Ahead of the busy summer travel season, Booking.com announced a new suite of AI-powered tools aimed at improving the customer experience across its car rental offering.
The updates come as road trips continue to remain popular among U.S. travelers, with 40% planning to take one this year, driven largely by flexibility and value. At the same time, rental confusion around pickup requirements, insurance, payment methods and supplier policies continues to create operational and customer service challenges.
Booking.com’s latest AI features are designed to streamline both discovery and post-booking support across its global car rental platform, which now spans more than 45,000 locations worldwide (including 18,000+ in the U.S.) through a network of 200+ supply partners.
New capabilities include:
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Car Rentals with Booking.com app in ChatGPT: Travelers can now search for rental cars conversationally via the Booking.com app in ChatGPT by describing exactly what they’re looking for before being redirected to complete the booking on Booking.com.
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AI Car Rental Helper: A new AI-powered support experience designed to reduce customer confusion and improve pickup readiness by answering common questions related to payment methods, insurance, documentation and pickup procedures. Early testing resulted in fewer support calls, reservation changes and disrupted pickups.
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AI Review Summaries: AI-generated summaries surface recurring traveler feedback themes, helping customers more quickly evaluate suppliers and make informed booking decisions.
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Smart Search: Enhanced filtering functionality allows travelers to narrow options based on specific preferences like transmission type, seating capacity and unlimited mileage.
The rollout reflects the broader industry push toward using AI to improve conversion, reduce servicing needs and simplify increasingly complex travel journeys.
