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The law that just fined Google has been running on Booking.com since December 2024

Thursday's decision notes that Google has already sent Brussels its proposals for how the ruling applies to AI Mode, and that the conversation continues. ... On July 16, Brussels ordered Google to open up the phone: rival AI assistants get the same access to Android features and the same voice activation as Gemini by the middle of 2027.

The Hotel Guest Journey No Longer Starts with Google

Someone attending a conference in Chicago may ask an AI assistant for hotels within walking distance of the convention center, verify locations on Google Maps, read reviews about Wi-Fi reliability and ... Travelers move fluidly between AI assistants, social media platforms, Google Maps, review sites, destination content, hotel websites, and booking engines.

Who Controls the Controls?

Ask yourself, honestly, whether your property's PMS vendor, your channel manager, or your AI concierge platform can say the same. Human oversight cannot be a final review after an incident. ... It is worth being precise about what it should mean in a hotel context: not a person who reviews an AI-generated upsell email before it goes out, but a governance layer that constrains what the system

2026 Is Not About Adding AI to Hotels

The real change in 2026 is the move from AI that talks to AI that acts. Agentic AI systems are designed to execute multi-step tasks across systems. They do not just flag an issue. ... If service delivery does not match claims, AI systems learn that mismatch quickly. If reviews trend negatively around a specific issue, recommendations adjust.

Independence Is Mile One, Not the Finish Line

When he went to update his hotel's Google listing (579 guest reviews and a 4.4 rating), the page came back marked permanently closed. He petitioned Google to get his own reviews back. Denied. ... Guests are increasingly finding hotels through AI. And AI does not recommend the way Google's ten blue links did. It assembles an answer from sources it trusts, then cites them.