Why Booking, Expedia Are AI's Top Travel Partners

Artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape how hotel rooms may soon be searched and booked, as emerging platforms like DirectBooker seek to give AI agents direct, real-time access to hotel rates, availability, and amenities. Online travel agencies, including Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:BKNG), Expedia Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE), and TripAdvisor, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRIP), remain well-positioned to benefit from AI-driven booking, according to BTIG analyst Jake Fuller. Fuller discussed AI’s impact on travel with DirectBooker co-founder and CEO Sanjay Vakil, a former Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) hotel product leader with experience across both platforms and suppliers. Also Read: What the Options Market Tells Us About Booking Holdings Fuller said investors increasingly expect AI agents to book hotels autonomously, “on your behalf,” but added that technical barriers make that vision difficult without intermediaries. Fragmented Supply Favors Incumbents The global hotel market remains highly fragmented, with over 1.1 million hotels worldwide, while the top 15 chains account for approximately 4% of the total supply. Fuller said aggregating long-tail inventory remains the core challenge for AI platforms, a problem Booking and Expedia have spent decades solving. He reiterated Buy ratings on both stocks, noting their scale provides immediate, reliable access to global listings. Vakil argued that lower-cost distribution could attract hotels to newer aggregation platforms, but Fuller said speed and scale still favor incumbents. Monetization Likely Mirrors Search Fuller said AI monetization is likely to resemble paid search auction models, which historically reward platforms with the broadest selection and strongest conversion efficiency. He said that the advantage could carry into AI-driven booking economics. TripAdvisor also benefits from extensive hotel content and brand trust, though transactional scale still favors Booking and Expedia. Valuation Outlook For Booking Holdings, Fuller set a 12-month price forecast of $6,250 using a 2026 price-to-earnings multiple of 25, citing earnings growth comparable to large-cap internet peers. For Expedia, he said the $275 forecast reflects roughly a 17-times multiple on 2026 GAAP EPS, aligned with an expected EPS growth rate of about 25%. Read Next: ‘CarMax Needs Change’ – CEO Says After Falling Sales, Declining Margins Photo by Bangla press via Shutterstock