How to Connect Otto to Claude and ChatGPT

You already plan US work trips in Claude or ChatGPT. The assistant compares routes, builds the agenda, and maps the week. But then it stops, and you open multiple tabs to book what it found.

This guide covers three setup paths: Claude, ChatGPT, and other MCP-compatible clients. Follow the one for your assistant, and when you finish, you can book flights, hotels, and rental cars for work by asking for them in the conversation you already have open.

What You Need Before You Start

Setup needs an account with Otto the Agent from the registration form and a Claude or ChatGPT account on a plan that supports connectors. That connection uses MCP, the Model Context Protocol, which lets your assistant search and book through Otto instead of only describing options.

A general-purpose assistant hits booking limits. It researches a work trip but can't complete one, and the common connector pattern returns options in the chat before sending you to an external checkout page. The Otto connector lets your assistant complete the reservation directly, so the work trip finishes in the chat. You get that direct-booking access free for your first year, with no contracts, no minimum spend, and no agent-assist fees.

Connectors built for corporate travel programs typically arrive through an IT-led rollout, with an admin configuring policy before anyone books. Otto skips that entirely. A business traveler connects it from an individual account, with no procurement cycle in front of it, and books flights, hotels, and cars in the same conversation.

How to Connect Otto to Claude

Claude reaches Otto through a custom connector, and the booking tools become available in your chats once you authorize it. Setup runs in two parts.

Open Claude's Connector Settings

Start by finding the connector screen:

1. Sign in to Claude on the web or in the desktop app.
2. Go to Customize > Connectors, or click the + in the lower left of the chat bar and select Manage connectors.

Both routes land on the same screen, so use whichever is closer to hand.

Add Otto as a Custom Connector

From that screen, add the Otto endpoint:

1. Click + and select Add custom connector.
2. Enter https://api.ottotheagent.com/mcp as the server URL.
3. Click Add.
4. Complete the OAuth sign-in with your Otto account.

Personal plans let you add the connector yourself. In a managed workspace, an owner adds it once, and you authorize it from your own account. If you want to watch the flow before you run it, walkthrough videos live on the setup page.

How to Connect Otto to ChatGPT

The ChatGPT path mirrors the Claude one, but developer mode has to be on before you create the connector.

1. In Settings, switch developer mode on. If you don't see it, search Settings for "developer."
2. Open your connector settings and click Create (or Add custom connector).
3. Name the connector Otto and paste https://api.ottotheagent.com/mcp as the server URL.
4. Set Authentication to OAuth.
5. Check the box acknowledging that OpenAI hasn't verified the connector, then click Create.
6. Complete the OAuth sign-in with your Otto account.

Custom connectors sit behind developer mode on paid personal plans, and in a managed workspace, an admin has to enable it first. Once it's set up, run a flight search to confirm the connection before you trust it with a real trip. To check it in a new chat, click the plus icon in the composer, select More, then Developer mode, and pick the connector as a source. ChatGPT asks for your confirmation before any write action.

How to Connect Otto to Any Other MCP-Compatible Client

One endpoint covers everything else. Use https://api.ottotheagent.com/mcp over Streamable HTTP with OAuth, and the flow holds for any client that accepts a remote server.

Enter the endpoint URL where the client asks for one. Then complete the OAuth prompt when it redirects you to Otto.

Any client that supports remote MCP servers reaches the same flight, hotel, and car booking tools through that URL, so you don't set up a separate Otto account per assistant.

Your First Booking Through the Connector

Confirm the setup worked with a small work-trip request. Ask in plain language, something like "Find me a nonstop from Austin to Chicago next Tuesday morning for a client meeting, back Thursday evening." What comes back differs from a search engine:

• The connector returns a curated set of options instead of hundreds of results.
• Flights book for one traveler at a time, and hotel reservations cover one or two travelers.
• Car rentals are available to every user.
• Pricing is USD only, at public rates.
• You confirm in the chat and the booking completes there, with no checkout page.
• Otto doesn't book cruises, trains, buses, ferries, rideshare, or private transport.

Because the business transaction stays in the conversation, you never retype the dates, traveler details, and payment details in a separate booking platform.

What Happens After You Book

Most booking tools stop at checkout. Otto keeps working after you book, monitoring the price on eligible reservations so you can approve a lower rebooking without starting over. For flights, monitoring covers fully refundable fares. If the price drops, Otto alerts you, and on your approval it cancels the original, refunds your card, and rebooks lower. Otto doesn't track basic economy or non-refundable fares. For hotels, it covers pay-at-property, free-cancellation rates, and when a rate drops and you approve the swap, the saving arrives as a lower total at check-in rather than a credit.

You reach Otto wherever you work, including the app, the web, the Slack and the Teams apps. If you need a human backstop, phone support runs through Otto's travel management partner.

Get Otto Booking Inside the Assistant You Already Use

An active connector removes the multi-tab handoff that follows a useful work itinerary. You keep the dates, route, and traveler details in one place instead of rebuilding the business trip across booking sites.

Otto turns the option you choose into a reservation once you confirm it, and it does that without the IT-led rollout that enterprise travel connectors assume. You add it yourself, in minutes, and it covers the flight, the hotel, and the car in the same conversation.

Set up Otto to book the whole work trip in the chat where you planned it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to add a travel connector to an AI assistant?

Paste the endpoint URL, sign in once through the authorization prompt, and the connector is live in your next chat.

Do I need admin access to connect a travel tool to Claude or ChatGPT?

Personal plans generally don't require admin access. Managed workspaces often do, because Claude team accounts need an owner to add the connector and ChatGPT business accounts need an admin to switch developer mode on first.

Can an AI assistant complete a business booking, or does it just search?

The mainstream pattern today ends at the recommendation and hands you off to the provider's own site to pay. OpenAI pulled back from its own in-chat checkout in early 2026 after buyers didn't use it. It depends on the connector behind the assistant: with Otto connected, you pick an option, confirm it, and the card on file completes the reservation without a second window.

What happens to the connection if I switch to a different AI client?

Follow the new application's connector setup flow. If it uses client registrations, authorize the connector when prompted.

I set up a connector and the assistant still isn't offering to book my work trip. What's wrong?

Usually you've configured the connector but haven't turned it on for that conversation. In Claude, click the + in the chat bar, hover over Connectors, and toggle Otto on; in ChatGPT, add it as a source through the plus icon in the composer. In Claude, the per-conversation Tool access setting also has an "On demand" mode that doesn't load connectors until Claude searches for one, so switch it to "Always available" to keep the booking tools present in that chat.