Duff on Hospitality Law

Good Sunday afternoon from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, March 27, 2026, is below. This week’s Update highlights the different approaches currently being taken by the two AI heavyweights, Google and OpenAI, over AI commerce. Enjoy.

• • OpenAI Builds Out Advertising Team with Key Meta Hire. Over the past several weeks, we’ve featured several stories detailing OpenAI’s plans for advertising within the ChatGPT ecosystem. Those plans took a significant step forward this past week with its hiring of Dave Dugan, the former Vice President of Global Clients and Agencies at Meta, to run global ad solutions at OpenAI. According to his recent LinkedIn post, Dave’s first order of business will be turning ChatGPT ads into a commercial reality, while at the same time maintaining the organic nature of ChatGPT’s chats. For OpenAI, this type of hire seems inevitable, particularly if you consider OpenAI’s recently announced re-focus on user discovery (as opposed to commerce), and the desire to generate revenue outside of transactions. For hoteliers, this means that (a) some form of AI advertising will soon become a mainstay for every hotel marketer and (b) intermediaries with their billion-dollar marketing budgets will inevitably become big players in this space, potentially on the backs of hoteliers and their valuable IP (remember paid search?). If you’ve not started thinking about how this new “top of funnel” customer acquisition opportunity will affect your current marketing strategy (or the strategies of your competitors and intermediaries), I encourage you to do so. Now is the time to pay attention.
  • Think Google Search Is a Late 90’s Phenomenon Whose Best Times Are Behind It? Think Again. For some time now, I’ve been of the opinion that Google will be the inevitable winner of the AI arms race. Mario Gavira’s opinion piece published this past week on PhocusWire provides a compelling argument in support of Google’s inevitable dominance.
  • What Matters Most in this New AI World – Discovery or Transacting? We know OpenAI’s answer – at least for now. What about Google? For now, it appears that Google values both as it continues to develop and improve its LLM user experience (discovery) while at the same time improving its commercial back end with recent improvements to its Uniform Commerce Protocol (transacting). How far Google might take its commercial efforts, particularly in travel, is unknown. We’ve already seen how quickly Google backtracked reports that it was poised to become the next major OTA. What about suppliers? Suppliers find themselves in the position of needing to focus on both – either directly or through trusted partner proxies. The very nature of hotel bookings (i.e., legally enforceable contracts between travelers and suppliers) often puts the supplier squarely in the transaction bucket. As for discovery? To the extent direct bookings (and their generally lower booking costs) remain of value, suppliers have no choice. For now, this is the key AI battleground as intermediaries will assuredly do everything they can to cement their supremacy.

Have a great week everyone.

Good Sunday afternoon from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, March 20, 2026, is below. This week’s Update features a wide variety of stories, includes updates from OpenAI, Google and Hopper (sort of). Enjoy.

• • Google Doubles Down on Agentic Commerce. As OpenAI re-thinks (perhaps only temporarily) its approach to AI driven online commerce, Google appears to be heading in the opposite direction, at least with regard to traditional retailing. This past week, Google announced new capabilities for its Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), including cart management (allowing purchases of multiple items from the same retailer), real time catalogue access and loyalty program integration. While travel remains on UCP’s official list of excluded products and services, many expect that to change soon once the platform learns traditional retail.
  • European Law Makers Urge Stricter Enforcement of DMA. Two key European Parliament members have authored a paper encouraging “rigorous enforcement” of the DMA’s provisions against gatekeepers, including Booking.com. The paper is set for a vote by the Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection this next week, and if adopted, the paper will become part of the European Commission’s larger review of the DMA. The DMA has come under increasing attack by members of the Trump administration, which according to some, has caused EU lawmakers to hold back on imposing fines for fear of retaliatory tariffs. According to the paper, European lawmakers “must not compromise the EU’s sovereignty and its autonomy to define and enforce its own rules.” With regard to Booking, the authors allege that some of Booking’s practices, like performance-based programs for hotels, might be equivalent to parity provisions that the DMA expressly prohibits.
  • Hilton Launches New “Select by Hilton” with Yotel Franchise. You might ask why this story is relevant to our weekly Online Travel Update. This “unique” model allows Yotel to maintain independent operational control across its portfolio , while at the same time leveraging Hilton’s sophisticated loyalty and distribution systems (and presumably, preferential distribution terms and conditions). Size matters in the loyalty and distribution worlds and those without size must continue to look for creative solutions and structures to drive direct bookings while lowering the cost (and challenges) of third party bookings. For those with size, structures like the newly announced “Select by Hilton” brand allows Hilton to realize a return on its large loyalty and distribution investments, but at the same time, may create administrative challenges as it assumes some level of responsibility for the new portfolio’s compliance with existing practices and contractual requirements.
  • Capital One Acquires Hopper Technology Behind Capital One Platform. When rumors of this transaction were first announced last November it created considerable confusion among many industry suppliers, particularly those with direct distribution relationships with Hopper. Now that the rumored deal has been officially confirmed and closing is imminent, I’m still not sure anyone really knows what is happening.

