Trip.com will shut down its automated hotel AI price adjustment tool on March 10, aiming to curb price wars and restore pricing autonomy for hotel partners.
Chinese online travel platform Trip.com Group announced on March 5 that it will remove the “AI Business Assistant” (Price Adjustment Assistant) from its merchant management backend starting March 10, 2026.
This makes Trip.com the first major OTA platform in China to discontinue an automated hotel pricing tool of this kind.
According to the company, the tool was originally introduced to help hotels respond to market trends. However, after receiving feedback from industry participants, Trip.com concluded that automated price-adjustment tools widely used in the hospitality sector are no longer aligned with the industry’s shift toward higher-quality development.
By removing the feature, the platform hopes to reduce irrational price competition among hotels, expand merchants’ autonomy in pricing, and improve profitability and incentives for service quality improvements.
The tool had previously drawn criticism from hotel operators who said it disrupted pricing strategies and business operations. Several hotel partners claimed the system automatically scanned competitors’ prices and forced price reductions on their own listings, a practice some described as “one-sided coercion.”
Merchants also reported that even when they attempted to disable the feature, the system could reactivate it automatically.
Trip.com customer service had previously explained that the tool aimed to prevent customer loss by maintaining competitive pricing. However, it acknowledged that if the system detected lower prices on other platforms, it could automatically adjust prices to maintain parity in accordance with platform agreements.
The decision to shut down the tool comes amid broader developments at the company. When Trip.com released its unaudited fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 financial results, it also announced changes to its board of directors, with Fan Min and Ji Qi stepping down.
At the same time, the company confirmed that an antitrust investigation remains ongoing, adding that it is maintaining communication with regulators on compliance matters. Trip.com said it cannot currently predict the timeline or outcome of the investigation, but emphasized that it will fully cooperate with authorities while continuing normal business operations.
Source: Pandaily.com
