings (through loyalty program expansion and other means), experiments with AI customer acquisition and changing sales and marketing investments, the amount spent on sales and marketing efforts continues to grow. It will be interesting to watch how these numbers change (and the detail behind these numbers) with OTAs’ much publicized AI efforts.
  • AI Not for You? Kayak Has an Answer. Are Kayak’s newest ad campaigns a true representation of “average” travelers’ fear and general distrust of AI or a desperate last gasp at meta site relevancy?
  • Effects of OTA Disintermediation Beyond Lower Stock Prices. This week we include one of the dozens of stories that came across our inbox detailing the financial fallout of travelers’ potential use and reliance on AI platforms. Are reports of the threats posed by AI to OTAs (or now public acknowledgements by the largest OTAs) overblown? If these threats are real, how will these threats affect OTA behavior in the months and years to come? In the face of an existential crises, will OTAs continue to honor “commercial” understandings or will they ultimately be forced to resort to nuclear options – price discounting, keyword (or AI equivalent) purchases, misuse of opaque or package rates, obscuring or blacklisting property listings?
  • Travel Ads Spotted on ChatGPT. Over the past few weeks, we’ve included several stories detailing OpenAI’s planned introduction of ads for its lowest tiers of ChatGPT users. Google too has discussed plans for introducing ads on its AI mode platform. Apparently, some of these ads on OpenAI are now live and of course, one of the first ads, is from Expedia.

Have a great week everyone.

Good Sunday evening from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, February 20, 2026, is below. Last week we featured stories on the reported AI activities of Marriott and Hyatt, and this week we feature updates on both Wyndham and IHG. This week’s Update also offers a few perspectives on Booking Holdings’ recent quarterly earnings release (a copy of the Booking Holdings’ earnings call transcript is also linked below). Enjoy.

• • Wyndham Partners with Google, Claude and OpenAI. What are major hotel suppliers doing to counter the seemingly endless AI announcements by the major OTA platforms? Wyndham CEO, Geoff Ballotti shared information on Wyndham’s plans in Wyndham’s recent earnings release call. According to Ballotti, Wyndham has partnered with Google (serving as one of Google initial integration AI mode partners), Claude (providing Claude direct access to Wyndham’s rates and inventory) and OpenAI (working to also provide ChatGPT direct access to Wyndham’s rates and inventory). So far, the costs associated with these efforts are minimal as both Claude and ChatGPT (which refer users back to the Wyndham website to complete the booking) are foregoing transaction costs – at least for now.
  • IHG Updates Its Hotel Content. According to IHG CEO, Elie Maalouf, IHG may not be as externally focused as its competitors (at least not yet) when it comes to transitioning for AI. In an earnings call last week, Maalouf, detailed the company’s plans to adopt an entirely new AI-compatible hotel content platform to better attract and respond to AI systems. IHG is also working with Google to develop AI trip planning capabilities that will allow for natural language searches on the IHG websites and apps. These AI specific updates are part of a larger technology overhaul by IHG that is currently underway and features the rollout of a new customer relationship management platform, guest reservation system and property management system – all of which are cloud based.
  • Booking Holdings Reports Strong 4Q and Full Year Results. A few takeaways from last week’s Booking Holdings’ earnings release and call:

    • Demand. Demand growth (9% YOY growth in 4Q) was driven by growth in the U.S. (10-12% YOY growth in 4Q).

    • Artificial Intelligence. Management was far more focused on the savings achieved via AI integration in its customer support processes (roughly 10% per booking) versus new customer acquisition. Management remains bullish on the important role that OTAs like Booking.com will serve in the post AI world as, according to Booking, AI platforms will ultimately serve largely search and advertising functions (and not as an actual merchant).

    • The Importance of Independent Hoteliers. Booking Holdings CEO, Glenn Fogel, spoke at length about the importance of Booking’s relationships with independent hotels and the value that Booking represents to this hotel segment. According to Fogel, the 10 largest hotel chains account for only a “low double digit percentage” of Booking.com’s total room bookings. Interesting timing for Booking to raise this point as AI and now Airbnb appear to present viable threats to Booking’s dominance of this hotel segment.

    • The Increasing Role of Connected Transactions. Connected transactions grew in the high 20% range in 2025. Connected transactions now represent a low double digit percentage of all Booking.com transactions. Note that Booking’s view of “connected transactions” is slightly different than the traditional “packages” definition in that Booking.com defines a connected transaction as one where one traveler books multiple travel verticals over a 1-3 day period (and not necessarily a simultaneous purchase of multiple verticals like most traditional packages).

    • Marketing. Booking invested heavily in marketing during 4Q (total marketing increased 22% YOY in 4Q) and throughout 2025 (total marketing increased 12%). During 2025, Booking Holdings invested a total of $8.1 billion dollars in marketing (let that number sink in), which represents 4.4% of Booking Holdings’ total gross booking value during the same period. Note that social media investments increased 13% during 4Q.

