Google's AI Mode books hotels through 10 chains and OTAs

Google's AI Mode has booked hotels in the US since August 27, and only ten companies take those reservations: Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, Priceline, Trip.com, Choice, Hilton, IHG, Marriott and Wyndham. No independent hotel is on the list, and Google has not said when or how one could join.

The shift matters more than any change AI assistants have produced so far. Booking Holdings told investors on August 4 that assistants such as ChatGPT bring in well under 1% of its room nights. Hilton told investors in April that more than 80% of its business is already direct, and chief executive Chris Nassetta described AI as a way to build more direct lines to Hilton's guests.

What does AI Mode actually do?

AI Mode is the AI tab in Google Search. A traveler writes a request in a sentence or a paragraph, and Google answers with hotels, guest reviews and comparison details. In the US, in English, the guest taps "Continue on Google," picks a room type, reads the cancellation policy and pays with Google Pay.

Whoever sells the room stays the merchant of record and handles the guest's calls afterwards. Google told PhocusWire that hotels in the list rank the way ordinary search results do, by what the traveler asked for, and that partners cannot pay to move up. It has not ruled out ads later. It has published no booking numbers.

AI Mode also displays stay costs in loyalty points, worldwide, for members of Choice Privileges, Hilton Honors and Wyndham Rewards. The guest redeems through a link to the chain's own site. Accor and Hyatt are announced next.

Google's agent in the Gemini app, launched as Spark in July, goes further. Paying subscribers in the US can hand it a task, and it can work through websites in Chrome, using saved logins, up to the point of payment. It is not available in the EU, the UK or Switzerland.

What changed on September 30?

The one change with a firm date also came from Google. Until this autumn, a hotel could run hotel ads without sending Google its own rates, because Google sourced prices from other sites. That feature ended on September 30. Google's help page says campaigns that relied on it stopped serving across all hotel ad placements, including the booking module on the hotel card. To return, a hotel needs a direct price feed through its own Hotel Center account or a connectivity partner, and must rebuild its campaigns.

The rule applies worldwide. A hotel in Ohio without a feed sits in the same position as a hotel in Zurich.

Nine days after the deadline, the original report opened the Google Maps cards of 17 independent hotels in five European cities. On six, the hotel's own price had gone. Booking.com, trivago, Agoda and smaller resellers filled the space under its name. The hotel's website still appeared, as a plain link without a price.

Can the cheapest price next to your name be a private one?

Google prints the lowest price any partner offers next to the hotel's name, and that price can be customized. Google's rules let booking sites show some travelers a lower rate depending on device, sign-in status or membership of the booking site's own customer lists.

On October 13, checks of eight independent hotels' cards in Munich, Vienna, Zurich and Lisbon found that on six, the cheapest price carried the asterisk Google uses in the EU to mark a customized rate. Where the hotel's own rate also showed, the customized price was lower every time. At one Munich hotel: €175 against the hotel's own €248.

Outside the EU the rule is the same, but the marker is not. Cards opened from Switzerland the week before showed no price carrying an asterisk. A guest searching the same dates on a laptop may see a different number from her colleague, and nothing on the screen outside the EU says so.

What are the limits of the data?

Booking Holdings' AI figure covers its own brands and comes from a company with a stake in how small AI looks. Hilton's direct share is Hilton's own number. AI Mode's ranking claims come from Google's statements, not independent testing. The card checks were one morning each, in one desktop browser, logged out, from Europe. A missing hotel price can also mean the hotel had no room for the dates Google picked, or that Google rejected its feed for accuracy.

The working example cuts through the caveats. Hotel Rössli in Zurich still showed its own price after the deadline. On the morning checked, its own CHF 171 was the lowest price on its card.

The takeaway is plain. Keeping the guest's click on the hotel's own website now depends on a price feed into Google and a direct rate that holds next to the lowest price any reseller is allowed to show. Accor and Hyatt join AI Mode's points display next, and Google has left the door open to ads in AI Mode — with no booking numbers published yet.