When Will AI Be Ready to Book Your Holiday?
Artificial intelligence is transforming many industries, and the world of travel is no exception. The idea of handing over your holiday planning to an intelligent assistant is becoming ever more realistic. But can AI really plan and book your perfect trip just yet? Here’s where things stand.
AI-Powered Travel Assistants Are Here
Several major travel platforms have already introduced AI-driven assistants to help travellers plan their next escape:
- Expedia has launched Romie, an AI travel buddy designed to provide inspiration and recommendations.
- Trip.com now offers TripGenie, which aims to generate personalised itineraries based on user prompts.
- Booking.com has created the AI Trip Planner, designed to turn vague travel ideas into concrete plans.
The goal is to move beyond simple booking engines to something much more helpful — tools that can understand natural language queries like “Plan a romantic beach holiday with a bit of adventure” and return a complete itinerary, saving users hours of research.
What Can These Tools Do Today?
Current AI travel assistants can already suggest destinations, hotels, flights, and even activities. In testing, some tools could pull together entire multi-stop itineraries in seconds.
However, results can still be hit-and-miss. For example, one tool recently suggested a “romantic” hotel that turned out to be an airport motel — not quite what most couples would have in mind.
Meanwhile, AI services such as those being tested by OpenAI (including a prototype travel agent bot called Operator) show impressive capabilities. These advanced bots can browse the web, compare hotel options, and even understand nuanced requests — like ensuring a hotel has a view of the Eiffel Tower. But these systems aren’t yet fully integrated with booking engines, so the final step — clicking “Book Now” — still requires human intervention.
The Challenges Ahead
There are clear challenges that still need to be overcome before AI can reliably handle your entire travel booking:
- Accuracy: AI must learn to avoid mistakes like recommending sub-par hotels or routing flights with impractical connections.
- Trust: There is a risk of AI-generated offers including errors, outdated pricing, or even nonexistent discounts — an issue that has already led to legal trouble in some cases.
- Personalisation: AI systems need to get much better at understanding your true preferences and budget to tailor recommendations accordingly.
So, When Will It Be Ready?
While AI travel assistants have made great progress, they are not yet ready to fully replace human judgement — particularly for complex, high-value trips. However, they are becoming increasingly useful for inspiration and early-stage planning.
Most experts predict that within the next 12 to 18 months, AI-driven tools will become much more reliable and will likely be able to manage end-to-end bookings for simple trips. For now, though, they are best used as helpful sidekicks rather than full travel agents.
Kevin’s Opinion
I remember more than 20 years ago, when I first started working as a travel agent, people were already telling me that “no one will use travel agents in a few years” — they believed that websites would take over everything. Yet here I am, two decades later, busier than ever.
Why? Because people still love hearing first-hand advice and personal experience when it comes to their holidays — especially for trips where getting the details right really matters. AI can be great for ideas and inspiration, but it can’t yet replace the value of having a trusted person who knows the industry, understands your needs, and is there to support you from start to finish.
For now (and I think for a good while yet), there’s no substitute for personal service when booking something as special as your next holiday.
