Booking Holdings backs AI travel agent Vayo with $100M
What's the deal? Booking Holdings is investing $100 million to launch VayoDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a new subsidiary building a personal AI travel agent. The parent of Booking.com, KAYAK, and OpenTable opened a waitlist for a private beta, which starts free and by invitation for frequent travellers.
What's the endgame? Vayo aims to remove the "planning tax" — the time and effort of gathering flights, hotels, and activities across platforms. Instead of a chatbot that answers with blocks of text, it organises a whole trip in one place.
How does it work? The software reads bookings from a user's inbox, fills in missing pieces, tracks price changes, and monitors knock-on effects — how a delayed flight hits a hotel check-in or dinner reservation. Vayo says it accesses only travel confirmations, leaving the rest of the inbox private.
Why brand-agnostic? Though owned by Booking Holdings, Vayo is built as an open system that also handles bookings made via rival platforms or directly with airlines and hotels. The company argues travellers rarely book through one channel, so an assistant must work across brands to be useful.
CEO and co-founder Mike Fridgen said the plan is to combine "the scale and supply of Booking Holdings" with a consumer experience built from the ground up around personalisation. Booking Holdings chief executive Glenn Fogel said Vayo should explore how AI can anticipate traveller needs and streamline complex trips.
What's next? In the coming months, Vayo plans to add direct booking, launch a native mobile app, and roll out group-planning features. It eventually wants to support travellers during trips, handling unexpected route changes and on-the-ground decisions.
The signal: One of travel's biggest incumbents is betting that AI agents, not search-and-book platforms, are the next interface for trip planning — and is willing to build an open tool that works beyond its own brands to get there.
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