Console SecretBox launches the world's first application dedicated to hotel and gastronomy gift boxes in ChatGPT
After Booking.com, Expedia and the Accor group, it is now the turn of independent French establishments to enter ChatGPT. 1,600 establishments, 13,000 experiences, zero commission.
Console SecretBox, the French e-commerce solution published by the API & YOU agency, today launches the world's first application dedicated to hotel and gastronomy experiences and gift boxes in ChatGPT. For the first time, the gift boxes of 1,600 independent establishments — representing a catalogue of 13,000 experiences — are discoverable, readable by AI and bookable directly from a conversation with ChatGPT.
This announcement is part of a vision Console SecretBox has pursued since its creation: to give every independent establishment the freedom of its own shop, with no intermediary, backed by the power of a shared technological infrastructure.
AI, the new frontier for direct sales
ChatGPT now has more than 800 million users worldwide. According to a Simon-Kucher study, 43% of buyers already use artificial intelligence tools in their planning and purchasing process, and 62% prefer to book directly with establishments when they have the option.
Booking.com and Expedia have already secured their presence in the first ChatGPT applications. Independent establishments, however, had no comparable channel until now. They have one today.
The SecretBox application, built on the MCP (Model Context Protocol) standard, connects the catalogue of every SecretBox shop to conversational AI platforms. When a user asks ChatGPT for a spa gift box near Lyon, a gourmet getaway in Provence or a wellness weekend for two, the offers of equipped establishments come up with their verified brand content, their prices and a direct booking link. No aggregator. No commission.
The SecretBox application in action in ChatGPT — searching for and discovering a gift box in natural language.
"We are entering the era where data and AI are redefining the rules of distribution. For establishments, being present in ChatGPT is not just another technological option — it is a strategic issue of visibility and commercial sovereignty. For years, API & YOU has been building the data infrastructure that makes this possible today within Console SecretBox: 13,000 structured, enriched gift boxes, ready to be understood by artificial intelligences. This launch is an unprecedented opportunity for hotels and restaurants, offered by AI, to rebuild a direct link with their consumers." — Rémi Ohayon, author of "Addi(c)tion, le hold-up des intermédiaires du tourisme en ligne" (2013), Chairman of API & YOU, Data & AI, Communication & E-commerce agency, publisher of Console SecretBox
What it changes for the buyer
Today, when a buyer looks for a gift box on the internet, they browse from one site to the next, compare standardised descriptions and struggle to tell what makes an establishment truly unique. The experience is long, often frustrating, and rarely worthy of the intention behind the gift.
With the SecretBox application in ChatGPT, the buyer simply describes what they are looking for, in natural language:
Within seconds, ChatGPT suggests gift boxes that precisely match the request and combine dinner, an overnight stay and a treatment in a single packaged gift box. For the first time, the results are based on content verified by the establishments themselves — not on generic summaries aggregated by bots.
What it changes for hoteliers and restaurateurs
On the internet, travel and leisure offers are everywhere — and yet the essential is still missing. Booking.com offers hotel nights. TripAdvisor recommends restaurants. Wellness platforms list spas. But until now, no one made it possible to find and book in a single step a complete experience: a night in a charming hotel, the evening's gourmet dinner and the spa treatment the next morning, all offered by the same establishment, in a single gift box, at a single price.
That is precisely what the 13,000 gift boxes listed in the SecretBox application offer. Each gift box is designed and packaged by the establishment itself — hotel, restaurant, spa or wine estate — to offer a complete experience, thought through from start to finish.
For hoteliers and restaurateurs, the SecretBox application in ChatGPT fundamentally changes the relationship with digital distribution. From now on, it is the establishment that speaks — in its own words, with its own visuals, at the price it has set. ChatGPT becomes a direct sales channel, with no intermediary and no commission taken.
How search works in the application
The SecretBox ChatGPT application is built on the MCP (Model Context Protocol) standard — the same protocol used by Booking.com and Expedia for their own integration in ChatGPT. This standard creates a real-time bridge between ChatGPT and the establishments' data systems.
Every result surfaced by the SecretBox application in ChatGPT is enriched with:
- the full description of the experience, as written by the establishment
- real-time prices and booking conditions
- photos and brand visuals
- a direct link to the booking page on the establishment's official SecretBox shop
The booking is not made in ChatGPT — it is completed on the establishment's own shop, thus preserving the direct relationship between the hotelier or restaurateur and their customer.
Console SecretBox today, in figures
establishments
gift boxes
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Countries covered by the application
The SecretBox application in ChatGPT is available worldwide and promotes 13,000 experiences in 8 countries: France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Monaco, Spain, Italy and Morocco. Searches can be made in French, English, Spanish, Italian, German and Dutch.
And tomorrow?
As new AI channels emerge — Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, autonomous agents — Console SecretBox's MCP infrastructure is designed to automatically extend establishments' visibility to these new platforms. Console SecretBox clients will be ready by extension.
Download the full press release
PDF version · For press and partners
Download the press release (PDF) →Press contact
Céline Arrizurieta
Communication Director — API & YOU
celine.arrizurieta@api-and-you.com
+33 6 84 28 06 24
About Console SecretBox
Console SecretBox is the e-commerce solution augmented by data and AI for selling gift boxes, gift vouchers and items directly — on your online shop and now within generative artificial intelligences.
Published by API & YOU, the leading Data & AI, Communication & E-commerce agency in the hospitality and gastronomy sector, Console SecretBox today equips 1,600 establishments in 8 countries.
