Demand & AI-driven channels
"What share of our demand is shifting to AI-driven channels, and how fast?"
What does that mean for the balance between direct, OTA and newly emerging AI channels, and for the commission load that comes with it?
AI impact assessment for travel & hospitality
The cards in travel are being reshuffled. Keep your grip on your business.
AI is changing how guests search, choose and book, increasingly through assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity rather than search results and OTA listings. Everyone feels it, but the response is almost always tactical: a GEO agency, a chatbot, an app experiment. The real question sits one level higher: what does this shift do to your channel mix, your margin, your guest relationship and your investment agenda?
Travel knows how this feels. In the last redistribution, much of the sector gradually lost grip on margin and the guest relationship to OTAs like Booking.com and Expedia. Not through one wrong decision, but by seeing too late what was structurally changing. That shift is presenting itself again, with AI as the engine. The difference between keeping and losing grip lies in how early you understand what is already happening in your own numbers.
For accommodation groups, holiday parks, resorts, travel agencies and booking platforms
AI is becoming a distribution layer that reshapes your business model and brand perception.
15-20%
the commission OTAs take per booking, on the channel mix AI is now redrawing.
Discovery is moving off your own channels, and AI now decides how your brand and offer appear. That is a channel, margin and guest question, not a visibility one, and you answer it on your own GA4, booking and OTA data.
The questions that belong on the board table
Guest relationship & data
"Who will own the relationship with our guest?"
If AI assistants take over the moment of choice, where does that leave your brand, your data and your ability to bring guests back?
Priorities
"Where do we invest in the next 24 months, and where deliberately not?"
Which steps are needed now, what can wait, and who owns this transition internally?
What we do
Not a benchmark, not an external trend report, but a strategic assessment on your own data. We analyse GA4, booking data and OTA data to make visible where the dynamics of your business are already tipping: traffic mix, funnel behaviour, distribution shift, lead times, segments and OTA commission pressure. We translate that into scenarios for revenue, margin and the guest relationship, and into a prioritised agenda that lets the board steer instead of react.
Who this is for
CEOs and managing directors
You feel the shift in your numbers but lack a shared, factual basis to steer the board conversation. The assessment gives you one.
CFOs
Commission load is rising and AI investment requests land on your desk without a business case. You want the margin effect quantified before you commit.
Commercial and distribution leadership
Channel mix, direct share and lead times are moving. You need to know which shifts are structural and which are noise, before reallocating budget.
Strategy and technology leadership
You own the AI agenda but the organisation reads it as an IT topic. The assessment reframes it as a distribution and margin question, with the mandate that follows.
Boards and supervisory directors
You want an independent, data-grounded view of the company's AI exposure. Not a vendor pitch, not a trend deck.
Private equity and investors in travel
Your portfolio companies' distribution economics are exposed to AI-driven booking. The assessment maps that exposure per company and turns it into a value-creation agenda for the hold period.
Approach · Eight to ten weeks
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Week 1–3 · Data intake & analysis
GA4, booking and OTA data. Where is your guests' behaviour already tipping?
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Week 4–7 · Sessions with the board
Working through the scenarios: what do the shifts mean for your model and margin?
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Week 8–10 · Decision agenda
Boardroom delivery: priorities, sequence, ownership. An agenda for the next 24 months.
Example deliverables
Illustrative exhibits from a sample assessment. Synthetic data.
Why us
We don't talk about this shift, we work inside it. Through our sister company style + code (stylecode.ai) we build AI product-discovery technology, so we sit in the engine room of how AI systems such as ChatGPT and Gemini understand and recommend offerings. And we advise players in travel and hospitality who are going through this transition right now, on exactly this question.
Strategy firms know your business but not the technology. Tech firms know the technology but not your business. We sit in both.
Frequently asked questions
What is an AI impact assessment for travel & hospitality?
An AI impact assessment is a board-level analysis of what AI-driven search and booking will do to a travel company's channel mix, margin and guest relationship, built on its own data rather than industry benchmarks. We analyse GA4, booking and OTA data, translate the findings into revenue and margin scenarios, and deliver a prioritised investment agenda the board can act on.
How is AI changing how guests search and book travel?
