Italian hospitality technology provider Blastness has partnered with DirectBooker, an AI-native company that distributes hotel inventory through conversational AI platforms including ChatGPT and Claude.
A new channel
Through DirectBooker, hotels' real-time availability, rates and offers can appear within AI assistants, guiding travellers from inspiration and research to the hotel's official website, where they complete the booking. The aim is to connect conversational search with directly bookable offers from the earliest stage of trip planning.
The service has no setup or fixed fees. Commission is charged only on bookings generated, and Blastness says it is less than one-third of the average commission charged by online travel agencies. It is already available to Blastness clients at no activation cost.
Why now
Blastness notes that travellers increasingly use AI platforms to discover destinations, compare options and plan stays. Hotels therefore need a structured presence in these environments now, both to reach guests early in their decision-making and to prepare for the growing role AI assistants are expected to play in distribution.
What the companies say
"Artificial intelligence is changing not only how people search for information, but also how they make travel decisions," says Andrea Delfini, Founder and CEO of Blastness. Making current rates and availability accessible through AI assistants creates "a tangible link between the conversation and the hotel's direct booking channel," he adds.
Sanjay Vakil, Cofounder and CEO of DirectBooker, says the partnership brings Blastness clients "the structural advantages OTAs have enjoyed on traditional search for the past two decades." When travellers plan trips with AI, DirectBooker aims to place a hotel's direct rates at the top of the funnel, "where historically only OTAs have been able to compete," with guests sent to the hotel's own site rather than a third party.
Context
The deal extends Blastness's technology ecosystem with a channel tied directly to results, giving hotels a performance-based way to test AI-driven demand capture while keeping bookings direct.
Originally published by Blastness: Blastness Partners With DirectBooker to Put Hotel Rates Inside AI Assistants
