Each week, we've compiled updates from companies selected for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, and this week we wrap up with last year's cohort.
Since being named the Hot 25 Travel Startups for 2026, a few have landed significant funding, including HeyMax, which secured $11 million in Series A funding in January, and BizTrip AI, which raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding in February. BizTrip AI also announced a notable partnership with Sabre to develop and launch a suite of artificial intelligence (AI) corporate travel assistants.
Another of our picks for 2026, corporate travel booking solution SkyLink, was acquired by Amadeus in February for an undisclosed amount. At the time, the global distribution specialist said the addition would extend its corporate travel capabilities, particularly in North America.
For our one-year lookback, we asked the 2026 cohort about their top three highlights from this year and what they're prioritizing in 2027.
Becoming rentABLE
Becoming rentABLE verifies accessibility information at short-term rentals (STRs).
Responses from Jennifer Springer, COO:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Destination partnerships: Partnered with destinations, including Rockaway Beach, Oregon, to assess existing STR accessibility and identify opportunities to expand accessible lodging.
- Industry recognition and influence: Earned recognition from Condé Nast Traveler and PhocusWire while advancing accessibility in the STR industry through collaborations such as Novartis’ SMAshing My Limits initiative that connect accessible travel with real-world traveler needs.
- Growing accessible inventory: Expanded Becoming rentABLE’s platform to more than 1,200 accessible STR rental listings, giving travelers detailed information to make informed decisions before booking.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Scale our verification model: Strengthen the processes, data and technology needed to scale verification through partnerships with destinations, property managers and industry organizations while maintaining quality and consistency.
- Expand accessibility information: Advance our verification approach to include hearing and vision accessibility, building toward more comprehensive information that reflects the diverse needs of travelers with disabilities and older adults.
- Grow destination partnerships: Develop a repeatable model that helps destinations and property managers understand existing accessibility, identify improvement opportunities and share accurate information with travelers—making accessibility a more visible, actionable and valuable part of the travel experience.
BizTrip AI
BizTrip AI offers a personalized agentic AI assistant for corporate travel booking.
Responses from Valerie Layman, head of product strategy, and Katherine Tomera, director of product management:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Introduced trip planning in seconds from one sentence or email. By mobile or voice, travelers name a conference or paste an invitation, and BizTrip AI plans the trip, including group travel. Bookings import into one view; it runs inside Claude and ChatGPT.
- Lowered travel spend without policing travelers. The Dynamic Travel Policy Engine replaces static handbooks with personalized, in-context policy, nudging cost-saving choices by dates and market conditions. Travelers can query policy anytime. Automated savings include hotel price shields and airline credit tracking.
- Earned industry backing from Sabre and Moderna. Sabre invested in and partnered with BizTrip AI in January to co-develop AI corporate travel assistants and later joined the company’s pre-seed round. Moderna partnered with BizTrip to power its TAMI solution.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Expand globally: new points of sale, more content sources and an Android app, so every fare a traveler could find elsewhere shows up inside the managed program, wherever they’re based.
- Capture more savings: Extend the Price Shield feature beyond hotels, streamline expense capture and deliver new capabilities shaped by our Product Advisory Council of 10 leading corporate travel managers.
- Grow the partner ecosystem: Bring BizTrip AI to more TMCs and make it simple for value-added travel suppliers to plug into the BizTrip AI platform.
BuzzAI
BuzzAI lets Asian travelers book and pay for travel across borders.
Responses from Bell Beh, co-founder and CEO:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Strategic investment: Secured strategic funding from Omantel Innovation Labs, an innovation initiative of Omantel, which is majority owned by Oman Investment Authority, accelerating our expansion across Asia and the Middle East.
- AI evolution: Evolved Buzz AI Experience (BAE) from an AI tour guide into an AI travel agent, advancing our vision of autonomous travel commerce.
