In 2026, as AI search reshapes traffic allocation, Glenn Fogel, CEO of global online travel giant Booking Holdings, issued a stern warning: Google's Gemini and OpenAI's ChatGPT are leveraging their technological dominance to push small and medium hotels into a desperate situation.

Fogel pointed out that although traditional search models also involve competitive weighting, users could at least see more options by scrolling through pages. However, today's AI assistants are completely different:

  • Single Recommendation: When travelers ask an AI "Find me a budget hotel in the center of Munich," the AI often provides only 1-3 "optimal solutions" selected by algorithms.

  • Hidden Independent Hotels: Small and medium hotels lacking big data support or dedicated AI optimization teams are being completely removed from search results. Fogel bluntly stated that this "highly filtered" recommendation mechanism deprives small businesses of the opportunity to be discovered in a fair environment.

Interestingly, Fogel, who had previously criticized the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) as "stupid regulation," now stands on the side of regulators.

  • Supporting Audits: He said he strongly supports the EU's antitrust review of AI search results generated by Google's Gemini. He believes it is necessary to ensure that large AI platforms do not prioritize their own booking services or only direct traffic to large conglomerates that pay high "protection fees."

  • Strategic Alliance: Although Booking itself is listed as a "digital gatekeeper," when facing the cross-industry pressure from Google, a "super platform," Booking chose to align with regulators to protect its supplier ecosystem on the platform.

To avoid being completely "disintermediated" by AI platforms, Booking announced an additional $700 million investment in 2026 for self-developed AI marketing tools and the "Connected Travel" program:

 Helping small hotels without technical capabilities to restructure their data so that they can be more easily recognized by various AI agents. Fogel firmly believes that while AI can book rooms, handling complex "human-machine interaction" services such as flight delays and hotel cancellations remains Booking's moat.