Booking.com brings AI Trip Planner powered by ChatGPT

Travel website Booking.com has introduced a new "AI Trip Planner" to help users plan trips and itineraries by leveraging the large language model (LLM) technology of OpenAI's ChatGPT API. In a blog post, the company announced that the pilot AI Trip Planner will be available to US travellers on the company's app on June 28. After testing it with selected travellers, the feature will be available in beta form and follow a broader rollout.

Booking.com explains that travellers could use the AI-powered chatbot, like ChatGPT, to plan travel effectively. The company claims, "Travelers can easily chat with the pilot AI Trip Planner to describe what they're looking for in broad or specific terms, ask questions and refine their search in real-time, with new options surfaced in just a matter of seconds." The AI chatbot will help users to zero destinations based on inputs and keywords, such as romantic beaches in the Caribbean, vacation homes for a family of four with AC and pool, etc.

Booking.com, in their demo, shows that the results provided by the chatbot will include links to properties and costs per night. It depends on how users use the prompts to trigger the right results. The demo suggests that travel-related keywords such as itinerary and non-tourism will be key to getting the best results.

Speaking about the launch, Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking.com, said in the post, "The recent developments with generative AI are accelerating the work we've been doing for years with machine learning to enhance and improve every aspect of the customer experience on our platform, whether it's optimising the right order to display a hotel's photos to surfacing the most relevant reviews. Our new AI Trip Planner is simply the next step in our ongoing journey to explore how we can bring even more value, and hopefully enjoyment, to the entire trip planning process."