Google adds hotel booking, flight check-in to Google Assistant

Travelers can now book a hotel room through a conversation with Google Assistant on Android and iOS devices, an update the company's vice president for travel product management, Richard Holden, initially teased at The Phocuswright Conference in November.

For now the system can handle bookings via Choice Hotels, AccorHotels, InterContinental Hotels Group, Priceline, Expedia, Mirai and TravelClick, but Google says more partners will be added.

The bookings are powered by the partners’ existing “Book on Google” integration.

Requests can be specific or general, such as, “Hey Google, I’d like to book the Cambria Hotel in New York on January 12^th,” or, “Find hotels nearby for tonight.” In either case, Assistant will display availability and pricing options from both online travel agency partners and the brand itself, if it is integrated.

Users can then reserve the room using existing Google Pay credentials.

In a blog post, Holden says the feature is “just the first step in our goal of easing the hotel booking process with Assistant.” It’s currently available for consumers based in the United States only.

Google is also launching flight check-in via Google Assistant on Android and iOS, starting with United Airlines’ domestic flights.

Assistant will retrieve and save the boarding pass from Gmail and then remind the traveler when it’s time to check in. By saying, “Hey Google, check in to my flight,” the process will be handled, without the need to input the confirmation number.

After checking in, travelers can view their boarding pass in Google Pay or say, “Hey Google, show me my boarding pass.”