Guests are beginning to ask assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini for recommendations instead of scrolling search results and OTA listings. That moves the moment of choice away from your website and your ads, into channels you don't yet measure or control. The pattern resembles the rise of the OTAs: gradual, then sudden. The margin and guest data follow the channel.
Is GEO (generative engine optimization) enough of a response?
No. GEO is necessary but tactical. Generative engine optimization improves how AI assistants find and cite your offering, and you should do it. But it doesn't answer the structural questions: what share of demand shifts to AI-driven channels, who owns the guest relationship, and where to invest. An assessment sits one level above GEO and tells you how much it matters for your business.
What does the assessment cover, and how long does it take?
Eight to ten weeks, in three phases: data intake and analysis of your GA4, booking and OTA data in weeks one to three; working sessions with the board in weeks four to seven; a decision agenda in the final weeks. It covers traffic mix, funnel behaviour, channel shift, lead times, segments and commission pressure, translated into scenarios for revenue, margin and the guest relationship.
Who is the assessment for?
Organisations across travel: accommodation groups, holiday parks, resorts, travel agencies and booking platforms, specifically their boards and executive teams. It is designed for organisations large enough that a shift in channel mix moves real revenue, and senior enough that the answer has to be an investment agenda, not a marketing experiment. If the question on your table is "what does AI actually do to our business", it is for you.
Who is travel + code?
travel + code is a boutique consultancy for travel and hospitality, specialised in the strategic impact of AI on distribution, margin and the guest relationship. Through our own AI platform for product discovery we work inside the systems that decide how AI recommends offerings, and we bring that engine-room knowledge to the boardroom. Strategy firms know your business; tech firms know the technology. We sit in both.
Will AI assistants replace OTAs like Booking.com?
Not outright, and not on a predictable timeline. In late 2025 OpenAI made around 80,000 hotels bookable inside ChatGPT, and by March 2026 it had already pulled back its instant-checkout push for travel, leaving the transaction to partners such as Booking.com and Expedia. The realistic scenarios range from AI as a new discovery layer on top of the OTAs to assistants gradually taking over the moment of choice. Which scenario matters for your business is exactly what an assessment quantifies on your own data.
How can we see whether AI assistants are already affecting our bookings?
The first signals are already in your GA4 data. Look for referral traffic from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai and gemini.google.com; falling click-through rates on informational search queries; direct traffic that converts unusually fast, because the orientation happened inside an assistant; and shifting lead times between first visit and booking. Individually these are small numbers today. Together they show how quickly the moment of choice is moving, which is precisely what the first weeks of our assessment measure.
What does an AI impact assessment cost?
It is a fixed-scope, board-level project, scoped in a free introductory call based on your size and data landscape. As a reference point: it sits well below a big-firm strategy study and above a marketing audit, and it is priced for the decision it supports, a 24-month investment agenda. After the intro call you receive a fixed proposal, with no obligation.
Is this an AI Act or compliance assessment?
No. The term AI impact assessment is also used for AI-governance and EU AI Act compliance audits; this is not that. Ours is a strategic market and distribution assessment: what AI-driven search and booking does to your channel mix, margin and guest relationship, and where to invest as a result. If you need a compliance or responsible-AI audit, a specialised governance firm is the right partner.
What data do we need to provide, and how is it handled?
Typically three things: read access to GA4, exports from your booking or PMS system, and the reports your OTA partners already provide. Confidentiality is straightforward: we sign an NDA on request, the data is used only for your assessment, and nothing leaves the engagement or is reused elsewhere. Most clients can grant access within a week, which is why the analysis can start in week one.
Where is travel + code based?
travel + code is based in the Netherlands. The consultancy focuses on the strategic impact of AI on distribution, margin and the guest relationship in travel & hospitality. Its sister company style + code (stylecode.ai) builds AI product-discovery technology, which keeps the assessment grounded in how AI systems actually recommend offerings.
travel + code
An introductory conversation is free of obligation.
Bram BruijnsFounding partner
Jelle StienstraFounding partner
travel + code is a boutique consultancy that helps organisations across travel and hospitality, from accommodation groups and holiday parks to travel agencies and booking platforms, understand the impact of AI on their business. Its core product is an AI impact assessment: an analysis of the company's own GA4, booking and OTA data, translated into scenarios and a board-level investment agenda.