When Every Hotel Uses AI, Brand Becomes Everything

I've been fortunate to interview some of the smartest people in hospitality over the years, and every once in a while a conversation keeps circling back to the same idea.

That happened recently with Evan Crawford, Vice President of Marketing for Pyramid Global Hospitality.

We covered AI, hotel marketing, sales, branding, RFPs — you name it. But no matter where the conversation wandered, Evan kept coming back to one theme: know who you are.

It sounds almost too simple to matter, but I think it's becoming one of the biggest competitive advantages hotels have left. As AI changes how planners discover properties, compare venues, and even submit RFPs, standing out isn't about bolting on another amenity or another piece of software. It's about giving people an actual reason to remember you.

Here are the five biggest lessons I took away from our conversation.

1. Stop Trying to Be Everything to Everyone

One of the first things I asked Evan was what separates the hotels that consistently outperform everyone else. His answer surprised me, because it wasn't bigger budgets, better technology, or even sharper marketing. "The ones that have a clear voice," he told me. "They know who they are. They know what they need to be for the customer."

That immediately made me think about something I see constantly: hotels convincing themselves their ideal customer is everyone. Families, couples, corporate groups, associations, weddings, social events, luxury travelers, leisure travelers — the whole map. The problem is that when you try to appeal to everyone, your messaging usually gets so broad it resonates with no one at all.

Evan made a distinction I really liked. One of their resorts is family-friendly, but they don't market it as a family resort. That's a subtle difference, and it matters: "You can be present for every consumer without trying to be for every consumer." That line stuck with me. Meeting planners aren't hunting for another generic hotel — they're looking for the right fit for their event. The clearer your identity, the easier it becomes for planners, and increasingly AI, to connect the dots.

2. AI Will Handle More of the Work. That's Good News.

There's a lot of anxiety around AI in hotel sales, and I get it. Proposal tools are getting incredibly so good; soon they'll assemble rates, availability, meeting space, and proposal content in a matter of minutes. 

Some people see that as a threat. I see it as an opening, and so does Evan. "Maybe you use your AI fulfillment as a starting point," he said, "but then you add something personal to it."

If AI gets us 80 percent of the way there, why wouldn't we spend the time we just got back making the last 20 percent feel personal? 

That's where hotels will actually differentiate themselves. Technology shouldn't replace relationships; it should buy you more time to build them.

3. Your Sales Team Is One of Your Biggest Competitive Advantages

This might have been my favorite part of the conversation. 

I've always believed planners buy people before they buy properties. Yes, they care about the ballroom. Yes, they care about the guestrooms. 

But more than that, they want confidence. They want to know who's going to answer the phone when something changes, who's going to solve the problem, who's going to make them look like a hero to their boss.

I mentioned during our conversation that I want to know who's going to help me pull off my event, not just whether the ballroom has four walls and a chandelier. 

Evan took it a step further: "There's nothing worse than a salesperson who is phony." 

People do business with people they know and trust, which is exactly why I'm such a believer in helping hotel sales teams build their personal brands through LinkedIn, video, thought leadership, and educational content. The relationship shouldn't begin after the RFP arrives because it should already exist.

4. Your Website Might Be Making It Hard to Buy

Toward the end of the conversation, we landed on one of my favorite topics: friction, specifically the RFP form. 

If you've never done this, here's my challenge: go to your own website, pretend you're an executive assistant who just got told to find a venue for a leadership meeting, and fill out your own RFP form. 

How long does it take? How many questions are there? How many fields do you have to complete before you're even allowed to ask a question?

Evan joked about asking for "a meeting planner's blood type." His suggestion was refreshingly simple: "Have an RFP? Attach it here." Done. That's a far better experience than forcing someone through dozens of fields before you've even started a conversation. I've said this for years, and I believe it more than ever that every extra click costs you business.

5. Relationships Are About to Matter Even More

If there's one thing I hope hotel sales teams take away from this AI wave, it's this: your value isn't shrinking, it's growing. 

As AI handles the repetitive work, your job gets more human, more strategic, more consultative, more relationship-driven. 

When I asked Evan what salespeople should be doing as automation takes over more of the administrative grind, his answer was immediate: "Hopefully it's going out and building relationships."

That's what great salespeople have always done; the difference now is they'll finally have the time to do it. Instead of burning an hour assembling proposals, they can spend that hour prospecting, creating content, reconnecting with past clients, visiting planners, or just having real conversations. 

That's a trade I'll take every single time.

My Biggest Takeaway

When I think back on this conversation, one line keeps coming to mind: "You gotta be more than amenities and four walls with a bed." That applies to hotels. It applies to salespeople. It even applies to marketing.

AI is changing how planners search, how hotels respond, and how buyers evaluate properties. What it can't replace is authenticity. The hotels that win won't necessarily have the biggest budgets or the newest technology — they'll be the ones that know exactly who they are, make it painless to do business with them, and build relationships long before an RFP ever lands in the inbox. That's always been good sales. AI is just making it impossible to fake.