I don’t see any future for e-commerce that isn’t conversational or agent-driven — and what OpenAI is building might finally push us into what I’ve been calling for years “the Post-Booking-Engine era.”
OpenAI’s new Instant Checkout allows users to buy products directly inside ChatGPT, without ever leaving the conversation. It’s powered by the Agentic Commerce Protocol, an open standard developed with Stripe, Shopify, and Etsy.
If someone says, “Find me a vegan leather bag under €200,” the system pulls up relevant options and, with a single confirmation, completes the purchase, payment, and delivery — all without opening a single new tab. Stripe secures payment tokens, Shopify and Etsy provide inventory access, and ChatGPT orchestrates the entire flow.
Now imagine applying this to hospitality.
A guest could simply say, “Book me a room in Paris with a terrace and late checkout,” and the entire transaction would naturally happen within the chat.
For years, I’ve moved clients from expensive booking engines to cheaper ones, and conversion has never changed. Because the issue has never been the provider. The issue is the architecture of hotel e-commerce itself — and its inherent friction.
A shared, interoperable ARI layer accessible to conversational agents through open protocols like ACS could finally free our industry from one of its most outdated constraints.
What we’re witnessing isn’t the evolution of booking engines — it’s their quiet and unavoidable extinction.
My deepest condolences for your loss…
…or maybe not.
Simone Puorto
