Optimized Travel Experiences throughAI-driven Recommendations

Our Partner

Established in 1996 in Amsterdam, Booking.com is a leading digital travel company dedicated to simplifying global travel experiences. Serving as one of the largest travel marketplaces worldwide, Booking.com empowers over 28 million properties across 43 languages, enabling them to connect with a global audience and expand their reach.

The Challenge

Korea stands as a leading outbound market in global travel, surpassing 40 million departures in 2022. Yet, challenges in accessing diverse travel information often steer travelers towards popular destinations. Despite the proliferation of online travel agencies (OTAs), individuals find it challenging to research and compare prices effectively. High OTA margins further inflate costs for individual travelers, underscoring the disparity compared to group travel expenses.

Consequently, many Koreans opt for domestic travel destinations. Apart from occasional visits to the United States, Asian countries like China, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, and Hong Kong have consistently topped the list of preferred destinations for years. However, with increasing international travel, there has been a rising demand for more diverse destination options and activity choices. This created an opportunity for OTAs to broaden their business horizons by forging partnerships and affiliations with technology companies like QDesk.

The Solution

QDesk AI leveraged advanced NLP, ML, and AI algorithms to develop a dynamic travel guide, powering the unique travel app, My Bucketlist. The app aggregates over 100 million travel recommendations for 17,000+ cities globally, enhancing travel choices and market diversity.

QDesk enables city exploration recommendations, detailed curation for extensive discovery, and comprehensive travel information and reviews. With a simple click, users can seamlessly navigate to Booking.com for hotel reservations at the lowest available rates. Thanks to QDesk AI's AI-driven automation, Booking.com introduced a 15% cash-back offer, leveraging operational savings to benefit its users.

The Result

QDesk created a unique travel experience for My Bucketlist users powered by AI. The app recorded over 500K downloads in just the first month of its launch and 1M+ downloads today, thanks to unprecedented travel information and discounts it offers. The app is fully automated, which means it continues to bring profits to QDesk AI and Booking.com with very little maintenance required.

My Bucketlist helped to build an early use case of AI QDesk and establish a high profile in the travel industry. The partnership with Booking.com also facilitated additional partnerships with global OTAs such as Hotels Combined to build an AI-powered hotel booking app, Staypia.