Skift Take

Tripadvisor's generative AI entry is playing to its strengths — tours and activities, and restaurant reservations. Hotels? Maybe they'll get added later.

Series: Dennis' Online Travel Briefing

Dennis' Online Travel Briefing

Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, Executive Editor and online travel rockstar Dennis Schaal will bring readers exclusive reporting and insight into the business of online travel and digital booking, and how this sector has an impact across the travel industry.

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Following, Booking.com, Kayak, OpenTable, Expedia and others, Tripadvisor has debuted a beta of an OpenAI-based trip-planning feature with the focus on experiences and dining reservations.

That makes sense because the trip-planner leverages booking links from Tripadvisor's Viator brand for experiences and attractions, and TheFork for dining reservations. Hotels aren't part of the mix at this point. Unlike for experiences and restaurants reservations, Tripadvisor as a rule serves as an advertising platform for hotels, and usually doesn't act as the merchant of record.

Using generative AI and mining Tripadvisor's roster of more than 1 billion user reviews and opinions, the feature is available in the U.S. only at this juncture and on desktop and the mobile web, according to Wednesday's announcement.

The rollout i