End-to-end booking lands in Rakuten AI
Rakuten Travel has added a booking feature to Rakuten AI, its conversational agent for hotel recommendations, extending a tool that previously focused on discovery. The online travel agency, part of the Rakuten Group, aims to offer a continuous journey from natural-language search through to checkout. The service is available on the Rakuten Travel smartphone website and app. The agent, which launched in September 2025, already drew on web results, reviews, accommodation details and availability data to suggest options, with Rakuten reporting steady growth in users and conversion since launch.
Travellers can chat with the agent about dates, amenities and room type. The tool displays up to 30 comparable options in a list or on a map, then guides the choice of property and stay package before verifying requirements and taking payment. Members logged in with their Rakuten ID see rates with coupons and discounts applied, as well as how many Rakuten Points they will earn, without re-entering personal or card details. The agent also uses booking history to streamline repeat reservations and proposes close alternatives if an option is unavailable.
Keeping travellers in the Rakuten ecosystem
The update reflects a broader shift towards AI agents that can orchestrate complex tasks. Rakuten says the goal is to simplify a fragmented process spanning search, comparison and payment while leveraging its wider ecosystem. Turning a natural-language intent into a completed reservation is also a direct lever for conversion.
The rollout comes as online travel agencies and accommodation platforms try to remove friction at the point of booking. By centralising recommendations, comparison and payment, Rakuten Travel hopes to speed up decisions, lift average order value and strengthen retention via loyalty points. Rakuten AI is also venturing where ChatGPT does not appear to want to go, by completing the reservation within a single interface.
Rakuten says the agent has been officially renamed Rakuten AI, with chat interface and icon updates to follow, and that personalisation will continue to improve based on each member’s search and purchase activity. Launched in 2001, Rakuten Travel claims Japan’s broadest selection of accommodation listings, has 14 offices overseas and offers support in nine languages. It sits within the Rakuten Group, which operates more than 70 businesses and counts some 2 billion members worldwide, and the move is part of a wider AI roadmap.
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