In a recent interview on YouTube, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, revealed that in the future users may be able to book hotels in 'one click' directly through ChatGPT, signaling a major shift in how consumers interact with travel platforms.
In the future, ChatGPT hopes to serve hotel options based purely on reviews, relevance, and the user’s needs, free from paid placement. This principle, Altman said, is “central to maintaining trust and delivering genuinely helpful results.”
Furthermore, Altman also noted that ChatGPT may introduce a small transaction fee for hotel bookings. He argued that the convenience of quick bookings combined with unbiased recommendations would justify such a fee.
So, are we going to see commissionless “one click hotel bookings” on ChatGPT in the near future?
Here is my take:
I believe OpenAI has no idea how a) complex travel inspiration, planning and booking is, and b) how complex travel and hotel tech infrastructure is.
Rather naive statement.
OpenAI does not take into account:
- The complexity of hospitality stakeholder universe (owners, operators, major hotel brands) * The state of hotel tech stack (600,000 hotels have on-premises tech stacks not even cloud ones),
- Travelers’ loyalty affiliations (Marriott has 260 million loyalty members, Hilton 225M, Booking 200M plus)
- Travelers’l entrenched travel inspiration, planning and booking habits, even inertia.
The Digital Customer Journey in travel and hospitality and its five phases (Dreaming, Planning, Booking, Experiencing, Sharing) is like a meandering river with dozens of digital touch points (Google claims 48 of those). In my view, LLMs will become just one of these touch points, same as what Google currently is after 25 years of trying hard to become a one-stop-travel booking platform (Remember the failed “Book on Google?”)
So, are we going to see “one click hotel bookings” anytime soon?
I don’t think so. I believe, Google’s hospitality strategy is much more doable.
In Google’s own words: “To make agentic AI a reality, Google is working on building out the experience with industry partners such as Booking..com, Expedia, Marriott International, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Choice Hotels International and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.”
What will Google get in return? Affiliate commissions!
The OTAs have a ready-to wear solution for the Agentic AI platforms: affiliate commissions (typically 5%-8%) plus quick access to 750,000 hotels, 2.5 million short-term rentals, 400 plus airlines, 150 car rental companies, etc.
The major hotel chains will use a similar tactic.
Independent hotels? The only option is for CRS, Channel Managers and cloud PMS vendors to plug directly into AI platforms like ChatGPT via MCP or A2A, allowing travelers to search and book rooms. Similar to how these vendors currently handle metasearch, they will charge the hotel a fee, which they can share with the AI platforms.
Max Starkov
Hospitality & Online Travel Tech Consultant & Strategist
Follow Max