Have a great week everyone.

Good Sunday afternoon from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, March 13, is below. Given everything else going on the world (none of which is very helpful to travel), it was a relatively quiet week in online travel. Much was written about Amazon’s preliminary victory over Perplexity early in the week, but little else gained much attention. Enjoy.

• • Hilton Introduces AI Trip Planner While Marriott Plans Launch of Conversational Search. Hilton announced this past week that it was beta testing a new AI enabled trip planner (“Hilton AI Planner”) that would allow users to use conversational tools to search destinations, hotels and amenities across the entire Hilton portfolio. The beta version is currently available to select users of Hilton.com. Hilton expects to gradually expand the rollout as it improves the platform based on early beta interactions. Marriott plans to rollout similar technology to its website and mobile app in pilot form in the next months and then a wider rollout later this year.
  • Amex GBT Share AI Enabled Efficiencies. During Amex GBT’s fourth quarter earnings call this past week, Amex GBT CEO, Paul Abbot, shared details about the TMC’s increasing leverage of AI. Some key takeaways:
    • 83% of the TMC’s total transactions are now digital transactions with that number expected to increase with the increasing reliance on AI
    • Amex GBT expects to launch Egencia AI next month, which will allow users to use natural language queries for both bookings and travel management (all in accordance with applicable travel policies)
    • Egencia’s current average booking time is 3 minutes, with that number expected to go down as fewer bookings require human intervention
  • Amazon Claims Early Round One Victory in Ongoing Agentic Lawsuit Against Perplexity. This past week, a U.S. federal district court issued an order temporarily enjoining Perplexity’s Comet web browser agents from accessing certain password protected sections of Amazon’s systems to complete purchases on behalf of Perplexity users. According to Amazon, Perplexity’s failure to disclose its agents’ activities on behalf of shoppers and subsequent failure to stop the activity when asked by Amazon constituted computer fraud. The court’s order is only temporary, however, while to the two sides continue to argue over the legality of Perplexity’s actions. Perplexity has vowed to appeal the order, the effect of which was suspended specifically to allow Perplexity to file an appeal. For those of you interested in the recent order, we’ve linked to a copy of the court’s order below.

Have a great week everyone.

Good Sunday afternoon (for some of us, a dreaded “spring forward” afternoon) from Seattle . . . Our weekly Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, March 6, 2026, is below. This past week began with news out of the UK of a new CMA investigation into the hotel industry and ended with ChatGPT’s apparent recognition that platform transactions may be harder than first thought. Our stories below provide the details. Enjoy.

