Booking.com, one of the world’s leading digital travel platforms, has announced its new AI travel planner, which will be launched in beta version for selected travelers from the U.S. in the company’s app on June 28. Built on the foundations of Booking.com’s existing machine learning models that recommend destination and accommodation options to millions of travelers on the platform every day, the AI travel planner is also partially powered by large language model (LLM) technology from ChatGPT to create new conversational experiences when planning trips.
Thus, travelers can ask the AI travel planner general travel-related questions, as well as specific questions for support at any stage of planning, including browsing potential destinations and accommodation options, providing travel ideas based on the needs and requirements of individual travelers, as well as creating travel plans for a specific city, country, or region.
As stated in Booking.com’s press release, travelers can simply converse with the trial AI travel planner and describe what they are looking for in a general and specific way, ask questions, and refine their search in real-time, seeing new options in just a few seconds in the form of a conversation.
The AI planner also offers a visual list of destinations and accommodations, including pricing information, with deep links to more details, and by tapping on any accommodation that interests them, they can complete the booking as the AI travel planner is directly integrated into the accommodation booking system in the Booking.com app.
– Our primary goal at Booking.com has always been to leverage technology to make travel easier. Recent advancements in generative artificial intelligence accelerate the work we have been doing for years with machine learning to enhance and improve every aspect of the user experience on our platform, whether it’s optimizing the right order for displaying property photos to showcasing the most relevant reviews. Our new AI travel planner is simply the next step forward in our current journey of exploring how we can bring even more value, and hopefully enjoyment, to the entire travel planning process – emphasized Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking.com.
Rob Francis, the company’s Chief Technology Officer, added that with generative artificial intelligence, one-on-one conversations with users can begin on their terms, similar to how we discuss travel planning with our partners or friends.
– This is just the beginning, but we have a lot of room to explore how to introduce innovations and further connect the travel experience on Booking.com, all in a safe, ethical, and inclusive way – concluded Francis.
Starting from June 28, over the next few weeks, the beta version of the AI travel planner will be available to an increasing percentage of Genius members of Booking.com in the U.S., meaning that travelers from the U.S. must be logged into their Booking.com account in the app and have their language settings set to English to access this new travel planning tool.