  • Booking.com Defends Contracting Practices. Ever wonder how Booking.com views the many investigations and class action claims brought against it over its allegedly anti-competitive contracting practices? Booking.com recently posted a response on its website.

  • Google Testing Ad Formats for AI Mode. Anyone surprised by this one? Last week, we included a story about ChatGPT’s announced commencement of ad testing on the lowest tiers of its AI subscriptions. Not to be outdone, Google has announced plans to begin testing new ad formats for retailers that offer products and services most responsive to a user’s natural language query. According to Google, similar tests are also being run in the travel industry. What these AI ads ultimately look like and just how personalized they may become – think loyalty – remains to be seen.

Have a great week everyone.

Good Sunday afternoon from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, February 13, 2026, is below. What started out as a quiet week in the online travel industry changed considerably as the week progressed. Earnings releases from the major lodging suppliers and Expedia garnered much of the week’s headlines. Enjoy.

• • Expedia Reports Solid Fourth Quarter Results – Led Again by Its B2B Offerings. Expedia released its fourth quarter and full year results this past week. Highlights from this past week’s release include the following:
    
    • B2C bookings remained relatively stable. Partner funded promotions represented 30% of the bookings mix in 4th quarter (up from 3rd quarter). All three of Expedia’s consumer brands (Expedia, Hotels.com and VRBO) saw growth in the 4th quarter.
    • Advertising revenue continues to grow, up 19% YOY for the 4th quarter.
    • B2B continues its consistently strong growth – gross bookings grew 24% YOY in the 4th quarter. B2B partner commissions were 61.6% of B2B revenue in 2025 (up from 60.7% in 2024). B2B continues to expand its product offerings with increased accommodations supply, new car rental connections and soon, experiences via Expedia’s recently announced acquisition of Tiqets.
    • Expedia’s comments regarding AI and its adoption and use across the platform’s many verticals remained largely unchanged from its most recent earnings release statement.

A transcript of Expedia’s quarterly earnings call is attached for those of you interested.

• • Hoteliers Share Approaches to AI Use in Marketing and Distribution. This past week saw Hyatt and Marriott offer glimpses into their respective AI efforts. According to Hyatt CEO, Mark Hoplamazian, Hyatt’s efforts are most readily apparent in search, as Hyatt has added natural language search to its website and recently launched a Hyatt branded app within ChatGPT’s app ecosystem. Like Accor’s previously announced app, the Hyatt app allows ChatGPT users to search rates and availability and then re-directs those users to Hyatt.com to complete the booking. According to Hoplamazian, Hyatt’s efforts with its own website are already producing positive results. According to Marriott CEO, Anthony Capuano, Marriott is working closely with Google to integrate with Google’s AI Mode that, according to Capuano, will deliver a “priority search experience” and allow bookings to “be processed through AI Mode.” What this integration might actually mean is still somewhat unknown. How will Marriott’s search experience differ from other major travel brands? Is Google reconsidering earlier comments that it does not intend to become an online travel agent? Will bookings actually be completed within Google AI or will users instead be referred to Marriott.com to complete the booking? As for ChatGPT, Capuano announced that Marriott would be participating in ChatGPT’s early advertising pilot (see story below). These latest announcements follow disclosures by both Hilton and Marriott in recent securities filings where both companies noted for the first time the risks posed by AI and possible disintermediation caused by AI, which could make even harder direct booking efforts and drive up the cost of distribution.
  • OpenAI Begins Testing Ads within ChatGPT. Late last month, we shared OpenAI’s plans to test advertisements for users of certain versions of ChatGPT. OpenAI announced this past week that the tests have begun in the U.S. for adult, logged-in users of ChatGPT’s Free and Go subscription tiers. In last week’s announcement, OpenAI reiterated some of the guiding principles behind the new advertising product, including commitments that advertising will not affect ChatGPT’s answers to users’ prompts and users’ conversations with ChatGPT will not be shared with advertisers. According to OpenAI, it will decide which ads to show to users based on the topic of users’ conversations, users’ past conversations and users’ past interactions with ads.
  • Malaysian Competition Authorities Flag OTA Parity Provisions as Part of Digital Economy Market Review. Following its 18 month review of OTAs and other similar online travel marketplaces (including metasearch sites), the Malaysian Competition Commission reported several central competition concerns including (i) rate parity, (ii) algorithmic ranking (and the effect that higher commissions might have on ranking), (iii) keyword bidding, (iv) OTAs extensive first-party data collection practices, (v) the potentially anti-competitive use of generative AI and (vi) a variety of consumer facing tactics – drip pricing, pressure-selling and misleading reviews. Sounds like my usual OTA contracting checklist. While the review does not constitute a decision by the Commission, it does serve to identify areas where the Commission may in the future adopt guidelines or pursue further engagements with market participants.

