Odessia founder Francis Davidson said on Tuesday that OpenAI has bought the AI travel agent. The Information’s briefing says Davidson is joining OpenAI to work on “the future of travel.”
Until now, OpenAI has relied on outside partners for travel. Booking.com and Expedia were early ChatGPT apps when the platform opened in October 2025. Skift’s read is that Odessia adds IATA accreditation, hotel content, and a booking team that those partnerships lack.
Odessia launched on 14 October as a concierge for travel and experiences, free to start by text. It could research hundreds of options in about a minute and repeat that search daily, with watches on upcoming trips, events and celebrations. It also drew preferences from booking confirmations in users’ Gmail accounts.
The booking side set it apart from chatbots that only suggest trips. As an IATA-accredited travel agent, Odessia could book flights, hotels, and experiences itself. Through its private hotel rates, it offered perks such as breakfast for two, a $100 credit, upgrades, and late checkout at 2,000 hotels.
OpenAI hasn’t announced the deal or any travel products. A spokesperson’s comment to TechCrunch put travel in the context of ChatGPT’s reach:
1.2 billion people turn to ChatGPT each week for help with everyday tasks … and even planning a trip. We see a real opportunity to make these experiences even more useful.
OpenAI spokesperson
Expedia fell as much as 5% on Tuesday, and Booking Holdings as much as 3%, in intraday trading. Terms weren’t disclosed. TechCrunch says the deal looks like an acqui-hire, and BetaKit says it’s unclear whether Odessia’s staff will join OpenAI.
Davidson said tens of thousands of early adopters used Odessia over the summer and planned more than $60 million a year of travel through it. The $60 million is planned travel, not revenue. Odessia had raised $6 million in a round led by Sequoia, announced in June.
Davidson founded Sonder as a college student in 2014. The company leased upscale apartments for short stays, went public through a SPAC, then filed for bankruptcy and wound down. He resigned as CEO in June 2025.
Booking Holdings already lets people book inside chat with its AI assistant, Lola. Hotel booking is also reaching ChatGPT, and Radisson’s hotel app is one example. In July 2025, OpenAI first named travel as a possible use of its ChatGPT agent. Odessia is a different kind of buy from the developer tools OpenAI announced plans to buy earlier this year, such as Astral in March. It’s unclear how OpenAI will use Odessia’s technology, or whether it will land in ChatGPT.
The standalone Odessia service has closed. Anyone with an existing booking or travel plan should write to support@odessia.com for changes.
