Booking Holdings launched AI travel startup Vayo on 14 October with a planned $100 million investment, Vayo said in its announcement.
Key points
- Vayo says Booking’s intended investment depends on continued product advancement and market conditions.
- Vayo opened a waitlist on 14 October for a free, invite-only private beta.
- The service brings together reservations made through Booking brands, other platforms and travel suppliers, according to Vayo.
- Booking is also backing Lola, a separate AI startup focused on experiences.
Booking’s $100 million plan depends on Vayo’s progress
Vayo says Booking’s intention to invest is conditional on continued advancement of the product and market conditions. Booking owns Vayo, according to the startup’s announcement. Its other businesses include Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, KAYAK and OpenTable.
Vayo is based in Seattle and has about 20 employees working in person, GeekWire reported. Its team had spent about six months building the product by the launch. Chief executive and co-founder Mike Fridgen said operating within Booking gives Vayo access to the group’s travel inventory, infrastructure and capital.
Fridgen previously led Madrona Venture Labs and was chief executive of Decide.com. Allen Chen, Vayo’s chief technology officer and co-founder, previously held the same role at Fanatics Collectibles, PhocusWire reported. The startup is targeting frequent leisure travellers rather than occasional trip planners, Fridgen said.
Vayo’s private beta starts with existing bookings
Vayo opened its waitlist on 14 October. The company says the initial private beta is free and available by invitation. It is aimed at people who take multiple trips a year, with early users helping to shape subsequent versions of the service.
The service draws travel confirmations from a user’s email inbox and assembles them into trips, according to Vayo. The company says it accesses the confirmations needed to manage travel while leaving the rest of the inbox private. It also says the service can bring together bookings made through its parent company’s brands, competing platforms and directly with airlines or hotels.
Vayo says it monitors prices and changes to reservations, including flight disruptions that affect a hotel check-in or a restaurant booking. Fridgen told PhocusWire that the service can automatically capture a price drop and obtain a refund for some flights. For a hotel price drop, it prompts the traveller to act, rather than completing that step for them.
Travellers can search for flights and hotels in Vayo, then move to the supplier to complete a purchase. Restaurant reservations made through the service during the private beta go through Booking-owned OpenTable, Fridgen said. Those different booking paths put the automated features alongside transactions that still require the traveller to leave Vayo.
Vayo joins Booking’s separate Lola venture
Technology companies and startups are developing general-purpose agents that can plan travel and make bookings, potentially bypassing online travel sites, GeekWire reported. Fridgen positioned Vayo’s travel focus against ChatGPT and Meta’s Muse in an interview. Booking is also backing Lola, an AI startup founded by KAYAK co-founders Steve Hafner and Paul English that launched in September.
Access to travel suppliers is part of that competition. AI Affairs previously reported Airbnb’s chief executive saying outside AI agents were unlikely to gain booking access. Vayo says its service works with reservations made outside Booking’s own businesses, while its current flight and hotel searches hand travellers to suppliers for payment.
Booking chief executive Glenn Fogel told PhocusWire that establishing Vayo and Lola as separate businesses gives their teams greater freedom to develop products and test assumptions. Lola concentrates on experiences, including activities close to home, while Vayo concentrates on trips, Fridgen told GeekWire.
