When people ask an assistant to book a flight or a room, the assistant picks a seller. If your business sells through a middleman today, you can win some of those orders directly, but only if an agent can work with you. Use this checklist.
1. Show the full price in one place
An agent compares the final total. List base price, taxes, fees and currency together. If members pay less, show that rate with the condition.
2. Make your offer readable by software
Publish current price, stock and delivery or check-in terms in a structured form, such as a feed or an API. A page built only for human eyes forces the agent to guess.
3. Put change and refund terms in the offer
Better terms are a main reason to buy direct. If an agent cannot read them, it cannot count them. State the deadline for a free change, the refund method and who to contact.
4. Let customers bring their loyalty status
Offer a way for a customer to authorize an agent to use their member account within limits, and to revoke it. Without that, the agent buys as a guest and your best price goes unused.
5. Keep a hold step before payment
Let an agent hold an order, show it to the customer and confirm later. Make confirm safe to retry so a timeout cannot cause a double charge.
6. Name when a person must step in
For disputes and special cases, return a clear status and a contact route. A clear handoff beats a generic error.
What the market looks like now
Do not assume agents will skip the big marketplaces soon. The Hotel Blueprint reported in June 2026 that Booking and Expedia kept growing as AI assistants arrived, because they hold structured inventory data. OpenAI also moved away from Instant Checkout in March 2026, according to CNBC, and let merchants use their own checkout. Your direct flow has to stand on its own.