- Financial infrastructure: Expanded into BAE Finance, integrating cross-border payment orchestration and progressing towards a five-year strategic alliance with a leading global payment network.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Launch autonomous travel commerce: Bring AI-powered travel discovery, booking and payments into one seamless experience, in partnership with a leading global payment network.
- Capture $100 million in transaction volume: Target 2% of the $5 billion Asia-Middle East pilgrimage travel corridor, establishing a scalable foundation for global expansion.
- Achieve eight-figure revenue: Reach our first $10 million-plus annual revenue milestone, scaling BAE Travel and BAE Finance into a global autonomous travel commerce ecosystem.
Cruisebound
Cruisebound is an online travel agency (OTA) specifically for cruises.
Responses from Bethany Bourgault, director of marketing:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Launching Sam’s Club Travel Cruises: We partnered with Sam’s Club to power a cruise booking experience exclusively for members. Members earn Sam’s Cash on every booking, can hold cabins for free and book up to five cabins at once.
- Launching Boundless Labs, our B2B travel brand: We launched and grew partnerships with major companies like Sam's Club, Kayak, PerkSpot and David’s Bridal with more to come. Our technology makes it easy for partners to offer a booking experience without building the infrastructure themselves.
- Recognition for exceptional growth: Boundless Labs ranked No. 64 overall and No. 1 in Travel & Hospitality on the 2026 Inc. 5000—an annual list of the fastest-growing private companies in America.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Scaling our B2B business: We'll grow the cruise business with our existing partners while expanding our partnership enterprise portfolio, helping more travel, retail and loyalty brands offer seamless cruise booking experiences through our white-label technology and APIs.
- Expanding our river cruise booking: We're bringing the same seamless digital shopping and booking experience we've built for ocean cruises to river cruising, making another traditionally complex travel category easier for consumers to discover and book.
- Advancing AI-powered travel commerce: We'll continue integrating AI throughout the traveler journey, from personalized discovery and cabin recommendations to booking and customer support, making travel purchases simpler for consumers and more efficient for our partners.
DirectBooker
DirectBooker connects hotels and independent properties to AI assistants.
Responses from Sanjay Vakil, co-founder and CEO:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Launches: Launched Claude and ChatGPT plugin integrations so that travelers can search for hotels, check live direct prices, see photos and compare options without leaving the AI conversation. Travelers book directly with the hotel, and hotels keep the guest relationship.
- Partnerships: Signed six large hotel chains, plus leading connectivity providers that bring independent hotels on board, giving AI assistants access to the best real-time direct offers from a wide range of branded and independent properties.
- Discovery: Ranked no. 2, behind only Booking.com, in AgentDiscoverability.com's testing of which connectors Claude recommends most frequently for hotel searches, showing that aggregated, supplier-direct data can compete with the largest OTAs in AI search.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Reach: Expand our reach in AI, launching on more AI assistants and agentic platforms, deepening native integrations and improving how often AI recommends the direct channel when travelers ask about hotels. Hotels connect once and show up wherever travelers plan trips.
- Coverage: Grow the breadth and depth of contractual hotel coverage, so we can provide member rates and exclusive offers straight from more branded and independent properties. Travelers see the best direct prices and perks that OTAs can’t offer.
- Agentic flow: Become the bridge for agentic hotel commerce; set the standard for how AI agents use DirectBooker’s aggregated direct prices for discovery, then hand off seamlessly to the hotel's own MCP server or website to complete the booking.
E23
E23 provides real-time analytics on traveler behavior and foot traffic in airports and railway stations.
Responses from Alessandro Lo Piano, founder and CEO:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Revenue up 100% by October: Growth came from airport media, hospitality, travel retail and mobility customers using our API feeds.
- Full multi-airport license with a leading German airport media publisher. After a pilot in July, they licensed three airports in October, with a binding rate card to add more airports as they grow.
- Pilots now convert into 24- and 36-month licenses. Hotel revenue management platforms use our forecasts across 16 airports in eight markets. A travel retail advisory firm plans across a 50-airport network.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Scale pilot-to-license conversion: Bring more airport media operators, hospitality platforms, travel retail firms and mobility brands from pilot to multi-year licenses.
