Kayak Founders Launch AI Travel Startup with Support from Booking Holdings and Expedia

The founders of the travel metasearch pioneer Kayak are developing a new AI-powered travel startup, currently referred to as 'Lola,' aiming to fundamentally change the way consumers book vacations and business trips. By utilizing sophisticated conversational AI, the platform seeks to move beyond traditional, static search engines to provide a proactive, personalized concierge experience. The venture has already secured significant industry backing, partnering with travel heavyweights including Booking Holdings, Expedia, Uber, and SeatGeek. This strategic alliance allows the startup to leverage deep inventory and pricing data to offer users unique 'insider access' and seamless, multi-modal itinerary planning. While the project is still in a pre-launch phase, it represents a major push toward integrating generative AI into the travel booking funnel. Analysts view the move as a critical attempt to evolve travel commerce from simple transaction-based search toward intelligent, automated service, helping established players defend their market position against the growing influence of big-tech search giants.