The Great AI Shake-Up
Ready or not, artificial intelligence has entered the chat and it's booking hotel rooms. ChatGPT's travel integrations, Perplexity+Expedia's Comet browser, and AI-powered booking agents are fundamentally changing how travelers choose accommodations. For hoteliers, this isn't a distant future scenario; it's happening right now, and the clock is ticking.
Join Triptease Co-founder Charlie Osmond alongside hospitality disruptor Sanjay Vakil to decode the AI revolution reshaping hotel distribution. We'll cut through the hype to reveal what's actually changing in booking behavior and what forward-thinking hoteliers are doing today to win direct bookings.
What you'll learn
- Decode the AI booking shift
How ChatGPT enables travelers to search and book hotels without leaving the conversation, and what this means for your marketing funnel - Don't be AI-invisible
Why AI agents might skip your hotel entirely, and the data moves that keep you visible and competitive - Build your AI-ready website
Transform your site from static brochure to interactive digital concierge with chatbot capabilities and personalisation tools - Master AI-era distribution
Which technology partners and protocols (like Agentic Commerce) you need to reach AI-powered booking channels - Create irresistible direct offers
Incentive strategies that give travelers and their AI assistants compelling reasons to book direct instead of through OTAs - Invest in the tech stack that matters
You're not in this alone. There's a plethora of tech out there to choose from to help you win. But how do you choose the right ones?
Perfect for: Hotel GMs, revenue and distribution leaders, independent hoteliers, marketing teams, and anyone in hospitality who needs to AI-proof their booking strategy.
The AI booking revolution won't wait. And neither should you.
Featuring:

Charlie Osmond
Chief Growth Officer
Triptease
Passionate about improving online travel, Charlie launched Triptease to help hotels deliver a better digital experience and increase direct bookings.
Charlie built his first business straight after graduating from Oxford with a degree in Engineering. He was named Young Entrepreneur of the Year by Esquire Magazine and one of HSMAI’s ‘Extraordinary Minds’. He won The Sunday Times £5M London Entrepreneur Challenge, is a Companion of CMI and a Fellow of the British American Project.
In his spare time, Charlie is a keen sailor and runner. His marathon exploits have taken him to Kazakhstan, North Korea, and Death Valley. In 2021, he set a World Record at the London Marathon dressed as Planet Earth.

Sanjay Vakil
Co-Founder
DirectBooker
Sanjay Vakil is a seasoned product and engineering leader with a strong track record of driving innovation in travel, hospitality, and digital experiences. He spent the 90's at MIT training as an aerospace engineer culminating in a PhD – he's actually a rocket scientist.
Over the past two decades, he has played a pivotal role in shaping and shipping key products at industry giants like Google, Tripadvisor, and Time Out Group, with a focus on enhancing direct booking capabilities, optimizing digital advertising, and leveraging AI for personalization. During his tenure at Google, Sanjay led teams across Hotels, Flights, Things to Do, and Vacation Packages. For Hotels, he led projects like Free Booking Links, Official Site badging, AI-powered price retrieval, and building Extranet tools to improve supplier visibility and direct revenue.
With expertise spanning AI, metasearch, advertising technology, travel tech, and digital commerce, Sanjay continues to push the boundaries of how businesses engage with customers in an evolving digital world.
Sanjay is the co-founder of DirectBooker, designing for the future of AI-driven distribution since its inception. They are taking their knowledge of planet-scale computing from Google and applying it to understanding how to capitalize on how AI is shifting the hotels ecosystem.