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AI agents that can search, compare prices and complete travel bookings are beginning to challenge the economics of online travel agencies, with Booking Holdings and Expedia facing greater long-term risk than Airbnb, Bernstein analysts said. The immediate financial impact remains modest, since much of today's agent-driven travel demand is still routed through online travel agencies, potentially providing bookings without the associated customer acquisition costs. Over the longer term, AI agents create three major risks for traditional OTAs: disintermediation, pressure on commission rates and increased price competition, and that matters especially for Booking, where directing customers towards higher-commission inventory provides an estimated 10% revenue uplift. On price discovery, Booking and Expedia brands offered the cheapest hotel rate only about 15% of the time in U.S. searches examined in 2026, while smaller OTAs supplied the lowest price 77% of the time. Airbnb appears better positioned, with about 70% of its nine million active listings estimated to be exclusive to the platform, about 45% of web traffic arriving directly, and around 90% of guests messaging hosts after making a reservation. The revenue model adopted by AI agents could determine the eventual impact, with user-funded agents seeking unbiased results posing the greatest threat to OTAs, whereas advertising-supported models could preserve more of the existing travel distribution economics.