Photo Credit: Booking Holdings' latest AI startup, Vayo, gets ready for its close-up, entering private beta. Skift via ChatGPT/Logo courtesy of Vayo
Vayo, Booking Holdings' second AI-native startup, launched Wednesday in private beta with a waitlist at vayo.com. It is built to become the place where travelers manage their entire trip, including reservations made outside Booking's own brands.
Booking Holdings plans to invest $100 million in the startup, subject to continued advancement of the product and market conditions. Booking had previously disclosed that it was giving both Vayo and Lola, its other internally funded AI startup unveiled about two weeks earlier, a greenfield mandate to build new businesses beyond its established brands.
Booking isn't choosing one answer to the AI-interface question. It now has AI efforts inside Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, and Kayak plus two standalone startups built without the constraints of those existing products.
Vayo — a play on “vacation for you” — starts by connecting to a traveler's inbox, pulling travel confirmations into a single t