OTAs Are Betting on Traveler Trust. But the Scramble Is On to Win the Trust of AI Agents

Key Points

• Trust is the OTAs' declared competitive edge in the AI era—Expedia and Booking.com bet travelers will stick with trusted brands for reliable booking, fulfillment, and after-sales service that general-purpose LLMs cannot guarantee.
• Trip.com is pursuing a dual strategy: remaining the go-to consumer app while positioning itself as the 'trusted infrastructure for AI agents' by exposing verified inventory, live pricing, and transaction rails through APIs, MCP, and agent frameworks.
• OTAs risk disintermediation not only by AI assistants and rivals but by their own suppliers, driving a shift from SEO to 'generative engine optimization' and a race to embed into agent workflows before the first-mover window closes.

Summary

As AI agents and large language models take on more of the trip-planning journey, online travel agencies are racing to define their role in a disintermediated future, with trust emerging as the central battleground. Expedia and Booking.com are betting that travelers—wary of AI hallucinations and eager for reliable fulfillment—will keep booking through familiar brands that hold their loyalty data, payment details, and service guarantees. Trip.com Group's Executive Chairman James Liang reframes the challenge, aiming not just to win consumer trust but to become the "trusted infrastructure for AI agents" by packaging verified inventory, real-time pricing, and transaction rails into AI-ready services connected via APIs, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and agent frameworks. Meanwhile, GDSs are repositioning as the essential data layer beneath AI booking, and hotels are experimenting with direct LLM distribution. The strategic prize is becoming the preferred back-end for AI agents—capturing demand whether or not travelers ever open an OTA app—and industry leaders warn the window to establish that first-mover infrastructure advantage is narrow.