--- title: "OpenAI shut a travel agent it just bought; United will block AI booking agents; Airbnb ships its own in 2027" description: "OpenAI bought the travel agent Odessia and shut it, and United began blocking outside agents from booking its flights; investors sold Airbnb as the disrupted party. Airbnb's reply, due in the first half of 2027, is an agent that would also distribute other companies' hotel rooms." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Applications" published: 2026-11-13T15:16:47.784Z modified: 2026-11-13T15:16:47.784Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/openai-shut-a-travel-agent-it-just-bought-united-will-block-ai-booking-agents-airbnb-ships-its-own-in-2027 language: en keywords: "Airbnb, OpenAI, United Airlines, AI Agents, Travel" --- # OpenAI shut a travel agent it just bought; United will block AI booking agents; Airbnb ships its own in 2027 > OpenAI bought the travel agent Odessia and shut it, and United began blocking outside agents from booking its flights; investors sold Airbnb as the disrupted party. Airbnb's reply, due in the first half of 2027, is an agent that would also distribute other companies' hotel rooms. ## A travel agent was bought, shut and blocked [OpenAI](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/openai) has bought Odessia, an AI travel agent that opened to the public on October 14, shut it down with the deal, and hired its founder, Francis Davidson, whose short-term rental company Sonder collapsed into bankruptcy, to work on travel [1][2]. Odessia had raised $6 million led by the venture firm Sequoia; OpenAI already counts Booking.com, Expedia and KAYAK as customers or partners, and says 1.2 billion people use ChatGPT each week [1][2]. Investors priced the deal as a threat. [Airbnb](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/airbnb) fell 2.84% intraday on November 11, a drop Barron's tied to the acquisition, days after the stock jumped about 12% on November 6 on a raised full-year forecast [3][4]. ## United bars the outside agents The same day, [United Airlines](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/united-airlines-holdings) became the first US airline to say it will block unauthorized third-party AI agents from booking its flights, on its own sites and through travel agencies and aggregators, [citing shared credentials that can expose customer data](https://skift.com/2026/11/11/united-airlines-moves-to-block-personal-ai-agents-from-booking-flights/); chief executive Scott Kirby, speaking at a Chicago event, told the Wall Street Journal, "I don't want to create another middleman" [5]. The bank JPMorgan had barred outside agents from customer accounts a month earlier [6]. ## Airbnb's reply is an agent of its own The selloff priced Airbnb as the disrupted party on the same day its co-founder described the opposite move. [Nathan Blecharczyk](https://theinference.org/markets/people/nathan-blecharczyk), Airbnb's co-founder and chief strategy officer, [told Bloomberg on November 11](https://finance.yahoo.com/video/airbnb-building-own-ai-travel-112447993.html) that Airbnb is "actively working on our own agent" that will "book both on Airbnb and off platform", while calling agent traffic today "very small" [7]. Chief executive [Brian Chesky](https://theinference.org/markets/people/brian-chesky) [first promised the agent in September](https://theinference.org/article/after-muse-took-6-2-off-airbnb-chesky-promised-an-agent-and-the-hotels-he-swore-off) and set its rollout for the first half of 2027 on [the November 5 earnings call](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/airbnb-abnb-q3-2026-earnings-144401115.html); off-platform bookings will run through MCP, the open protocol that lets AI agents transact with outside systems [8]. To run homes and hotels, Airbnb has just hired Pepijn Rijvers, who ran Booking.com's accommodations business, as chief business officer [8]. Airbnb's own agent is its answer to OpenAI's move. ## What pays today is the cost side Demand for agent booking is still thin. Language-model traffic is below 1% of room nights at [Booking Holdings](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/booking-holdings), Booking.com's parent, even though 70% of consumers tell the payments intelligence firm [PYMNTS](https://www.pymnts.com/transportation/travel-payments/2026/united-blocks-ai-agents-as-airbnb-and-openai-build-their-own/) they want agentic AI to plan their travel [6]. What already pays is AI on costs, in a quarter [The Inference covered on November 10](https://theinference.org/article/airbnb-paid-7-1-million-to-ceo-brian-chesky-s-private-ai-lab-and-approved-a-12-billion-buyback): about 40% of customer support issues were resolved with no human agent, up from a third in Q2, and [support cost per booking fell more than 17%](https://www.customerexperiencedive.com/news/airbnb-reduces-customer-support-cost-per-booking-17/874307/) [9][8]. Revenue hit $4.9 billion, up 19% year over