If you’re a boutique vacation rental property, you may be watching the giants and feeling like you’re already one step behind. As Booking.com and Expedia Group seize the early advantage in the AI-powered travel booking world, it’s easy to assume the small players have no chance. But I don’t think that’s the whole story. I believe there’s still an angle we can take to avoid completely laying down to whatever Big Tech tells us.
When I read Brad Brewer’s article, “AI’s new gatekeepers: How Booking.com and Expedia are hijacking the future of travel” it lit a fire in me. A renewed sense of what’s possible, and that’s exactly what I hope to express in this piece for the sake of helping you maintain full control over the future of your property.
“Just days into OpenAI’s new app marketplace, Booking.com and Expedia have seized a commanding lead. They’re not just experimenting with artificial intelligence (AI). They’re embedding themselves directly into the core of how travelers search, discover and book stays at your hotels.” “They are about to become the default middlemen of the AI age.” – Brad Brewer, Agentic Hospitality
That shift matters. When big platforms become the gatekeepers of how travelers find and book stays, independent hotels risk being squeezed into the middle — invisible, forced into commissions and losing control of guest data.
In the European Union, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) is meant to prevent that kind of monopoly-gatekeeper behavior. But in the U.S., we don’t yet have equivalent safeguards. So what’s a boutique property to do?
Here’s the good news: you don’t have to wait for regulation (although we desperately need it) you can fight back now. With smart, targeted investments in open-source AI for boutique hotel direct bookings, you can reclaim visibility, control and direct reservations.
Brewer’s warning hit the nail on the head: if Booking.com and Expedia embed themselves into the core of travel search and booking, and because they moved first, “with no safeguards to stop them” — they are positioning themselves as the default middlemen of the AI era.
And the threat goes beyond just visibility. A looming shift coming in 2026 will dramatically change how travelers interact with search. When Google hides blue links in its AI mode, it won’t just be a cosmetic change. As Brewer warns:
“Every time [Google] removes your brand name, your URL, and your content in exchange for its AI summary, it’s erasing who you are. This isn’t innovation—it’s appropriation.” Brad Brewer, Agentic Hospitality
This means your brand identity could vanish behind a generic AI box. When attribution disappears, ownership disappears. If we let this happen, we’re agreeing to let boutique properties to be sold without name, story, or soul — just empty rooms for Big Tech to resell. That’s not hospitality. That’s the loss of identity itself.
In a lively LinkedIn thread, I shared in response:
“The question that keeps me up at night is… what can be done? Because while legislation crawls, big tech moves fast, rewriting the rules as it leaves most to adapt to the new system.”
I believe it’s the question weighing on all of us: where do we actually begin to take the power back? We start by rebuilding on our own terms and by reclaiming the very tools that once made the web open, fair, and accessible.
Today, we have access to hundreds of open-source technologies designed to break down system silos, bring back clarity, and restore visibility to our properties. These tools don’t just talk—they connect. They empower. They give independent properties the infrastructure to thrive in the direct booking era that Skift boldly predicted just one year ago. Here are a few to consider.
One of the most tangible uses of open-source AI for boutique hotel direct bookings are chatbots and virtual agents. Frameworks like Rasa — or lightweight AI chat platforms tailored for hospitality — let you deploy virtual concierges on your website and messaging channels.
Why it works: guests get instant answers (room availability, rate checks, booking links) any hour of the day. That reduces abandonment and keeps potential bookers on your site, not bouncing to OTAs.
Real results: Hotels using the AI-assistant “Velma” from Quicktext reported up to 25% surge in direct bookings. Similarly, a hospitality startup found its chatbot drove nearly 30% more direct bookings by streamlining the online booking process.
But these certainly aren’t the only two available. There are many all ranging from simple plug and play solutions to full property systematic workflows according to department. A few others to research include: Botpress, DeepPavlov, Tok, OpenDialog AI and inHotel. Please note: none of these tools are in paid partnership nor have I tested all applications. These are suggestions for research purposes only. Please conduct your own due diligence process to ensure best fit for your business.
And now, platforms like Agentic Hospitality are making it even easier. As Brad Brewer explains:
“Big Tech does not own the future of AI bookings. Hospitality does. Boutique hotels can now compete by building their own reservationist agents that reflect their tone, branding, and charm. With natural language search powering the next wave of discovery, independent properties can meet travelers where they are and speak in the language guests actually use. Platforms like Agentic Hospitality integrate innovative, free, and paid tools such as InHotel.io, making it turnkey for independents to deploy conversational agents, connect directly with guests, and convert intent into bookings without writing a single line of code.” Brad Brewer, Agentic Hospitality
You don’t need a large marketing budget to create “influencer-grade” content. With generative AI tools (text, image, video) you can craft engaging posts, responses and campaigns and turn social media engagement into real bookings. This is certainly possible without AI as well. But, for those with tiny teams looking to move a bit faster these may help.
A boutique hotel in Nashville used Guestara a ChatGPT-powered content engine for Instagram. Engagement jumped 300% and direct bookings from Instagram rose by 45% in a short period. Proving it’s possible to punch above your weight class on social channels that turn into paid guests.
Niche influencers who featured a boutique property saw lasting booking spikes and when that property embedded a booking engine (via an open API), those bookings came directly, bypassing OTAs.
You may think data-driven AI is only for big chains — but thanks to open-source tools and affordable analytics platforms, boutique properties can now access the same kind of intelligence.
Using AI powered CRM’s like SuiteCRM, Vtiger CRM, EspoCRM or Krayin CRM properties have seen 8% jumps in direct bookings and guest return rate increase up to 50% after implementing an AI-enabled marketing system.
AI pricing tools like HotelDruid, Duetto, QloApps and RMM (R package) led to 6–10% room revenue increases by adjusting pricing dynamically.
As AI becomes the front-end of the internet, you need to make sure your website can be found and read by AI agents. That means rewriting key content and updating your schema markup.
Audit your site. Add structured data using schema.org types like Hotel, Offer, Review. Use AI tools to rewrite your homepage and room pages for clarity and conversational tone. Test your markup using tools like Google Rich Results. This ensures your property doesn’t get lost in a future where AI surfaces only content it can parse. Use the Schema.org validator to check progress as you move through this process.
You don’t need to wait and learn how to build your businesses around the ‘Big Guys’ system. And you certainly don’t need to play by Big Tech’s rules. As covered above, the policy and regulation will come eventually, but no one needs to wait for that to take control of their property, now.
“What’s needed right now is awareness. Hoteliers and innkeepers need to understand that Google Travel and OpenAI are no longer partners in the true sense. They have become intermediaries built to extract value, not share it.” Brad Brewer, Agentic Hospitality
Start building on the open web again. Use open protocols, open AI tools, and create systems under your brand. Teach your guests how to engage directly with you — via your site, your channels, your tone.
The tools are there. The moment is now.
Even today, a search like “top glamping destinations in the Southeast” on ChatGPT often surfaces independent properties — not OTAs — because those brands built deep content and owned their visibility.
You can too.