Google just brought hotel bookings into AI Mode, turning the search engine's chat space into a conversion funnel. Hotels and OTAs still handle the reservation and servicing. What Google won’t hand over: the chat context that led to it. TikTok Go already puts discovery and booking side by side, but with messier results — AI-generated hotel videos touting fake rooms and features.
The same shift shows up among Skift’s IDEA Award winners. Virgin Australia puts ChatGPT shoppers in its own booking path; Wenrix executes post-booking servicing. Club Med’s IPO filing describes AI handling quotes, recommendations, and booking support. The booking still belongs to travel. But the context that created it may not.
Skift Data + AI Summit Europe
The AI questions your team is stuck on get answered by the people already shipping it: 250 senior travel executives, one day in London, October 6.
Hear how AI actually gets built and run in Europe from the CTOs and AI leads at KAYAK, International Airlines Group, Skyscanner, Amadeus, and Travelport, in a room capped to stay operator-heavy.
Ticket prices increase tonight.
CURACITY + SKIFT
At Skift Data + AI Summit 2026, travel leaders shared how AI is moving from pilots to production, with data, ownership, and trust emerging as the biggest differentiators.
EDITOR’S PICKS
Hilton’s CEO on Why the Fundamentals Still Win in the AI Era
August 21, 2026
As AI models increasingly decide who gets recommended, Chris Nassetta's view is that the inputs still hold. Reliability, culture, and a lifetime relationship with the guest keep earning the recommendation, even as who does the recommending has changed.
SKIFT PODCAST NETWORK
Expedia just laid off eight senior leaders and reorganized its entire product and technology structure around smaller AI-focused squads.
In this clip from Good Morning Hospitality, A Skift Podcast, Michael Goldin and Brandreth Canaley break down what the restructuring actually signals, why Expedia is hiring AI talent in Silicon Valley at the same time it is cutting executives, and what it means when a company with 8,000 people in tech says the old coordination model no longer makes sense.
SKIFT RESEARCH
How are public travel tech companies performing around the world? The Skift Travel 200 pulls the data you need to know to understand the market. Paid subscribers get full access here.