- Be the data layer for travel and airport AI: Make our real-time and predictive feeds the trusted source behind AI agents and assistants used by passengers.
- Grow more than 100% on 2026: This is our target, driven by multi-year licenses and new airport and API customers.
GuestOS
GuestOS provides AI agents that handle guest communications for hospitality operators.
Responses from Jessie Fischer, founder and CEO:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- GuestOS expanded to 30+ hotels nationwide and partnered with one of the country’s largest hospitality management groups. Our AI teammates now assist 10,000+ guests weekly, giving hotel teams more time to focus on the guests in front of them.
- We are seeing measurable operational impact, including 110+ staff hours returned in a month. A hotel group managing 20+ properties also reported inquiry-to-booking conversion increasing from 16% to over 50%. More time for hospitality, with stronger business performance.
- GuestOS won a 2026 Travel Weekly Magellan Silver Award and became a Visit California endorsed partner, marking two important milestones as we bring hotelier-built AI teammates to more of the hospitality industry.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Bring GuestOS to more hotels and portfolios without losing what makes each property special. As hoteliers ourselves, we know technology should adapt to how a hotel operates, not force every property into the same experience.
- Move from conversations to actions: Through deeper hotel system integrations, our AI teammates will increasingly manage reservations, coordinate guest requests and complete operational tasks, giving hotel teams more time to focus on delivering exceptional experiences.
- Build the AI workforce for hospitality: Our vision is a connected team of AI teammates working across voice, messaging, reservations and operations, supporting hotel staff behind the scenes so they can focus on what matters most: their guests.
HeyMax
HeyMax lets consumers earn its proprietary currency, Max Miles, by spending with partner merchants.
Responses from Joe Lu, co-founder and CEO:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Raised an $11 million Series A led by Peak XV Partners and grew revenue 5x year over year. HeyMax is on track to issue 2 billion Max Miles by the end of 2026.
- Launched HeyMax First, the world's first miles-upfront membership. More than 10,000 members have joined since launch, redeeming 20 million Max Miles in the first month ahead of earning them.
- Expanded to Japan and Australia alongside Singapore and Hong Kong, launched our AI-powered Credit Card Miles Maximizer and added partners including Trust Bank, EVA Air and Plaza Premium Group's Smart Traveller.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Ship agentic miles issuing and redemption in Q2 2027, so AI agents can earn and redeem Max Miles on members' behalf across merchants, airlines and hotels.
- Scale across Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia, and expand further in Asia Pacific, bringing Max Miles to more frequent travelers and the merchants who want to reach them.
- Grow the Max Miles network with more airlines, hotels, banks and brands, making it the leading independent travel rewards currency in Asia Pacific.
HostAI
HostAI provides marketing tools to help vacation rental managers grow direct bookings.
Responses from Amirali Mohajer, co-founder and CEO:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- In 2023, we bet AI would make marketplaces optional. This year, agents arrived and we equipped brands so guest agents can check availability, retrieve rates and negotiate directly through Name Your Price on the brand's dedicated MCP server.
- The brands deliver the stay; HostAI agents run the growth function: storefront management, content, search/LLM ads, lifecycle marketing and reporting. Platform booking value doubled year over year (January–September) without increasing headcount.
- Our customers kept growing their direct bookings. Smoky Mountain Vacation Cabins tripled its online-direct booking value year over year (January–September); Capitalia, with over 600 units, grew its value 69%; and Sojourn, with over 500 properties, grew its value more than 50%.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Triple the number of brands on HostAI while covering our operating costs with revenue.
- Improve agent decision-making and shared learning. A useful lesson from one campaign should improve the next, without adding more work for the operator.
- Help operators focus on the cost of winning a guest and the value of keeping that relationship, not just individual bookings. Publish our second STR Direct Booking Readiness report to help operators identify where they need to improve.
