Real example of Muse and the OTA risk. $BKNG $META
I wanted to try what happened when I used Muse to book a stay in Florence, Italy.
First it returned 5 options. The links to ALL FIVE were Booking .com listings.
It did not prompt me to price check or go direct. I did prompt it to check if it was cheaper going direct.
From the time I asked it to check to when it answered me 14 minutes had passed- sure I could do other things in the mean time, but if I was really in the mood to search travel, I would have realistically just gone to different sites or did the check myself.
The conclusion was 2 out of the 5 listings were cheaper to go direct, with the other 3 cheaper on Booking .com. Although 1 of those was only cheaper because it was a non-refundable rate-- the refundable rate was the same as on Booking. (The one that was cheaper was because it had a special 15% discount if you stayed longer than 5 nights).
So really more like 1 out of 5 was clearly cheaper going direct, 1 was a wash, and 3 were more expensive going direct.
The interesting thing is people are acting like the ability to price compare and shop rates is new with Muse.
Yes, I get it makes it more automatic, but a lot of travelers check the direct rate before booking. If the price is similar enough, they may still prefer to book on a better known site like Booking because of the support they expect to receive if something is wrong.
But also, who books hotels like this?
No pictures, no maps, no reviews. I have to trust it figured out the best one for me.
It makes sense as a place to start a search (better than Google perhaps), but for me at least this wouldn't satisfy me with enough info before booking.
The long wait time inbetween prompts would have compelled me onto a more traditional OTA to speed things up.
I get the interface and speed can/will improve in future, but it still seems like the path of least resistance to just pull from Booking.
It may keep price checking and some consumers will save money from that, but it isn't built to scrap the entire web everytime a user searches for a hotel.
As Ben Thompson notes, in time they can build out their own web directory, but that still doesn't solve the live hotel inventory link.
I get AI Agents are scary and they will change the world in all sorts of ways that are hard to know ahead of time.
On the other hand, it is very hard for a single business to be great at everything.17.8K views on X
With @Muse being so good and so cheap, it’s getting harder and harder every day to justify the cost of OpenAI & Anthropic models.
Also, the response time on Muse is literally almost Instant. Thanks @natfriedman
I've been burning through tasks, setting up appointments; Muse found an almost 5-star dentist, called, and set the appointment for my girl while keeping all personal information private and secure. I had to finish the call (Hailey, the Muse female AI caller, had to add me at the end of the call to give the doc her insurance info and DOB). All within less than 10 minutes.
Would love it if there was a secure way for Muse to handle this part for doctor's appointments. (DOB, insurance #'s, etc..)
This would've cost me $10-20 with Fable 5.1 or Astra, maybe way more. Did it all with @Muse for free and I haven't even used 15% of my weekly usage.8.8K views on X
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