TORONTO — Travel booking technology using OpenAI’s ChatGPT just took another leap forward – but travel advisors, who have been successfully competing against online threats for more than 25 years, are no doubt up to facing down this latest challenge.

Two of the original and biggest online travel booking engines – Expedia and metasearch engine KAYAK – have announced new partnerships with ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot making headlines the world over. ChatGPT has been known to make mistakes, and pulls all of its data from the Internet, for better or worse. ChatGPT has also been called a “data privacy nightmare”. Nevertheless, ChatGPT’s speed and user-friendly interface have plenty of industries – including travel – clamouring the find ways to harness its functionality.

First Expedia Group – owner of Expedia.com, Hotels.com and Vrbo – announced a new plugin in collaboration with OpenAI to “simplify trip planning to ChatGPT users.”

Until now, says Expedia, ChatGPT could identify what to do and where to stay, “but it couldn’t help users book. Now, once a traveller enables the Expedia plugin (think ChatGPT app store) they can bring a trip itinerary in ChatGPT to life – how to get there, where to stay, and what to see and do – all powered by Expedia Group’s 70 petabytes of travel data.”

When users are ready to book, they’ll be sent to Expedia, where they can access their member discounts and rewards.

“AI has transformed Expedia Group from an online travel agency to a technology platform powering travel at every step of the journey for 154M+ travellers and 50K+ partners globally,” says the company. Expedia adds that its “Virtual Agent has powered more than 30M+ virtual conversations, saving 8M+ hours in agent time.”

Expedia Group includes Expedia TAAP, for its travel advisor partners.

Next metasearch engine KAYAK announced its own plugins with ChatGPT, to power “personalized recommendations for travel and dining.”

KAYAK says it’s among ChatGPT’s first travel collaborators to enable flight, hotel and rental car recommendations while KAYAK’s sister brand OpenTable is ChatGPT’s only restaurant tech collaborator at launch

KAYAK provided an example of how its collaboration with ChatGPT works:

•  [User] “What’s the cheapest flight from New York to London this summer?”

Flight results from KAYAK will populate in a matter of seconds

• [User] “I’d love to experience Afternoon Tea while I’m there, where can I get a reservation for 2 people”

Restaurant results from OpenTable will populate in a matter of seconds

For a closer look at ChatGPT and what tech experts are saying about its potential impact on the travel industry, check out this March 10, 2023 Travelweek Daily article by Travelweek’s Deputy Editor, Cindy Sosoroutomo.