AI is Rewiring How People Choose Hotels

How conversational AI is transforming hotel search and giving brands back control over their visibility, storytelling, and direct bookings.

AI is rapidly reshaping how travelers discover and choose hotels. Search is becoming more conversational, more useful, and more trusted. But for many hotels, appearing in AI-generated recommendations still feels like a lottery. That’s about to change, and the implications for every hotel’s Find, Book and Grow strategy are enormous.

Conversational AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, powered by the widely discussed large language models (LLMs), seem like an island. They’re busy answering questions from preparing travellers and guests. But it’s like a separate world, one that almost seems impenetrable.

People are changing habits in the way they search. It’s shifting from keywords to conversations. The result? People are receiving more enriched information. These conversational AI tools reopen the door to giving hotels back their distinction.

Conversational tools can now be accessed by hotels, bringing a critical opportunity to influence the results, to drive awareness and bookings. We’re doing this with Cendyn AI Connect through our partnership with DirectBooker. It’s the glue between hotels and AI, enabling hotels to take control of their brand story.

Where we’re coming from

It’s time for a mindset shift. We’ve been playing the search engine optimization (SEO) game in Google for decades. Trained to think in a keyword shorthand (“best hotels London”), both users and business owners understand that traditional search engines are all about visibility.

With the conversational approach that AI chat tools bring, online search is moving towards enriching back and forth exchanges. Conversational AI is bringing the joy back to the search, the journey, and the discovery. We’re getting the energy back that we put in.

Humans are innately language-driven. That’s why people are so readily ditching keyword shorthand to ask detailed questions. For travelers, this means asking for the best hotels with good restaurants nearby in specific neighbourhoods, or hotel rooms that have space for a cot, a bathtub and good blackout curtains when planning travel with a young family. They want to have a conversation with search. Naturally, hotels want to be part of that conversation. Doing so is an incredible opportunity to radiate confidence and distinction.

Conversational AI tools originally took their information from what they were trained on, which is more or less anything that has been published on the wider web. Online travel agents (OTAs) have had a head start, as ready-made directories of hotel listings and key data that the AI can easily access. They’re seen as an authority, and there’s a perception they hold a high level of data.

In reality, OTAs give the shopping list, but not the recipe. Telling an AI tool that a hotel has three swimming pools ticks boxes, but it doesn’t tell guests anything about the experience they’ll have. It’s like a dating app. Profile data gives the attributes – brown hair /blue eyes/ 5’7” but actually tells you nothing about the person. Superficial, surface level.

Hotels know their guest profile and target audience intimately. They know better than anyone the hotel experience. And here lies the opportunity, where conversation and chat help hoteliers bring this personality to life.

Hotels have a hidden data opportunity

Hotels can have their moment here, because they control the authority on all the information that’s relevant and can be surfaced to conversational AI search tools.

This could be operational information that’s not added to OTA listings, like which rooms are quietest for light sleepers, live spa appointment availability, in-room desk dimensions for remote workers, and so much more. Data doesn’t have to be only numerical. Hotels can also feed information about sentiment, experience, and identity.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the first step in helping AI assistants like ChatGPT discover, understand, and recommend a hotel’s content. It’s an extension of SEO.

But the giant leap hotels are about to make is using Model Context Protocol (MCP). This is how tools like Cendyn AI Connect are opening the door between conversational AI and hotels. Using an MCP, conversational AI tools can reach out to enable hotel systems to deliver answers based on facts gleaned from those systems.

This is an opportunity for hoteliers to share the secrets they don’t share with OTAs. Showcase the experience, control the story, excite people, and share unique selling points. Hotels know more about their audiences than OTAs could ever hope to, helped by data insights from existing systems such as Cendyn CRM and DMP. Now is the time to make those deep guest insights work even harder, by creating tailored information for conversational AI tools.

This is the biggest opportunity in 20 years for hotels to become more dominant in getting direct traffic.

Confidence in distinction

Predictions on how AI will shape the future for hotels often seem far away.

But change is already happening.

Google is seeing a double-digit increase in the number of searches for individual hotels. The working theory is that prospective guests are finding out hotel names via conversational AI tools, then cutting and pasting those names into a Google search.

Consumer behavior is shifting quickly. With MCP in place, hotels will be able to serve up detailed, nuanced, and brand savvy information to prospective guests, at the exact time they are actively engaging with travel planning.

So how can hotels show up in these results?

• Make sure your information is all spot on. Details need to be captured in your systems to be AI search-ready.
• Manage accessible images and videos. Conversational AI tools are starting to interpret the content in these with brilliant accuracy.
• Have a guest review strategy. Human proof gives hotels legitimacy in AI tools.
• Make data accessible to conversational AI tools. Work with a trusted partner to get MCP in place.

If hoteliers act now, they can shape their hotel’s narrative, brand, and experience, directly influencing conversational AI tools. It means the hotel will not only show up in the new era of search; it’ll stand out with the value-driven, in-depth information guests want.

Taking this step will also ensure hotels are ready for the future of AI search too, particularly agentic checkout flow, when users will be able to click to make the booking directly from the AI conversation.

A deep and meaningful connection

Conversational AI tools will deliver confidence in distinction, enabling hotels to connect authentically with guests from the very first interaction.

AI is already reshaping how travelers discover and book hotels. The deep, instinctive knowledge hoteliers hold about their guests and the unique experiences available is their ultimate advantage. This is something OTAs simply can’t replicate or communicate. And this is precisely the rich, nuanced insight people seek in conversational AI exchanges.

Now, hotels have a powerful opportunity to take control of their narrative. By closing the gap between the guest journey and the actual experience, they can redefine what Find, Book and Grow means, and transform it entirely.

Luke Markesky

Luke Markesky is the Executive Vice President, Operations at Cendyn.

About Cendyn

Cendyn is a global hospitality cloud-based technology company that enables hotels to Find, Book, Grow – driving revenue, maximizing profitability, and creating deeper connections with guests through its integrated solutions.

Serving hoteliers for nearly 30 years, Cendyn has over 32,000 customers in more than 150 countries including brands Outrigger Hospitality, Hyatt, IHG, Aman Resorts & Hotels, Relais & Châteaux, Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, Coraltree Hospitality, and Onyx Hospitality Group – generating more than $20 billion in annual hotel revenue. The company supports its growing customer base with offices across the globe.

To find out more, visit cendyn.com.

Source: View the original article at Cendyn.