Hubsteer (formerly Dazhboards)
Hubsteer, which has rebranded from Dazhboards, is an AI platform that handles customer inquiries for tour operators.
Responses from Dinesh Kaku, founder:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Rebranded from Dazhboards to Hubsteer, an AI operating layer for tour and activity operators. Operators can now deploy purpose-built AI agents across customer support, sales, marketing and operations, with SmartGM providing the business intelligence layer powering them all.
- Launched an agentic chatbot that completes bookings end to end, including rescheduling, cancellations and pickup changes, and writes them back to the booking system. It has generated 726% average ROI for operators, with 65%+ of leads converting that might otherwise have been missed.
- Grew to 70+ operators and expanded our ecosystem, securing preferred partnerships with Bókun and FareHarbor. We also extended our agentic AI capabilities to voice, using the same underlying technology and infrastructure as our chat agent.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Make tour operators agent ready. We’re building a WebMCP layer that lets AI agents and browsers check availability, answer questions and initiate bookings directly on operator websites, positioning Hubsteer as the infrastructure layer for AI-powered tours and activities.
- Expand across the U.S. and U.K. through booking-system and referral partnerships, using our free chatbot as an entry point for operators to experience Hubsteer before adopting our broader suite of AI agents.
- Close our Series A and scale globally, expanding go-to-market across the U.S., U.K. and Europe while accelerating development of our agent roadmap and establishing Hubsteer as the leading AI operating layer for tour and activity operators.
Indicio
Indicio provides decentralized identity technology credential platform for airlines, airports and border agencies.
Responses from Helen Garneau, head of marketing:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Booking: In February, we launched Indicio Proven AI for Digital Travel. Travelers prove who they are to an AI agent with a Digital Travel Credential, and the agent books flights, hotels and cars on data it knows is real.
- Airport workforce: We verified the people behind the trip. Airside Workforce Credentials let airports and airlines confirm a worker's identity, training and clearances at the gate and cut off access the moment a certification lapses.
- Borders: We proved it works across borders. Governments can issue digital passports to the emerging ICAO DTC-2 specification, and in Geneva, Indicio Proven verified an EU digital identity wallet it had never seen with no custom code.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Agents and loyalty: Make verified identity the default for AI agents in travel. When a traveler's agent books, it carries their passport, airline loyalty status and preferences as credentials the airline and hotel can trust, so automation never opens a new fraud lane.
- Gate to front desk: Carry one identity from gate to front desk. The credential that clears a traveler at the airport can check them into a hotel, apply loyalty status across airline and hotel partners and end repeat ID checks at every step.
- Production at scale: Help more customers move from pilots to production. In 2027, airports, airlines and hotels move from trials to live, revenue-generating deployments, for travelers and for the workforce behind them, with every crew member and contractor verified at the gate.
Kaiban
Kaiban provides software for airlines to deploy and manage AI agents.
Responses from Alfonso (Poncho) Ramirez, president:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Went live with our first airline customers: Overbooking management optimization, damaged baggage claims automation, an ATA codes verifier, an AI travel concierge and a commercial intelligence engine for revenue management and marketing, all running in production at real airlines.
- Launched Kaiban’s product factory: AI agents that rapidly build and run finished, airline-specific products at low cost, giving airlines working software instead of another platform to configure, plus full control of the product and roadmap.
- Grew from initial pilots to multiple revenue-generating airline deployments, expanded within accounts to several products per airline and built a pipeline of 10 airlines across the Americas, Europe and Asia now in active commercial discussions.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Expand our AI-native airline product portfolio with finished, vertical solutions for irregular operations, overbooking, baggage, commercial intelligence, maintenance and customer experience, built to work out of the box and run continuously.
- Package and release the Kaiban Brain: Turn the knowledge already accumulated by every connected product and AI agent on our platform into a shared intelligence layer that improves decisions, forecasts and savings across the airline.
