The number of touchpoints between travel intention and booking has grown from roughly 45 in 2018 to an estimated 65 today, according to Skift and McKinsey & Company's seventh annual research collaboration — and more than 50% of travelers change their minds and rebook after the initial booking.

The study, based on 1,000 consumers and traveler diaries, concludes that the booking journey has transformed from a linear path into what McKinsey Partner Margaux Constantin described as an orbit — expanding, contracting, and continuing well past the transaction. Constantin called the 65-touchpoint figure "slightly arbitrary" because it is "very difficult to pinpoint when that journey really starts and when it ends."

The commercial implication is blunt: one in every three steps in the journey takes travelers further away from making a decision. Companies still organizing marketing spend around a linear path to purchase are investing against a model that no longer describes traveler behavior.

The findings came from a Skift Global Forum session moderated by Skift's Seth Borko, featuring Constantin alongside Traci Mercer, Chief Commercial Officer of Priceline, and Heather Balsley, Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer of IHG.

What does the post-booking window mean for revenue?

Constantin said that of the travelers who rebook, about 40% are looking for better prices and 30% are driven by fear of having made the wrong choice. She framed the period between booking and check-in as "a unique opportunity to engage with that traveler that is currently maybe a little bit underappreciated."

Balsley said IHG is introducing lifecycle marketing between booking and stay, including upsell and flexibility products. Sellers that go dark after confirmation effectively hand that window to competitors competing on price and reassurance.

How are Priceline and IHG adapting distribution for AI?

Mercer said travel companies face a shift from search engine optimization to generative engine optimization, and need to "make sure that you're actually there in all of those funnels to be explored." More than 70% of travelers already use AI for research and comparison, making structured, machine-readable content a distribution requirement rather than a nice-to-have.

Balsley said IHG is rolling out a modern hotel content platform this year to ensure properties have "machine-readable, high-quality" content that surfaces across its own channels and through third parties.

On product design, Constantin noted travelers often return to the same website four or five times to continue searching, but there's "no memory of that." Mercer said Priceline's Penny agent keeps "the context of the entirety of the trip and the optionality across the trip" in one place — a structural advantage for platforms that remember what a traveler viewed, compared, and booked.

Will AI booking become a real distribution channel?

The trust gap remains wide. More than 70% of travelers use AI for research, but fewer than 16% are comfortable booking through an AI tool. Balsley said the open question is "which platform AI is running on and which platforms they will trust," adding that when IHG partners with AI platforms, the booking itself still goes through IHG.

Constantin offered a counterintuitive data point: 60% of travelers say AI has made finding options faster, yet the process paradoxically takes longer because more information raises the pressure to choose well. Meanwhile, 80% of travelers enjoy spending time researching — evidence, she suggested, that AI may be adding to decision anxiety rather than reducing it. In that scenario, the value of an AI agent that can actually close a booking increases.

How fast the booking-trust gap closes — and who captures the transaction when it does — will determine whether agentic booking becomes a genuine distribution channel or stays primarily a research tool.