• • ChatGPT Scales Back Platform Purchasing – For Now. A report this past week by The Information (which was later confirmed by ChatGPT to Skift) indicated that ChatGPT is scaling back efforts to provide users the opportunity to buy (or book) directly within the platform. Instead, ChatGPT intends to focus its efforts on product search and discovery while deferring to merchants to handle the actual booking process via their ChatGPT apps. Good news for Expedia and Booking.com, which in recent weeks have seen drops in their stock prices over disintermediation concerns. So why the change? Commentators suggest that “AI commerce” is far more difficult than originally anticipated – technology, user habits (and trust) and regulations all present significant hurdles. What does this mean for suppliers? My view of these platforms as natural language meta search sites continues to ring true. Assuming prospective travelers’ use and trust in AI continues to grow, I believe that it remains critical for suppliers to be present and part of travelers’ “search and discovery” on these platforms. Differentiation will become the challenge. In this world, OTAs will lean into the AI platforms and double their efforts to capture (and re-direct) as many travelers as possible early in the sales cycle/funnel via content, discounted pricing and ultimately advertising.
  • State and Federal Legislators Focused on Technology-Based Pricing. For the past several weeks, we have featured stories on state and local efforts regarding technology-based pricing (sometimes referred to as “surveillance pricing”). This past week, the U.S. House Oversight Committee sent letters to the CEOs of five companies, including Expedia and Booking.com, asking whether they used surveillance pricing (in the form of pricing algorithms and personal data) in setting online prices. At the state level, pending legislation in Connecticut, Maryland, Ohio and Tennessee prompted the Travel Technology Association to send letters to legislators in each state warning that the proposed legislation would limit the ability for online retailers to offer consumers discounts, loyalty programs and other promotions.
  • Booking Holdings Claims Partial Victory in Ongoing Hotelier Claims. In a press release last week, Booking Holdings claimed that the Dutch court overseeing competition claims by German hoteliers has agreed with several of its positions, including the fact that German hotels have yet to provide enough evidence that Booking.com’s use of rate parity provisions prior to 2016 violated competition laws. More importantly, according to Booking, the court expressed concerns regarding the narrow market definition applied by German competition authorities and courts, suggesting that they failed to take in account the threat posed to Booking by other available sales channels as required by the European Court of Justice’s ruling in 2024. Expect more on this case and others currently pending against Booking Holdings in the weeks to come.
  • UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) Opens Investigation. Hoteliers Hilton, Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) and Marriott, together with real estate analytics firm, CoStar (owner of STR), are under investigation in the UK. According to the CMA’s statement announcing the investigation, the sharing of competitively sensitive information among competing companies, even via a third party services provide, has the possibility of reducing how strongly the companies will compete. Recall that similar claims were made (unsuccessfully) in the U.S. against hoteliers a year ago. The CMA’s investigation is expected to continue through August.

Have a great week.

Good Sunday afternoon from Seattle . . .  Our weekly Online Travel Update for Friday, February 27, 2026, is below. This week’s Update features a variety of stories, including a few new perspectives on the existential threat posed by AI to the existing online travel behemoths. For reasons I cannot explain, this week’s Update features as many questions (perhaps more) than answers. Enjoy.

• • Major OTAs Set New Record in Annual Marketing Spend. Booking Holdings, Expedia Group, Trip.com Group and Airbnb spent a combined $20 billion in sales and marketing in 2025. Despite OTAs’ efforts to boost direct bookings (through loyalty program expansion and other means), experiments with AI customer acquisition and changing sales and marketing investments, the amount spent on sales and marketing efforts continues to grow. It will be interesting to watch how these numbers change (and the detail behind these numbers) with OTAs’ much publicized AI efforts.
  • AI Not for You? Kayak Has an Answer. Are Kayak’s newest ad campaigns a true representation of “average” travelers’ fear and general distrust of AI or a desperate last gasp at meta site relevancy?
  • Effects of OTA Disintermediation Beyond Lower Stock Prices. This week we include one of the dozens of stories that came across our inbox detailing the financial fallout of travelers’ potential use and reliance on AI platforms. Are reports of the threats posed by AI to OTAs (or now public acknowledgements by the largest OTAs) overblown? If these threats are real, how will these threats affect OTA behavior in the months and years to come? In the face of an existential crises, will OTAs continue to honor “commercial” understandings or will they ultimately be forced to resort to nuclear options – price discounting, keyword (or AI equivalent) purchases, misuse of opaque or package rates, obscuring or blacklisting property listings?
  • Travel Ads Spotted on ChatGPT. Over the past few weeks, we’ve included several stories detailing OpenAI’s planned introduction of ads for its lowest tiers of ChatGPT users. Google too has discussed plans for introducing ads on its AI mode platform. Apparently, some of these ads on OpenAI are now live and of course, one of the first ads, is from Expedia.

Have a great week everyone.