Expedia News

With "Wisdom & Obi," the creative team at Expedia have successfully captured the essence of travel.

In an era of blended travel, meaning tacking on a weekend vacation rental to a business trip in a hotel, Expedia's new loyalty program would be flexible enough to accommodate this sort of trip mashup.

The travel industry has long hoped for something to counter-balance the pecking order in Big Tech. It's not assured, but this time around generative AI could make it happen.

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence have the potential to transform sectors across the travel industry. This newsletter will keep you informed every step of the way.

Skift has been following the unfolding relationship between generative AI and the travel industry, but this is only the beginning.

Private Equity restructuring for some short-term rental companies may be welcome — even as it means change of management, possible furloughs and cutting parts of the business. Analysts warn against spelling doom against the entire industry, however, demand still remains strong.

Today’s edition of Skift’s daily podcast looks at Expedia’s AI chatbot, vacation competition for beaches, and Choice Hotels’ emissions reporting choices.

Expedia Group is the biggest player in travel to have publicly released a chatbot tool powered by ChatGPT. This is just the beginning, and if any anyone has the resources to really see what this tech can do in travel, it would be companies like Expedia.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Kayak won't be opening any new hotels near you, but still hopes to make a go of building a hotel tech business. That, too, could be a big challenge.

This is one of the earliest examples of the coming convergence of conversational AI and travel booking, even if it is crude in this new launch from ChatGPT.