Duff on Hospitality Law

Good Sunday morning from Seatle . . .  Our Online Travel Update for the week ending Friday, April 4, is below.  This week’s Update features a number of follow up stories on topics covered in recent Updates, including Booking.com’s challenges with fraudulent property listings and the major OTAs embrace of agentic AI.  I’ve also included a few stories on corporate travel, including an update on airline adoption of NDC and details of Steve Singh’s latest investment.  As many of you might recall, I predicted (prematurely) that 2024 was going to be a year of great change in the GDS world.  While we saw some changes (and one outspoken proponent of NDC abruptly change course), I still believe the industry will see dramatic changes in corporate and managed travel distribution in the year(s) ahead.  Enjoy.

• • Airlines’ Adoption of NDC Moving Slowly.  Henry Harteveldt’s group, Atmosphere Research Group, released a report last week detailing the airline industry’s transition away from legacy Edifact technology to IATA’s newer NDC technology.  Of the airlines surveyed, only 27% have begun a wholesale transition to NDC for order processing, servicing and settlement capabilities (so-called “Offer and Order”).  Eighty two percent (82%) of the airlines surveyed expect to make the transition by 2029.  According to Harteveldt, whether the industry attains these goals in partially dependent on the GDSs and whether they commit the resources to make needed technology improvements.  Hoteliers hoping to join the NDS parade may have a few years ahead of them.
    
    
  • UK Consumer Group Which? Calls Out Booking.com.  In its recent report, “What Went Wrong with Booking.com?”,  UK consumer group Which? identified several areas of concern contributing to an increasing number of fraudulent STR property listings.  According to the report, Booking.com’s initial denial of and then slow response to the concerns raised in the report have only compounded the concerns.
    
    
  • Expedia’s Considered Adoption of AI.   In a recent interview with CIOdive.com, Expedia’s SVP of data and AI, Shiyi Pickrell, shared details of the company’s considered approach to AI.  Echoing earlier statements of Expedia CEO, Ariane Gorin, Shiyi described AI as a tool to accelerate its existing strategic objectives – better experiences, growth and operational efficiencies.  Employees at Expedia are given access to an AI “playground,” where employees can experiment with 19 large language model AI platforms (including agentic platforms).  Potential use cases identified through use of the playground are then vetted by the company’s responsible AI council (consisting of representatives from technology, security and legal) to ensure each is vetted appropriately. 
    
    
  • Google Launches Hotel Price Drop Tool.  In case you missed the many stories these past few weeks detailing the recent launch of several new Google trip planning tools (many of which feature AI integrations), Google has launched a new hotel pricing tool (similar to Google’s existing Google Flights product) that alerts users when identified hotels reduce prices.  The new tool was released globally last week. 

I hope you have a great week.