eviivo, the all-in-one property management system (PMS) for independent hotels and accommodation providers, has become the first PMS partner of DirectBooker, giving thousands of independent hotels a new route to visibility and making them directly bookable on AI platforms, including ChatGPT and Claude.
The integration connects hotels using eviivo to DirectBooker’s AI discovery infrastructure, enabling official hotel information, including direct rates, real-time availability and rich property content, to appear more prominently on ChatGPT and Claude. When travellers are ready to book, they are routed straight to the hotels’ own websites. This enables hotels to retain customer relationships and avoid online travel agency (OTA) commission, which typically ranges from 15–25% per booking.
The partnership comes as AI rapidly reshapes how travellers research, compare and book accommodations. Deloitte’s 2026 Travel Industry Outlook showed that AI usage in travel planning has more than tripled since 2022, with platforms such as ChatGPT and Claude serving as starting points for trip discovery and brand evaluation.
But this shift risks creating a new visibility gap for independent hotels. SimilarWeb’s 2026 GenAI Brand Visibility Index shows that large hotel chains are surfaced much more frequently than independent properties in AI-generated results, reflecting the advantage of widely distributed brand content, structured data and greater online authority. For independent hotels, which often rely on bespoke websites or OTA listings, this creates a growing risk of being absent at the very moment travellers are discovering options.
eviivo and DirectBooker are addressing the visibility gap by feeding live property availability, inventory and direct-only rates from independent hotels into DirectBooker’s AI discovery infrastructure. With thousands of independent hotels connected through eviivo, the partnership represents one of the largest moves to make independent properties visible and bookable in AI search environments.
The integration is delivered via the Model Context Protocol (MCP), giving AI platforms easier access to structured, real-time hotel data, and reducing reliance on third-party listings. Bookings are then routed directly, ensuring the hotel remains the merchant of record.
At the core of this integration is eviivo’s all-in-one PMS, including the option of built-in direct booking websites, which provide the consistent, structured and authoritative content AI needs to recognise and present hotel information accurately. For independent hoteliers, this offers a way to compete more effectively against larger brands and OTAs as travel discovery becomes increasingly AI-led.
Gwénaël Merlin, EVP of Strategic Partnerships at eviivo said: “The shift to AI-led travel discovery is changing the rules of how hotels compete. It’s no longer just about being present across channels, it’s about whether your information is complete, consistent and trusted by the systems shaping travellers’ decisions.
“For independent hotels, this creates both a risk and an opportunity. Those who are not properly represented in AI-driven search will be overlooked, regardless of the quality of their offering. Our focus is on giving independents the infrastructure to compete in this environment so they’re accurately represented and able to convert demand directly. Partnerships like DirectBooker are an important part of that, helping ensure hotels can maintain accurate, high-quality data across channels and capture direct demand more effectively as discovery shifts towards AI-driven environments.”
Sanjay Vakil, CEO and Co-Founder at DirectBooker, said: “AI platforms are only as good as the data they can access, and one of the biggest challenges in travel has been bringing high-quality, direct hotel information into these environments. eviivo stands out because of the depth and structure of its data, as well as its strong base of independent hotels, many of which have historically been underrepresented in digital discovery.
“By working together, we’re able to bring more accurate, direct booking options into AI-driven search, ensuring travellers see a broader and more representative set of properties, while helping independent hotels compete.”