Three hotel AI booking apps. One hidden war.
Expedia, Booking.com, and Accor all live inside ChatGPT now.
I tested all three with the same hotel search.
Here is what I found.
👉 Expedia built the smoothest conversation. Names, prices, comparisons flowing naturally in the chat.
👉 Booking.com landed somewhere in the middle.
👉 Accor’s conversational experience was the most limited of the three.
If this were a product review, the story ends there.
It is not a product review.
When I clicked « book » on Expedia, the link sent me to Expedia.
When I clicked on Booking.com, it sent me to Booking.com.
➡️ The hotel was nowhere in the transaction.
➡️ No direct rate.
➡️ No brand relationship.
When I clicked on an Accor property, the link sent me to Accor’s own platform.
➡️ Direct channel.
➡️ Direct relationship.
Hotels have spent billions trying to own the guest relationship.
The « book direct » movement reshaped the entire industry.
And now, inside the fastest-growing discovery platform in travel, two of the three integrations quietly route every booking back through intermediaries.
The traveler came to find a hotel.
The smoothest apps were built to capture a booking.
90% of travelers now know AI can help plan or book trips.
63% of those who have tried it use it for most or every trip.
This is not a pilot program.
This is a migration.
And the architecture of these integrations is deciding, right now, who owns the guest when they arrive.
The conversation will improve.
Every integration will get smoother.
The question that matters is not who built the best chatbot experience today.
It is who owns the booking link tomorrow.
(See link to blog post with screenshots of my experience in the comments.)