This insight summarises Brand loyalty retains influence as personal AI agents take on travel booking, published on PhocusWire in November 2026. The article reports on new research from Propellic into how travel companies show up when AI agents book.
The study. Propellic tested 176 scripted booking requests for hotels, flights and tours through two personal AI agents, Meta's Muse and Instinct, using five request types: an open request, a named brand, the cheapest option, book direct and a trip plan. It also surveyed 167 Muse users and 50 Instinct users and held 22 recorded interviews that included a live booking task.
Agents reach checkout. Both agents carried every scripted request to the payment step, with 6% of runs needing a retry. Propellic CEO Brennen Bliss said there were "no captchas or login walls stopping them."
Intermediaries by default. With no accounts connected, Duffel, which provides the flight booking API for both agents, handled 57% of runs. The hotel, airline or tour company got 28%, and intermediaries such as Booking.com or Expedia 14%. For hotels, Instinct routed 13 of 20 bookings through Duffel, while Muse sent 11 of 20 to OTAs and eight directly to hotels. By contrast, Propellic's 2026 AI visibility study found that ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode recommended booking direct 71% of the time.
Wording and loyalty change the outcome. When asked to book direct, every hotel run on both agents went straight to the supplier. When a brand was named, 100% of requests ended on that brand, though not always through its own channel. With loyalty accounts connected, agents referenced points or the linked account in 90% of hotel runs, and six of eight book-direct hotel requests went to a linked Marriott or Hilton hotel, against one of eight without accounts. "Getting travelers to connect their loyalty account is the clearest way we found," Bliss said.
Refundable, four-star defaults. Open hotel requests typically returned refundable properties at $217 a night, with four-star hotels chosen in 75% of runs. Asking for the cheapest option brought the typical price down to $70. Propellic CRO John Matson suggests agents favour refundable options to build trust.
Travellers still cross-check. In the survey, 66% stopped at research or a shortlist, 18% stepped in and booked elsewhere, and 13% completed the booking through the agent. Of those, 83% checked another source first. Only 11% had connected a payment method. Users with a connected account booked through the agent 19% of the time, against 0% without one, though people who planned to book that way may have been more likely to connect.
Scope of this summary. The research covers two agents, a small set of scripted runs and early-adopter survey groups, so treat the percentages as directional.
AIHA practical takeaway. "Today, the agent's main job is building the shortlist," Bliss said. Test whether Muse and Instinct can find your hotel and complete your booking flow, and check where a "book direct" request actually lands. Give loyalty members a clear reason to link their account to their assistant, and present refundable rates clearly. As Matson puts it, brands now have two audiences: the traveller and the traveller's agent.
Related AIHA insights: Loyalty Programs May Be the One Asset Agents Can't Take and Why AI agents aren't booking your rooms yet.