- Expand our global engineering and go-to-market teams to continue supporting existing customers and serve future ones.
Kismet
Kismet helps hotels and vacation rentals appear within AI platforms.
Responses from Jason Cincotta, co-founder and CEO:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Kismet helped book more than $3.2 million in stays in October—up more than 15x since our May product release—across vacation rentals and boutique hotels.
- We broadened our capabilities from AEO to fully AI-bookable. Getting found by agents was 2025; in 2026, Kismet became the checkout agents can operate, with payments, login and member rates built in.
- Agents started transacting: Claude, ChatGPT, Meta’s Muse and Instinct all book Kismet stays end to end over MCP, so a property running Kismet can meet a guest wherever their AI is planning.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Give AI agents a reason to book direct: Member rates, packages a guest’s agent can assemble and price in one conversation, perks and benefits and a fully featured agent checkout.
- Make every operator AI-bookable: Partner with the property management and payment systems small hotels and rental managers already use, so switching on agent commerce is a setting, not a rebuild.
- Fit brands of every shape and size: A self-serve SDK and APIs let agencies and in-house development teams build AI-bookable experiences on Kismet, so a boutique hotel and a national brand run on the same rails.
Meili
Meili provides technology that lets airlines and travel brands sell ancillaries through direct partnerships with suppliers.
Responses from Mike McGearty, co-founder and CEO:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Major airline wins and rapid launches: Added 10 partners, bringing our network to 44, with 20 more contracted across the U.S., Middle East and Europe. Alaska Air Group went live in nine business days, proving complex implementations can happen in days.
- Commercial growth and expansion beyond car rental: More than doubled platform bookings in 2026. Completed our hotel product, enabling airlines to sell hotels through their own channels, with a North American airline launch planned.
- AI-powered OTA-in-a-box for airlines: Released AskMeili, our fully AI-driven platform, for testing with two major airlines. It gives airlines the technology to sell complete journeys using their preferred supplier partnerships and loyalty programs, on their own terms.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Take on Expedia and Booking.com: Commercialize AskMeili, giving airlines a fully functional, AI-powered OTA-in-a-box to compete directly with the major OTAs, reclaim customer relationships and use their loyalty programs as a competitive advantage.
- Power sales through emerging channels: Enable airlines and travel brands to sell through AI agents, WhatsApp and emerging conversational channels, using Meili’s technology to connect travelers with their preferred suppliers while retaining control of the customer experience.
- Quadruple the business by the end of 2027: Accelerate growth through new partner launches, new markets and AI-powered integrations. Scale our technology across more travel brands, making it faster and easier to launch new sales channels and supplier connections.
Nowadays
Nowadays automates venue sourcing, negotiation and reporting for meetings and events.
Responses from Anna Sun, co-founder and CEO:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Won first place at GBTA VentureConnect in Chicago and People's Choice at the BTS Europe Innovation Faceoff.
- Earned SOC 2 Type II certification, so enterprise travel and procurement teams can bring us in with confidence.
- Planned events like a 475-person gathering at Universal Studios and a full hotel buyout in Thailand for Fortune 500s.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Bring AI planning to more Fortune 500 travel and events teams, starting with programs that are looking to centralize their small meetings programs.
- Deepen partnerships with TMCs and travel platforms, so meetings and events sit alongside managed travel.
- Keep automating venue sourcing, contracting and payments, so planners spend less time on logistics.
Roamr
Roamr rewards employees for staying with friends or colleagues while traveling for business.
Responses from Stephen Dooley, founder and CEO:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Travelers who use Roamr keep using it. At one customer, every employee who stayed with Roamr booked again within 60 days, a 100% repeat rate.
- Roamr has users across more than 100 countries worldwide, and we have over 100 companies in our customer base.
- Roamr now plugs in with all the tools you'd expect across the world of business travel, from duty of care providers, like International SOS and Healix, through to expense management tools like Ramp and Brex.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- 2027 is all about continued expansion; building on 2026’s customer successes by focusing on growing enterprise and SMB customers in the U.S. and Europe.
