AI Gatekeepers Could Raise Hotel Distribution Costs - Here's How to Respond
AI assistants aren't taking a cut of hotel bookings yet. But two of the biggest brands in hospitality just told investors they see a real risk coming.
In recent annual filings, Hilton and Marriott flagged that large tech platforms - including AI models and chat-based travel tools - could steer guests away from brand websites and toward intermediaries. The concern is simple: less direct demand, higher acquisition costs, and weaker control over the customer relationship.
Why this matters for sales and marketing
Assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, and others are fast becoming the first place people ask where to stay. If those assistants default to OTA links or aggregated results, your direct channels get squeezed.
The fallout isn't just commissions. You lose first-party data, upsell opportunities, and loyalty conversions - all the things that make your P&L work.
What's changing in the booking path
- Zero-click behavior: Travelers get "one-and-done" answers inside assistants instead of visiting multiple sites.
- Assistant optimization: Content needs to be machine-readable and consistent across every source the models crawl.
- Gatekeeper economics: If AI platforms add sponsored answers or affiliate links, distribution costs could rise fast.
The practical playbook to protect direct bookings
- Structure your data for AI: Use clear room, rate, and amenity descriptions; add schema.org markup; keep FAQs fresh. Make sure Google Business Profile, your site, and OTA content match to avoid conflicting signals.
- Build direct-only value that's easy to summarize: Perks like flexible check-in, on-property credits, and loyalty points should be stated in plain language that assistants can extract.
- Own your first touch: Add SMS/WhatsApp chat and on-site assistants that answer trip-intent questions and quote live rates. Tag everything with UTMs to trace conversions back to the conversation.
- Defend brand search and metasearch: Expect more OTA aggression. Tighten brand-protection bidding, refresh ad copy with clear direct benefits, and set ROAS guardrails by market.
- Feed the models at the source: Publish city guides, event pages, and timely promos in clean, scannable blocks. The more specific and current, the more likely assistants surface you.
- Tighten pricing integrity: Inconsistent rates fuel assistant recommendations for cheaper OTA links. Audit parity daily and fix leakage fast.
- Double down on loyalty and first-party data: Push account sign-ups, app installs, and email capture with instant value (member rates, Wi-Fi, upgrades). Reduce repeat dependency on paid channels.
- Monitor assistant mentions: Run weekly test prompts ("Best hotels near X on Y date," "Family-friendly hotel in Z with pool") and track how often your property appears - and which links are shown.
- Scenario-plan commissions: Model what happens if assistants introduce affiliate or sponsored placements. Know the breakpoints where you shift budget or change offers.
What to watch next
- Sponsored answers inside major AI assistants and how they disclose them.
- OTA-branded AI tools that keep users inside their ecosystem.
- OS and browser assistants intercepting travel searches at the system level.
- Regulatory moves on transparency and competition around AI recommendations.
Move this quarter
- Ship structured data for your top 20 revenue pages (rooms, offers, location, FAQs).
- Rewrite rate and package copy to be crisp, consistent, and model-friendly.
- Stand up a simple on-site chat that quotes live availability and logs UTM source.
- Run a parity audit and fix the top five leakage sources.
- Refresh brand search ads with clear "book direct" value props and extensions.
- Spin up a weekly "assistant share-of-recommendation" report.
- Prep a paid-assistant test budget with strict CAC caps - ready to launch the week it opens.
If you sell rooms, this is a channel shift worth acting on before it hits your P&L. The winners will be the brands that feed assistants clean data, make direct value obvious, and keep their first-party engine tight.
Sources and further reading
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