According to Francis Davidson, the founder of Odessia, OpenAI has acquired a travel agency named Odessia. In a post announcing the deal, Davidson stated that he is now working at OpenAI to help this AI laboratory advance the future of travel.

The transaction terms are not disclosed, but this seems to be a acqui-hire deal. The announcement for Davidson mainly discusses how he built a AI travel agency by managing multiple AI agency teams. This one-year-old company raised $6 million in its seed round of financing led by Sequoia and launched its AI travel agency about 5 months ago. Davidson stated that the tool helped early users plan trips worth millions of dollars, but this product has now been discontinued.

When asked about this matter, OpenAI did not announce the acquisition, nor did they confirm it with TechCrunch. However, OpenAI did list companies such as Booking.com, Expedia, and KAYAK as customers or partners.

Travel is one of the main areas where people use personal AI assistants to help with. As early as July 2025, when OpenAI launched ChatGPT agent, travel was also mentioned as one of its potential uses.

There is another reason worth noting for the acquisition of Odessia by OpenAI. Davidson is quite well-known in the tourism industry; he founded a tourism startup company, Sonder, back in 2014 when he was still a college student. Sonder is somewhat similar to Airbnb, but it focuses on renting luxury apartments in major cities around the world. The pandemic dealt a severe blow to this company; Davidson later announced his resignation from CEO in June 2025 and mentioned in a post that the company went public through SPAC during its difficult recovery process, but the amount of financing did not reach the required level.

After the key partnership with Marriott broke down, the company entered bankruptcy proceedings and was eventually liquidated. In 2026, the bankruptcy trustee sold the name, trademarks, and website domain of Sonder to TravelAI, which now operates as a curated guide featuring travel rental properties that Sonder was known for in the past. Before its decline, Davidson managed to turn Sonder into a unicorn company with revenues of $143 million. Although Sonder did not ultimately become a successful story, Davidson is the kind of founder that Silicon Valley often values, one who has experienced setbacks.

Therefore, we still have to wait and see what arrangements will follow for OpenAI now that Davidson has joined the company. OpenAI has not yet responded to requests for comments.