“Average hotels” will suffer by not appearing in AI results, reckoned Kike Sarasola, president & founder, Room Mate Hotels, an operator of 32 boutique properties across Europe.
AI search is conversational and personalised, so more likely to surface hotels with special and memorable characteristics, he said: “This makes it even more important for us to have the human touch, to be dynamic, authentic, and unique.”
Hotels now have GEO (generative engine optimisation) to think about, in addition to SEO.
Richard Valtr, founder, Mews, commented: “Memorable moments from review sites are the things that the AI is going to pick up on, so it can say: ‘When you stay at this hotel, ask for Maria because she makes great pancakes.’”
Hoteliers should promote everything that makes them unique, such as proximity to a convention centre or the beach, their service, and their people, Valtr advised.
“It’s about actually getting away from what you’ve been taught for the last 20 years,” he said, “which was to make yourself more of a commodity, so you show up better on the OTAs.”
At the same time, he acknowledged that GEO is still an emerging discipline with no fixed rules and no universally accepted standards.
Chatbots retreat from direct bookings
While AI is going to transform travel planning, recent developments suggest AI platforms are not interested in handling the actual reservations.
OpenAI is scaling back plans to integrate direct bookings into ChatGPT, according to a report last month (March 2026).
The news boosted shares in Expedia and Booking Holdings and lessened investor fears that AI chatbots might eventually cut out travel intermediaries altogether.
For now, at least, consumers may discover a hotel via an AI chatbot, but the actual booking will still be routed to an OTA or a direct hotel website.
Expedia and Booking Holdings were among the first companies to integrate with ChatGPT when OpenAI launched its plugins programme in 2023, while hotel groups were not early adopters, as reported in Hospitality Investor.
Since then, hotel companies have become more involved in AI solutions. In February 2026, Marriott announced that it is taking direct bookings that originate from searches in Google AI mode.
During an earnings call, Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano said that rather than threatening to cause even higher distribution costs by introducing another layer, AI offers a pathway to reshape how hotels attract guests and reinforces direct booking channels. Google is also partnering with IHG, Wyndham, Choice Hotels, Booking.com, and Expedia.
Airbnb goes AI-native
In addition to optimising for third-party distribution, hospitality companies are obviously also deploying AI internally. Airbnb, for instance, is currently rebuilding its entire platform as an AI-native product.
Jesse Stein, global head of real estate at Airbnb, said that the Airbnb app is on 1.6bn devices and “the majority of our traffic comes organic to Airbnb and we’re already leveraging AI in a variety of ways.”
In its Q4 2025 financial results Airbnb announced some of the ways it is deploying AI, including taking a more conversational and intuitive approach to search, and extending AI customer support.
When it comes to meeting Airbnb customers’ needs, there is plenty of room for improvement. Several independent sources, including one-star ratings on Trustpilot, document the poor quality of Airbnb customer support: dysfunctional handoffs between AI and humans, late night calls, and incompetent, unhelpful staff.
Stein, who previously worked for Kimpton Hotels and private equity firm KHP Capital Partners, said: “It takes time and money to change systems. I wish it was easy. I wish it was free. On the consumer side, we're testing a million different things. We have a team of engineers every day cranking out tests to see what works and what doesn't work, and it's not something that's going to happen overnight.”
Sarasola expressed scepticism that AI can make everything better. “For example, in revenue management, my team is still better than almost everything we have tried.”
“Many people are trying to find AI as a solution to everything, and to make more money, and I think it’s very dangerous,” he said. “We really have to think about making [our businesses] more human and more understandable.”
Airbnb’s priority should be quality control and making sure all its inventory is regulated, said Sarasola. “You cannot come anyplace and just open accommodation that is not reliable. It’s causing a lot of problems for all of us,” he said.
In Airbnb’s defence, Stein replied: “We are regulated in 80% of our top 200 markets.” In February 2025, Airbnb said it had removed 400,000 low quality listings from its platform, illustrating the extent of its problem, and its interest in increasing hotel listings which are far more likely to comply with local laws.
All quotes taken from the panel: ‘AI transformation, hospitality returns: the AI disintermediation dividend’ at IHIF EMEA 2026. The panel was moderated by Laura Brinkmann, managing director and founder, Effizia
By Ben Walker
