Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo Bring More AI to the Travel Booking Experience

Between Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, it’s the time of year when your luggage stays packed. With millions of Americans planning to travel sometime between now and the end of the year, it’s time to start thinking about how to make the most of your trip. 

Right on time, Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo just rolled out more than 30 new travel features. Expedia Group, which owns all three brands, said the goal is to make trip planning and execution easier with practical AI. 

“Travel is a series of decisions, and travelers want the joy of discovery and planning to last through every stage of the journey,” Shilpa Ranganathan, chief product officer at Expedia Group, said. “That’s why we’re building AI-powered experiences across our brands that help travelers make informed decisions, give them flexibility and value, and personalize every step of their trip. And when travelers need a person, our human agents step in with the full context to make things right.” 

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Here’s what’s new from each travel brand.

Property Expert/Expedia

Expedia says it’s introducing a more personal homepage, flexible travel packages, more straightforward bookings for families, interactive maps of your travel destination for easier planning and expanded airport perks like Clear Plus discounts and free lounge access for flight delays. 

Two new AI-powered products are also rolling out to make trip planning smoother once a trip is already booked. Expedia’s new Activity Planner is an AI-powered conversational shopping assistant that can find and book activities, restaurants and events based on your itinerary. You can also receive tailored recommendations based on your preferences. 

Another is a Property Expert, which lets you ask questions about a business and get AI-generated insights on the property, reviews, reservations and other details.

Hotels.com

The platform is improving its AI Compare experience to help you compare multiple hotels in one place. The comparisons are personalized to your interests and preferences for location, amenities, price and policy details. 

The Hotels.com homepage will also adapt to the type of trip you booked, such as a vacation or work trip, and include suggested links tailored to your booking, like options to extend your stay and access to receipts for easier work-trip expenses.

Vrbo 

The Airbnb rival is launching several new features and services, including a tool to make group bookings easier to manage, an option to reserve now, pay later, and enhanced customer support. 

With Vrbo’s natural language search, you can describe in plain language what kind of rental property you’re looking for. Rather than spending hours researching options one by one, you can simply say you’re looking for a beachfront home in South Florida with a kitchen and outdoor gathering space that’s dog-friendly. The enhanced search feature allows you to narrow down your options without relying on traditional filters. 

Vrbo’s Arrival Experience is getting an upgrade to make your rental details more accessible. Key property information, such as check-in and checkout times, door codes, directions and house rules, will now be aggregated in one place, so you can stay on top of your booking without searching through multiple emails or messages. 

For more holiday travel tips, explore the 12 travel essentials you always need to pack and the worst airlines for flight delays and cancellations. You can also reference this travel checklist for smarter travel.