Have a great week everyone.

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.

Good evening from the ALIS Conference in Los Angeles . . . Our travel-shortened Online Travel Update for the week ending January 23, 2026, is below. This week’s Update features a wide variety of stories, including updates on two stories we featured last week – Airbnb’s evolving hotel aspirations and investigations into Trip.com’s allegedly anti-competitive practices. I hope you enjoy.

• • To Allow AI Agents or Not to Allow AI Agents – That Is the Question. I’ve been a part of these discussions with several clients over the past few weeks. We definitely know Amazon’s perspective on this question, though as Perplexity has argued in recent court filings, Amazon appears to be engaged in the very same behavior that it is now seeking to stop by Perplexity. This week’s first story from PhocusWire provides a number of arguments in favor of allowing AI agents.
  • ChatGPT to Test Advertising. This past week, OpenAI announced that it would soon test sponsored ads in responses delivered to logged-in users of ChatGPT’s free and new Go tiers (users of ChatGPT’s higher subscription tiers will continue to enjoy ad free responses). No one should be surprised. At some point, these platforms, which require huge financial investments to sustain and grow, had to commercialize their platforms and extensive user bases. Significant questions remain about the newly announced advertising product (including, most importantly for hoteliers, how ads may be purchased, prioritized, etc.), but OpenAI did share some initial guiding principles about the product:
    
    • “Organic” AI responses will not be influenced by the advertisements
    • OpenAI will not sell users’ personal information to advertisers
    • Advertisements will only appear for logged-in users and will not appear alongside sensitive topics like personal health or politics

While travel was not specifically identified in the announcement, a sample screen shot included in the announcement featured a sample travel response and related advertising. For anyone still debating whether AI platforms (and related advertising) need to be addressed in your internal and external distribution discussions, this latest OpenAI announcement should be a call to action.

Have a great week everyone.

Good Sunday evening from a sunny Seattle . . . Our first Online Travel Update for 2026 is below. This week’s Update features new stories on China’s possible crack down on Trip.com, an update on Airbnb and its plans for hotels and the latest from Google and its rapidly evolving agentic platform. I hope you enjoy.

• • Trip.com Under Investigation for Alleged Monopolistic Practices. Trip.com announced this past week that it had received a notice of investigation from the State Administration for Market Regulations of the People’s Republic of China (“SAMR”). According to the notice, the investigation stems from Trip.com’s alleged abuse of its dominant market position through coercive contract terms, arbitrary increases in commission fees and the blocking of internet traffic. If found guilty of violating China’s Anti-Monopoly Law, Trip.com can be fined between 1% and 10% of its total annual revenue from the previous year (a similar investigation into the practices of Alibaba resulted in record $2.5 billion fine).
  • Changes Afoot at Airbnb. Last week, Airbnb announced that it had hired Meta’s former head of generative AI, Ahmad Al-Dahle, as its new CTO. According to CEO Brian Chesky’s letter to employees introducing Ahmad, Ahmad “connects big ideas with technical depth, highly values design, and believes engineering should be a true strategic partner.” Perhaps more important for my readers, our friend and industry colleague, Lou Zameryka, announced this week on LinkedIn that he is joining Airbnb to lead its hotel efforts (Lou’s announcement was confirmed by an announcement yesterday from Airbnb where it announced Lou as its new Global Head – Hotel Enterprises and Connectivity Partnerships). Congratulations to Lou. If anyone still doubts Airbnb’s intentions with regard to AI or its move (again) into hotels, it may be time to re-consider. There was a reason why we included an Airbnb story on its re-entry into hotels as one of seven featured stories in our 2025 year-end review.
  • Google’s Latest Agentic Announcement Presents New Opportunities for Travelers and Suppliers. At last week’s National Retail Federation annual conference, Google introduced its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), which is designed to allow AI agents to complete purchases (or bookings) within a conversational user interface. Although UCP was developed with retail product purchases in mind (and the announcement featured some of the country’s largest retailers – including Target and Walmart (though, interestingly, not Amazon)), the protocol was developed to handle more complex transactions (i.e., travel). In theory, the newly announced protocol should allow travelers to discover, search, select and book (the entire sales funnel) travel within a single platform without the need to jump from platform to platform (which we’ve noted in multiple previous posts as being one of the biggest challenges to currently available AI platforms). For suppliers, the new protocol allows them to remain the merchant of record and “own” the customer relationship, fulfillment and post-purchase relationship.

Have a great week.

Happy New Year . . . Our annual “year in review” Online Travel Update is below. We’ve enjoyed having the opportunity to work with many of you this past year and look forward to working with you in 2026.

Here’s to a great and successful year.