Artificial Intelligence tools are changing the landscape for hotels trying to get themselves noticed and chosen by travelers.
In the ‘old days’ of 40 years or so ago, hotels marketed themselves to travel agents who found customers for them. Then came the internet and browsers, and ‘search engine optimization’ became the key tool, carefully-honed to make the listing show up at the top of searches, or at least just after the paid listings. And platforms such as Booking.com were in the mix.
But now, increasingly, travelers appear to be turning to ChatGPT and other AI agents, using ‘natural language’ questions like ‘small hotel with sunny balcony and electric kettle in room’ or ‘dog-friendly hotel in suburban area but near public transit.’ The searches run through huge masses of data, including listings on those online travel sites to come up with answers, and hotels are finding themselves puzzled how to get themselves lined up with them.
Nicolas Maynard, who is the AI and data science chief for the Accor group, told an industry conference recently that “we’ve been trying for a year already to understand how to make ourselves more relevant… and be more visible… It’s a big change: with Google a search gives you 50 results… while if you ask ChatGPT it will give you five.” “The biggest challenge is to understand vague requests like ‘I want a romantic hotel in the south’,” he added.
