Expedia Is Rethinking AI, and Google Is Coming for Hotel Bookings

Expedia makes its second acquisition of 2026 and does a reset on its AI strategy, Google officially names hotel booking as the next frontier for agentic shopping, and private equity has discovered the events industry — and the people inside it aren't sure how to feel about it. On today's Skift Daily Briefing, Sarah Dandashy breaks down why Expedia's CarTrawler deal and AI pivot reveal a company quietly becoming a B2B infrastructure powerhouse, why Google's latest announcements could disrupt the entire hotel discovery and booking funnel overnight, and what a room full of events industry CEOs is making of the private equity money flowing their way. This episode is presented by Lodgify! Articles Referenced: Honorable Mention: @AskAConcierge on IG Expedia To Acquire CarTrawler in Second B2B Deal of 2026 Expedia CEO Ariane Gorin on What Companies Get Wrong About AI Chatbots Google Names Hotels as Next Vertical for Agentic ShoppingPrivate Equity Has Discovered the Events Industry — Now What? Connect with Skift LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skift/ WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAL375LikgIXmNPYQ0L/ Facebook: https://facebook.com/skiftnews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skiftnews/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@skiftnews Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/skiftnews.bsky.social X: https://twitter.com/skift Subscribe to @SkiftNews and never miss an update from the travel industry.