Duffel and Katanox make a partnership to cut hotel booking steps

Duffel, a travel technology company that lets businesses add booking to their apps, made a partnership with Katanox. Katanox connects straight to the booking systems of hotels, with no bed banks or distribution switches between them. The partners want fewer middlemen for hotel bookings, payments and commissions, and they made it for AI booking agents.

How it works

The hotel stays the merchant of record, which is the seller to the guest. Katanox will replace virtual credit cards with bank payments and make commission reconciliation automatic.

Steve Domin, the CEO of Duffel, tells of two problems. Guests go to a hotel that cannot find the booking. Commission payments come months after the booking.

Paul Beukers, the CEO of Katanox, tells that safeguards can let a platform cancel incorrect reservations.

The proof

The source gives no test results and no numbers on fewer booking errors. Duffel has 1.6 million hotel properties.

What is not known

The two CEOs give different settlement times. Domin tells of instant payment or payment at checkout. Beukers tells of funds held in escrow until check in.

The companies have not said how these fit. Sellers can get Katanox Capital, which gives sellers money before settlement. The source does not say who has the financial risk.

Insight: The fight moves from booking to the money path

On 6 November 2026, Amadeus told that AI platforms will use aggregators, which connect many suppliers through one system. Duffel, an aggregator, adds hotel payments to its work. This reads as a move to control the money path: a platform that can hold funds and cancel errors is good for AI agents. Find out who has the financial risk of Katanox Capital.