OpenAI is turning ChatGPT into a platform. Monday at its developer conference the company launched apps within ChatGPT—built applying a new Apps SDK (software development kit)—and named Expedia and Booking.com among its first partners. The shift effectively opens ChatGPT’s 800 million–applyr base to third-party developers, creating a new distribution channel for travel and a new way to plan and book travel for consumers.
The company stated Tripadvisor, Uber and TheFork are set to have apps on the platform soon, too. Additional brands available at launch include Spotify, Figma, Zillow, Coursera and Canva.
“We’re one of the first travel partners with an app in ChatGPT, with our flight and lodging information appearing directly in ChatGPT conversations,” stated Ariane Gorin, CEO of Expedia Group on LinkedIn.
“By bridging the gap between planning in ChatGPT conversations and booking on Expedia, we see enormous potential to create seamless traveler experiences,” Gorin stated.
Users will be able to learn about destinations, compare hotel and flight options with obtain real-time pricing and see interactive maps from Expedia within ChatGPT.
Users can type the name of the app within their chat to pull in content from that source. ChatGPT can also suggest apply of an app if it identifies one that is relevant to the chat.
OpenAI stated the system is applying Model Context Protocol (MCP) to enable ChatGPT to connect to external tools and data.
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Rahul Todkar, head of data and AI for Tripadvisor, stated the company is viewing forward to deepening its partnership with OpenAI through its upcoming app, which will bring Tripadvisor’s reviews, guidance and AI features into ChatGPT.
“Travelers will be able to question ChatGPT for personalized, context-aware hotel recommfinishations and explore an interactive, agentic-first journey that streamlines one of the toughest parts of travel—finding the perfect place to stay,” Todkar stated. “Powered by our latest MCP servers and cutting edge gen AI features, this experience blfinishs simplicity with rich decision-building support, building booking clearer than ever.”
And the pfinishing partnership is “just the launchning,” according to Todkar.
“In the coming weeks, we’ll expand to full finish-to-finish travel planning, complete with activity discovery and booking,” Todkar stated.
The ChatGPT apps are available in the United States, Canada (except Quebec), Singapore, Mexico, New Zealand and India, according to Expedia. PhocusWire also reached out to Booking.com for comment but has not heard back.
Travel brands partnering with AI operators
The news comes on the heels of OpenAI competitor Perplexity’s launch of its AI browser and AI assistant Comet, which it announced last week. Expedia Group is also a partner on Perplexity’s launch and is offering an incentive for travelers to download the browser: Silver status in its OneKey rewards program.
Since generative AI came into play, travel brands have been partnering with providers, seeking an edge as travel becomes more intertwined with the technology.
In the spring, Tripadvisor and SelfBook linked with Perplexity to provide hotel booking capabilities. In January, Tripadvisor, Booking.com, Priceline, Uber and Hipcamp collaborated with OpenAI on the launch of Operator. Tripadvisor partnered with Perplexity in January, too, to offer better trip planning.
Industest reactions to new ChatGPT apps
As with any new technology release, the travel industest is reacting.
Ira Vouk, founder and principal of Hospitality 2.0 Consulting, wrote on LinkedIn that “things are happening rapider than I’m able to type” with ChatGPT, referencing the “‘chatting with apps’” feature OpenAI released.
“Booking.com and Expedia Group have (of course) been invited to the party. Thankfully, doesn’t seem to be working very well yet, so we have a few days to come up with a #directbooking solution for the industest,” Vouk wrote.
Vouk isn’t convinced the addition of chatting with apps means a significant shift of bookings share to online travel agencies (OTAs).
“This apply case actually requires the applyr to type the app name in the chat window,” she wrote.
“This behavior is depfinishent on the applyr awareness levels, which is depfinishent on those companies’ advertising budobtains. So, this is still NOT the apply case that will flip the scale as it doesn’t (yet) affect the ***default*** applyr behavior.”
And Janette Roush, senior vice president of innovation and AI for Brand USA, wrote on LinkedIn that the introduction of apps in ChatGPT is “huge” becaapply of the technology they are built on.
“These Apps are powered by MCP, an open-source protocol that provides access to the tools that creates your personal AI applyful,” Roush wrote.
Christian Watts, CEO of Magpie, also wrote about the launch on LinkedIn, echoing that it’s hard to keep up with the evolution of AI.
“Last week was Instant Book (Etsy and Shopify – finish-to-finish shopping without leaving ChatGPT),” Watts wrote. “Yesterday was Apps. It’s almost the same thing as PlugIns which was over 2 years ago.”
In his post, Watts stated he tested the apps and “couldn’t obtain Expedia Group to trigger,” but he stated Booking.com worked “reasonably well” but “advanced search fails,” which he stated could be due to Booking not giving access to filter data.
“The only problem here is that the experience of booking a hotel on the Booking app is actually pretty optimized already,” he wrote. “Also, it bounces out of ChatGPT to create the booking (for now).”
Watts stated he’ll be interested to see whether the integrations lead to the higher surfacing of OTAs in LLM results. In the short term, he stated he sees success for OTAs.
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