Booking Holdings’ Rob Ransom on AI’s role in online travel

The value that online travel agencies (OTAs) provide in a world of artificial intelligence (AI) is being debated across the travel industry.

Brands such as Booking.com and Priceline, which emerged in the nineties to aggregate travel content and enable consumers to search, compare and book for themselves, are assessing their future role.

Booking Holdings’ chief strategy officer Rob Ransom said the group is excited about the opportunity AI brings but stressed OTAs provide significantly more value than just aggregation.

“You need to figure out where you want to go, what your trip looks like, where you’ll stay, how you’ll get there. You also need to know if you’re getting a fair and competitive price, what happens if your plans change, how you get support before and during the trip and how you pay in a secure and trusted way,” he said during an executive interview at The Phocuswright Conference.

Ransom addressed online marketing and said AI could change brand strategy, especially if consumers don’t ask for a specific brand in their initial queries on an AI platform such as ChatGPT. And he is confident Booking Holdings’ brands will figure out any new ad formats that might emerge as those AI platforms develop.

“The platforms and companies like ours have a mutual interest in ad products that work for them, for us and for the customer.”

He also discussed the Booking.com app and said it’s “still the center of our business today,” accounting for more than half of bookings. And he doesn’t see mobile going anywhere.

“A dozen years ago, there was debate about whether to invest in mobile apps and whether this mobile thing was real. That’s a useful analogy for today’s AI debate. I think AI is going to change everything, and mobile is going to be a big part of that.

“One thing I would add about the intersection of mobile and AI is that the frontier model builders are making their models accessible to anyone to anyone who wants to take advantage of them. We’re certainly investing in how do we take advantage of models, how do we transform those models, how do we use our own data, our own expertise to enhance the models and deliver a better solution.”

The interview also touched on gatekeeping and fairness in the market, the increasing importance of tours and activities and where the next unicorn might emerge from.

See below for the full discussion with Mitra Sorrells, SVP of content for PhocusWire and Phocusright.