Anything that is immediately gratifying will be repeated. Almost 15 years ago, that was Steve Wynn’s opening line of a keynote speech. Wynn, the founder and chairman of Wynn Resorts, went on to say, The strongest force on earth is something that affects your self-esteem.
Reviews may serve as the new “trust badge” distinguishing genuine guest experiences from SEO-driven marketing noise. AI-powered hotel discovery is reshaping the way travelers search, evaluate, and ultimately book accommodations. Due to generative AI and large language models (LLMs) drawing from multiple data sources, guest reviews have emerged as the most reliable source of truth. They are not just influencing human decision-making but actively shaping what AI presents to potential travelers. Hotels that master the art of review-driven content, reputation management, and SEO optimization will secure long-term visibility in the age of AI-powered hotel discovery.
Travel brands are racing to meet the new demands of digital-native travelers. From AI-powered personalization to seamless guest journeys, everyone claims to be reimagining the guest experience. However, the lived reality for many travelers tells a different story: disconnected systems, impersonal service, and frustrating support during critical moments.
Hotel salespeople are drowning in leads: RFPs, inbound requests, third-party submissions, referrals.
The future of hotel distribution is not a mystery. It will either be owned by OTAs or owned by protocols. The choices hotel operators make today—from every global brand to independent inns and three-room B&Bs—will determine whether their businesses thrive or vanish.
I hate to generalize about generations (yup, pun intended!), yet it is difficult to ignore that a crack has opened within the old catechism of hospitality, that choreography of handshakes and ritualized greetings passed from Jedi to padawan as if it carried the weight of eternal midichlorian truth (sorry, I spent the weekend in Disneyland Paris with my son, so my cultural references are slightly skewed), but which today feels less like continuity than the fading echo of a ritual whose spell has been (partially) broken.
At the luxury and ultraluxury levels, what we see throughout the world is not just lavish amenities and impeccable service, but a dedication by the brands, developers, owners and onsite teams to steward the local community, cherishing its past while responsibly guiding its present for a better future.
For the longest time, hotels have been the main centers of gravity in the hospitality industry. Everything is changing nowadays as people invest more and more in experiences instead of places. This whole concept of Experience Economy is making the last generations, like Millennials and Gen Z, spend more on unique and tailored attractions, often engulfed in local communities. A hotel is no longer an ultimate goal, but rather the gateway into a broader ecosystem of impressions. This redefines the role of hoteliers and developers: from constructing buildings to shaping experiences.
For centuries, Colossus has embodied the fragility of empires erected upon symbols, those immense figures that appear eternal until a single fracture reveals their emptiness. Nero’s bronze giant once loomed beside the Flavian Amphitheater, so imposing that its shadow gave the building its very name, the Colosseum. In time, the statue was dismantled, its metal melted, its memory fading into whispers. The prophecy that tied its fall to the fall of Rome became less prediction than retrospective allegory, a myth read backwards onto ruins. The statue was gone, the empire decayed, and people saw in one absence the mirror of the other (and sorry for the history lesson but My “Roman Empire” is THE ACTUAL Roman Empire…).
The post-pandemic “revenge travel” surge has cooled, but demand hasn’t disappeared. It has simply shifted. Today’s guests are more deliberate. They still spend and explore, but many now travel to recharge, extend a business trip into leisure, or set up a temporary remote office.
We’re starting to drown in AI slop: LinkedIn posts and articles that are entirely AI-conceived (and possibly executed). They look like content, but they’re really just a collection of bland, recycled statements with no insights and no opinions. When I finish reading I realize I’ve learned… nothing, to be precise, agreeable nothing.
WhatsApp is a valuable guest communication tool for hotels looking to connect with guests across different journey stages. It’s best used for casual, timely messages and works alongside email and SMS. In this guide, you’ll find use cases, pricing details, privacy considerations, and what to expect when implementing WhatsApp at your hotel.
For years, hotels have been adjusting to search engine optimization (SEO), online travel agencies (OTAs), and metasearch. But today’s reality is different: AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, and Perplexity are becoming the new travel planners.
If you’re in hotel group sales, you might be asking yourself: “Why isn’t my outreach working anymore? Cold calls are ignored, email responses are dwindling, and even when planners visit our website, they don’t convert. How do we make sure AI and real buyers actually find us?”
AI, as in artificial intelligence, is the hot topic of the past two years. The experts say we’ve barely opened the door on AI’s possibilities. We all know AI stands for artificial intelligence, and a simple definition of AI, as it applies to customer service and experience (CX), is technology that can think and learn like humans to help solve problems and answer questions, making companies and their employees more productive and efficient.
In revenue management, we’re trained to play defense: protect occupancy, hedge against cancellations, react to market shifts. But the real magic?
Many hotel managers today aim to shift more bookings to their website — and rightly so. But in practice, website sales often come in short-lived spikes, driven almost entirely by paid campaigns. When ads are the only traffic source, the website becomes a temporary landing page, not a stable sales channel. And while the numbers might look good in the moment, the ROI rarely holds over time.
Each of us remembers that one event we attended where every detail was flawlessly executed and the setting was so perfect that, in hindsight, the only word that describe it all is ‘magical’. Behind the scenes, as anyone working in hospitality knows, the crafting of a lifelong memory for attendees requires meticulous planning that starts months, or even years, ahead of the big day or multi-day conference.
As consumer expectations evolve and digital tools become increasingly sophisticated, hospitality leaders face a defining challenge: delivering their guests increasingly personalized, high-touch experiences at scale — without compromising brand integrity. For Jeanelle Johnson, managing partner at the Washington, D.C. office and co-leader of the travel, transportation and hospitality sector at PwC, this moment represents more than a tech transformation. It’s a redefinition of what makes a brand matter.
Generative AI is changing how information is surfaced online, reshaping the way travellers search, plan, and book. For independent hotels, this introduces a new layer of algorithmic competition with OTAs and global chains.