year, the fastest growth in more than three years, and Airbnb raised its full-year outlook and added a $12 billion buyback [8]. *Chart: **Airbnb's quarterly revenue reached $4.9 billion in Q3 2026, 30% above its Q3 2024 peak** Column chart of Airbnb's quarterly revenue from Q2 2024 to Q3 2026, rising from $2.7 billion to $4.9 billion with a dip each winter, the highest bar in Q3 2026* *Quarterly revenue, US dollars in billions, by calendar quarter. From Airbnb's SEC filings; the quarters are the company's reported periods. [10]* ## The loser would be the online travel agencies If it works, the money moves: an Airbnb agent reselling other companies' rooms would put Airbnb into the distribution business of Booking.com and [Expedia](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/expedia-group), the online travel agencies whose inventory it would sell, while the outside agents United and [JPMorgan](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/jpmorgan-chase) just locked out lose a booking channel [5][6][8]. *Chart: **Airbnb grew 19% last quarter while Booking's revenue shrank and Expedia grew 12%** Line chart of year-over-year quarterly revenue growth for Airbnb, Booking Holdings and Expedia from Q2 2024 to Q3 2026: Airbnb rises from 10.6% to 18.9%, Expedia from 6% to 11.9%, and Booking falls from 7.3% to -1.3%* *Year-over-year revenue growth, percent, by calendar quarter. Quarterly revenue for Airbnb, Booking Holdings and Expedia Group from their SEC filings. [10][11][12]* The case for Airbnb is the rail underneath a stay: payments, taxes, trust and safety, and a million dollars of property protection on every booking, things "an AI agent is not going to solve", plus the cost cuts already banked [7][9]. The case against is time and demand: no agent until 2027, and under 1% of Booking's room nights come from language models [6][8]. The first half of 2027 settles it [2][8]. Airbnb's agent ships with its MCP connections, and OpenAI's new travel team, holding Odessia's IATA travel-agent accreditation, shows whether ChatGPT books trips itself or keeps handing them to partners [2][8]. ## Takeaway OpenAI bought the travel agent Odessia and shut it, hiring its founder; United will block outside AI agents from booking its flights; and Airbnb's answer, an agent that also books other companies' hotels, does not arrive until the first half of 2027. ## Sources 1. [TechCrunch, "OpenAI acquires Odessia, travel startup created by Sonder founder", 10 November 2026](https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/10/openai-acquires-odessia-travel-startup-created-by-sonder-founder/) 2. [Skift, "OpenAI Acquires Odessia, the AI Travel Agent From Sonder's Co-Founder", 10 November 2026](https://skift.com/2026/11/10/a-year-after-sonders-collapse-francis-davidson-sells-his-ai-travel-startup-to-openai/) 3. [Barron's via Yahoo Finance, "Airbnb and Travel Stocks Fall as OpenAI Acquisition Raises New AI Threat", 11 November 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/m/c4858008-67d3-3265-bf27-e4a80959541c/airbnb-and-travel-stocks-fall.html) 4. [Observer, "Brian Chesky Ties Airbnb Stays to a $500 Million Crisis-Housing Commitment", November 2026](https://observer.com/2026/11/brian-chesky-airbnb-crisis-housing-commitment/) 5. [Skift, "United Airlines Moves to Block Personal AI Agents From Booking Flights", 11 November 2026](https://skift.com/2026/11/11/united-airlines-moves-to-block-personal-ai-agents-from-booking-flights/) 6. [PYMNTS, "United Blocks AI Agents as Airbnb and OpenAI Build Their Own", 12 November 2026](https://www.pymnts.com/transportation/travel-payments/2026/united-blocks-ai-agents-as-airbnb-and-openai-build-their-own/) 7. [Bloomberg interview via Yahoo Finance, "Airbnb Is Building Its Own AI Travel Agent, Co-Founder Says", 11 November 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/video/airbnb-building-own-ai-travel-112447993.html) 8. [Airbnb Q3 2026 earnings call transcript, The Motley Fool via Yahoo Finance, 6 November 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/airbnb-abnb-q3-2026-earnings-144401115.html) 9. [CX Dive, "Airbnb reduces customer support cost per booking 17%", 10 November 2026](https://www.customerexperiencedive.com/news/airbnb-reduces-customer-support-cost-per-booking-17/874307/) 10. [Airbnb, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 13 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001559720) 11. [Expedia Group, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 13 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001324424) 12. [Booking Holdings, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 13 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001075531) --- OpenAI shut a travel agent it just bought; United will block AI booking agents; Airbnb ships its own in 2027 — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/openai-shut-a-travel-agent-it-just-bought-united-will-block-ai-booking-agents-airbnb-ships-its-own-in-2027