- The expansion theme also spreads to our product offering with the 2027 launch of an AI-native spend and behavior analytics platform, as well as further improvements to our core product, Roamr Stays.
- And finally, we have plans to continue to grow our team and explore new markets—watch this space!
VanityPass
VanityPass is a travel rewards program that uses AI to find perks and doesn't require a credit card. The company now has a B2B parent, 1Terminal AI.
Responses from Perez Tigidam, co-founder and CEO:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Rebuilt from the ground up: In late 2025, we paused new sign-ups and subscriptions to rebuild VanityPass from scratch. In 2026, we developed proprietary booking infrastructure, achieved PCI DSS certification and began our ISO 27001 journey.
- Made rewards agentic: We built AI agents with browser, agentic payment and fulfillment capabilities, enabling consumers to request perks in real time beyond static catalogs. Rewards can be dynamically sourced and delivered around individual needs, moving loyalty beyond predefined points and offers.
- Expanded into enterprise: We established 1Terminal AI as our B2B parent business, with VanityPass as our consumer product. Ready-made APIs and white-label solutions enable banks, fintechs and airlines to embed loyalty commerce and agentic rewards into their existing customer experiences.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Relaunch VanityPass: Roll out our rebuilt consumer platform in January 2027, introducing travelers to AI-powered rewards, personalized discovery and agentic commerce.
- Scale enterprise adoption: Bring 1Terminal AI’s APIs and white-label loyalty solutions to more banks, fintechs and airlines, turning early partnerships into live implementations and enabling seamless integration of agent-powered rewards.
- Redefine loyalty infrastructure: Help financial services and travel businesses move beyond legacy, points-based systems toward programmable, AI-first loyalty experiences connecting payments, travel and everyday lifestyle benefits.
Walkway
Walkway provides dynamic pricing software for tour, activity and attraction operators.
Responses from Brent Boone, co-founder and CEO:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Dynamic pricing became Walkway's core product. Operators see an average 16% revenue lift and save 5+ hours per week, and customers are expanding Walkway across more of their product catalogs.
- We integrated with Ventrata, Bókun, Peek, Xola and Prioticket, so operators can turn on automated pricing inside the booking systems they already use.
- More than 35 companies across the U.S., Europe and Canada now use Walkway's dynamic pricing, and none have churned.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Scale automated pricing across many more operators and products and make onboarding faster so customers see value within days.
- Make every pricing decision transparent, giving operators clear proof of impact and simple controls to set their own strategy and guardrails.
- Deepen partnerships across the distribution ecosystem, so dynamic pricing becomes a standard capability for operators of every size, wherever they sell.
Xsite
Xsite helps museums, heritage sites and cultural destinations build self-guided audio, video and AI tours.
Responses from Shachar Grembek, co-founder and CEO:
Top 3 highlights from 2026
- Launched Xsite in public beta: Any museum or heritage site can build its own audio, video and AI guide on a free plan, with no credit card or sales call. Visitors scan a QR code; no app needed.
- Closed our first major U.S. contract with a Smithsonian Affiliate. The same platform a small historical society can use for free now powers a leading American institution's self-guided walking tours.
- Expanded our thought leadership, speaking at conferences and consulting with museums, heritage sites and government bodies across the U.S., Israel and Europe on how sites can tell their stories to every visitor.
Top 3 priorities for 2027
- Scaling growth: Expand marketing in the U.S. and beyond, from museums into historical societies, parks, public art, walking trails and auction houses—anywhere with a story to tell and visitors holding phones.
- Democratizing curation: Cut the time from collection to published guide, with AI that helps small teams research, write, narrate and translate their stories, while curators stay in charge of every word.
- Democratizing access: Lead the market in personalization, accessibility and localization, so every visitor can experience a site in the language and format that works for them, whatever their interests or learning style.