Google Tests AI Agent Hotel Booking Feature in US Market

Google has launched a limited test of its AI agent hotel booking feature in the United States. The feature, called Ask Maps, is designed to handle complex queries and return real prices and availability rather than estimates or ranges. This marks the first time Google's agentic booking feature will be used for hotel bookings, following the model already applied to restaurants and event ticketing.

The test is being conducted in partnership with Amadeus, which serves as a technical partner for the hotel sector. Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel confirmed that a portion of his company's traffic already runs through this agentic booking, and that Booking Holdings counts among Google's first partners in this area.

This development comes amidst a decline in organic traffic from Google to third-party sites, with studies showing an erosion of up to 25% in referral traffic within a year. However, the shift in bookings remains a hypothesis that has yet to be confirmed by available figures.