Google AI Mode Will Soon Book Flights and Hotels Directly in Search — Working with Booking.com, Expedia, and Marriott

Google is building the ability to book flights and hotels directly within AI Mode in Search, working with six major travel industry partners: Booking.com, Expedia, Marriott International, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Choice Hotels International, and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. No launch date has been announced, but the direction is clear — Google wants Search to become a place where you do not just find travel options, you book them.

The announcement follows Google's expansion of agentic restaurant booking to eight new countries on April 10, including Australia, the UK, and Canada. Event tickets and beauty appointments are already bookable through AI Mode in the US. Flights and hotels represent the next step, and the highest-value transaction category Google has targeted so far.

How Google describes the experience

According to Google's official blog, published January 7, users will describe what they are looking for in natural language — destination, dates, budget, preferences — and AI Mode will compare schedules, prices, room photos, amenities, and reviews. The conversation continues as users refine their criteria, narrowing options until they are ready to complete a booking with their chosen partner.

Julie Farago, Google's VP of Engineering for Travel and Local, told PhocusWire and TTG Asia that Google is not setting a launch timeline. "We're not going to rush this out the door because we want to make sure that it's a seamless experience and that people have all the control that they need and expect," Farago said. Google's blog also stated that the company is "committed to partnering with travel companies of every size."

Separately, Google is expanding its Flight Deals tool to more than 200 countries and territories, broadening the data layer that AI Mode will draw from when flight booking goes live.

What Marriott has revealed about how booking will work

Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano provided the most specific public description of how AI Mode hotel booking will function. During the company's Q4 2025 earnings call in February, Capuano said Marriott has been "working with Google to design a priority search experience that will help facilitate bookings through Google's AI Mode." He added: "The booking will be processed through AI Mode."

That phrasing matters. "Processed through AI Mode" suggests an in-chat transaction, not a redirect to Marriott's website. If accurate, this is the first confirmation that at least some partners will offer end-to-end booking inside Google Search.

Skift's analysis of the Marriott disclosure raised a pointed question: will integrated partners like Marriott get in-chat checkout while smaller hotels and independent properties receive traditional referral links? The answer could create a two-tier system where the booking experience depends on whether a property has a direct integration with Google — giving large chains a structural advantage in AI-mediated discovery.

What changes for travel comparison platforms

If Google AI Mode handles flight and hotel booking directly, the consumer journey compresses. The traditional path — search Google, click to a comparison site or OTA, compare options, then book — collapses into a single conversation. Describe what you want, let AI Mode compare, book without leaving Google.

The major OTAs appear to have accepted this shift. Booking.com and Expedia are partnering with Google to provide inventory and process transactions through AI Mode rather than competing for the initial search click. Their role shifts from destination site to backend fulfillment layer.

For independent travel platforms, the competitive question changes. Aggregating options and listing prices — the core function of traditional comparison — becomes less valuable when Google's AI agent does that at the speed of conversation with access to the same inventory feeds. The value that remains is editorial judgment: specific, scenario-aware recommendations that help a consumer decide whether the AI's suggestion is right for their particular trip.

Restaurant booking is already live in nine countries. That rollout is the template. Flights and hotels follow the same pattern but at a transaction value 10 to 50 times higher. The stakes for every platform in the travel comparison space scale accordingly.

Mubboo's Take

When Google AI Mode can book a flight and hotel directly in Search, the platform that simply lists options loses its reason to exist. Google will do that faster, with broader inventory and real-time availability that no independent aggregator can match. But structured booking data does not answer the question a family actually asks: "Is this hotel good for my parents who cannot walk long distances?" or "Should I avoid this airline's economy class on a 14-hour route?" That kind of scenario-specific judgment requires editorial knowledge that no booking engine generates from amenity lists and star ratings. At Mubboo, we are building our Travel channel for exactly this shift — content structured for AI agents to cite, authored with the human editorial judgment that helps a consumer decide whether the AI's recommendation fits their actual trip. Google books the room. We help you decide if it is the right room.