Duff on Hospitality Law

Good Sunday morning from Seattle . . .  Our first Online Travel Update for 2025 is below. The past two weeks produced a number of interesting stories, including the Department of Justice’s attempt to stop the planned Amex GBT / CWT merger, interesting predictions coming out of Skift’s recent Megatrends events and valuable reminders for anyone looking to make major changes to their loyalty program. Enjoy. 

• • Megatrends Conferences Produce Interesting Headlines and Other Important Considerations. By now, most everyone has probably seen or read some of the predictions coming out of this past week’s Skift Megatrends conferences in New York and London. Thomas Reiner, a partner at Altimeter Capital, believes that online travel platforms face a daunting future (and for metasearch sites, possible outright extinction) with the advent of AI powered search. According to Thomas, the advent of AI powered search tools will allow travelers to bypass traditional travel platforms and go direct to hotels and other travel suppliers.  Kayak CEO, Steve Hafner, raised similar concerns about the future of existing travel sites and apps, though Steve suggested that a “major travel company” like Airbnb or Booking.com could be a big benefactor of AI by becoming one of the first platforms to successfully integrate an AI engine.  While’s Steve’s predictions about the likely effect of AI on traditional travel sites’ futures received most of the headlines, other comments by Steve during his presentation caught our attention. Specifically, Steve’s comment that Kayak was now making its “data” available to Google Gemini (Google’s AI tool) raised a number of questions. Steve’s comment combined with some recent discussions we’ve had with one of the largest online travel agents have caused us to begin re-examining our standard approaches with regard to IP licenses, confidentiality, privacy and data security and sales / marketing guidelines (e.g., SEO and SEM may soon fade away, but what comparable concepts will govern the use of AI tools and influence AI responses).  For those of you wondering, paid advertisements are already a possibility on some AI platforms. This year may prove that AI and its effect and influence on travel was not just a bunch of hype.  Stay tuned.
    
    
  • UK Adopts ETA Requirements. So what, you ask? Unless you are traveling to the UK soon, why should you care about the recent adoption of new entry requirements for the UK?  This past week, we were reminded that passport, visa and other entry requirements can have a huge effect on travelers’ plans.  Nothing like booking that dream resort stay only to be denied access to your flight (or entrance to your destination) because of the failure to produce needed visas or other authorizations. What obligations do travel platforms – or by extension, supplier websites – have to inform users or travelers of these requirements (or changes to these requirements)? It is an interesting question with no clear, absolute answer. Disclaimers appear to work well and are often advised, but supplier websites rarely have the same set of robust booking terms and conditions found with travel platforms. It may be time to reconsider again your standard website terms and conditions or booking terms and conditions (if you have them). 

To those of you effected by this week’s horrible fires in Los Angeles, our thoughts and prayers are with you.  Have a good week and be safe.