People like traveling, but hate planning. Hear how Booking Holdings CEO plans to change that

Most people like traveling. But far fewer enjoy booking it.

A survey of more than 2,400 people who book their own travel arrangments found that 71% say the process is at least somewhat stressful for them, according to a 2024 survey by the consumer data company CivicScience. The percentage is even higher among parents of kids and teens, the survey showed.

Trip planning can involve an arduous slog through booking websites, star ratings, travel reviews and fine print — first to find what to book, then to find the best available price.

Artificial intelligence is set to change this, with ChatGPT already proving that generative AI can provide itineraries and recommendations in a matter of seconds.

But Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel told CNBC Travel he wants to "go beyond" that.

Rather than leaving it to travelers to plan their trips from scratch, Fogel said, he wants Bookings' brands — which include Booking.com, Agoda, Kayak, Priceline and OpenTable — to anticipate their needs.

"I want us to be going to the traveler and saying, "Hi, we think, given everything we know, that you're probably thinking about wanting to go to, let's say, Naples in Italy. And using all the data we have, all we know about our customers, what they may want, trying to start that conversation."

"That's the difference," he said.

In effect, travelers with preferences — say, for connecting rooms, baby cribs or high floors in hotels — wouldn't have to repeatedly ask for those extras, because the AI would have anticipated the request.  

"It's just like it was many, many years ago, when there's a human travel agent that people dealt with, and that travel agent knew everything about you," he said. But "technology can do so much better than the human travel agent ever