Mondee Adds Mobile App and AI Chatbot for Travel Booking

25.08.2023 - 13:12 / skift.com / Justin Dawes / Orestes Fintiklis / Generative Ai

Exactly one year since it went public, Mondee has released an updated version of its travel booking platform to include a mobile app and a generative AI chatbot. 

This update is the culmination of three years of work and a group of acquisitions that happened during the pandemic, said Orestes Fintiklis, vice chairman for Mondee.

“We are unifying everything under one brand — the Mondee brand,” Fintiklis said. “Mondee before was just the holding company of many brands. Since we went public, it makes a lot of sense for people to associate our brands with the whole, with Mondee.”

Mondee provides travel agents access to a wholesale tech marketplace for booking on behalf of their customers, as well as software products to manage their business.

Mondee was founded in 2011 and acquired seven travel tech companies in the next year, focused solely on selling flights wholesale. Mondee invested nearly $200 million between 2012 and 2015 to create a software platform and then made additional acquisitions when the pandemic hit to expand its offerings. 

Mondee during the pandemic opened the use of its product beyond just traditional travel agents to include users such as freelancers and social media influencers. Businesses can also subscribe to Mondee as a service, giving employees access to discounted travel as a benefit. 

Agents can book on behalf of customers, or customers can book themselves with an access link. Consumers have access to wholesale prices even when they book on their own, and the agent who provided the link gets a commission. 

Fintiklis believes the convenience of the mobile app will lead to more people turning to travel agents to book simple trips, when normally they might book through a consumer platform like Expedia. 

In addition to wholesale flights, hotels, and car rentals, the updated platform includes cruises. And there are more products coming, like tickets for sporting events, theme parks, and concerts. 

The updated app can be used in 20 languages and enables purchases in 20 currencies. The previous version had two languages and one currency. 

The updated version also includes a shopping cart so that users can save different aspects of a trip and then purchase them all together. Individuals from a group planning a trip can view the cart and book everything simultaneously, rather than having to book individually. 

The integration of generative AI into the platform has led to one of the most impressive final products in this early stage of the tech, certainly more useful than anything released so far by the large online travel agencies. 

Users can ask the chatbot, called Abhi, to suggest a trip in a certain place. Before responding, the chatbot asks for details, such as origin city, length of