Key takeaways
The progress: better ideas, real data
Tools like ChatGPT and Claude are great at helping people explore ideas, compare options, and gather information quickly. This is key as trip planning has always been messy. Expedia Group’s research finds that travellers spend hours searching across airlines, search engines and review sites.
The market is clearly moving beyond generic chat. OpenAI says Booking.com integrated GPT models with its own data, allowing its models to pull in real availability and pricing from Booking.com’s database. So, in theory, you no longer need to open up another tab to verify prices.
Other players are pushing in related directions. Layla.ai presents itself as an AI travel agent that builds itineraries with live pricing and maps for a more intuitive user experience. That points to a broader shift in travel AI: better interfaces, more connected data, and more end-to-end planning experiences rather than empty promises.
Moving toward better decisions
In our view, the hardest part still is not ideation. It is optimisation. I don’t just want a trip, I want the best trip for me.
Most tools are getting better at helping you explore a destination once you already have one in mind. They are much less good at answering the question that matters most: what actually is my best option? That question is harder because a lot of variables are involved in real travel decisions. It is not just about finding a generic nice hotel in Valencia or a cheap flight to Rome. It is about working out whether Valencia, Rome, or somewhere else on those dates gives you the best overall outcome given your constraints. That is where the gap still shows up in practice.
Does this sound familiar?
- Get ideas from an AI tool.
- Check flights on one site.
- Check hotels on another.
- Check weather somewhere else.
- Look for events or things to do.
- Repeat until something seems good enough.
We are still doing the hard work ourselves. The hardest part of travel isn’t searching; it’s optimisation. A traveller doesn’t just want a list of flights; they want to know:
- Can I save money by going three days earlier?
- Is it worth choosing Madrid over Rome?
- Which destination gives me the most for the budget and time I actually have left?
Our approach with MyEscapePlan
Some tools help you come up with ideas, and some help you optimise. That is the problem MyEscapePlan is built around.
Instead of only helping you generate ideas, we are focused on helping you compare real trip options more intelligently. The goal is to help prevent you having to open five tabs and stitch the answer together yourself, and to bring the important parts of the decision into one place.
We think that is where travel planning needs to go next. In 2026, people should not have to settle. Better travel AI should not just help people search faster. It should help them choose better.
The future of travel planning is not just better answers. It is better decisions.