The Commercial Strategy Shift: AI's Influence on Revenue, Loyalty & Demand
AI has moved from pilot projects to the core of hotel commercial strategy. It's changing how guests plan, how teams operate, and where revenue comes from. That conversation will be front and center at the 8th Annual HSMAI Middle East & Africa Commercial Strategy Conference (CSC MEA), taking place 25-26 November at Conrad Dubai. HSMAI Middle East
Personalisation at scale, without losing the human touch
The goal isn't to automate hospitality. It's to give teams time back for the moments that matter. As Sam Weston of 80 DAYS puts it, "AI can help hotels understand guests a little better, spotting patterns and preferences that, ironically, make personalisation feel more natural and human."
Michael Marchand from Canary Technologies adds, "AI allows hotels to personalise every interaction at scale," so staff can focus on "delivering genuine, personal service." Paul Rantilla at Plusgrade agrees: "AI helps hotels understand what each guest values most. It's not replacing hospitality, it's helping staff focus where it matters."
RateGain's Anurag Jain notes, "By automating the what and when of communication, AI empowers hospitality professionals to focus on the why, making every interaction personal and memorable." And from Yango Ads, Evgenii Pavlov captures the aim clearly: "The goal isn't to replace human service but to remove digital friction so that personalisation feels effortless and genuinely human."
AI-first search and the new path to purchase
Search is moving from keywords to conversation. Guests now ask for "a quiet, design-led hotel near a park with a heated pool and great Wi-Fi" - and expect a short, curated list. Marchand highlights the shift: "Half of travellers now use AI to plan trips… To be discoverable in these searches, hotels need clear, structured website content supported by AI chat."
Weston adds, "It's not just about being listed anymore, it's about being understood and ultimately recommended." Rantilla sees trip planning getting smarter: "Guests now get suggestions that actually match what they want. Soon, AI won't just suggest rooms. It'll help curate the whole stay."
RateGain notes the flow is collapsing: discovery, comparison, and booking happen in one intelligent exchange. Yango Ads looks ahead to agentic AI that syncs calendars, transfers, and on-property needs automatically. A practical step now: make content clear, structured, and machine-readable with schema. See Google's guidance on structured data here.
Make AI a true partner inside commercial teams
AI adoption is less about tools, more about team behavior. Start small, learn fast, and keep the loop tight. As Weston advises, stay curious - "the clearer the inputs, the more useful the outcomes."
- Build internal champions who test, teach, and keep momentum (Canary Technologies).
- Tie every use case to outcomes: more bookings, better offers, higher spend (Plusgrade).
- Align sales, marketing, revenue, and distribution on shared metrics so trust builds naturally as results show up (RateGain).
Loyalty is moving from points to relevance
With AI guiding how travellers choose, brand loyalty depends less on name recognition and more on clarity, consistency, and trust - including how clearly your brand is read by AI agents. RateGain's take: "Future loyalty will reward relevance instead of repetition."
Pavlov pushes this further: programmes must serve both people and the AI agents influencing bookings. The play is simple: earn attention with timely offers, reduce friction everywhere, and make recognition feel real in every channel.
Revenue wins: direct bookings, upsell, and efficiency
Generative tools are already surfacing hotels on curated shortlists, opening a fresh route for direct visibility (80 DAYS). Canary Technologies points to automated upsell at the right moment, with the right context. Plusgrade highlights predictive signals that humans miss, which boosts attachment rates and total spend.
RateGain connects the dots across marketing, pricing, and distribution so teams can act on one source of truth. Yango Ads calls it "efficiency with empathy" - faster workflows that still feel personal. The result: more direct bookings, stronger ancillary revenue, smoother operations.
Quick wins for hospitality and events teams
- Clean your data: unify guest profiles, preferences, consent, and stay history; remove duplicates.
- Fix your content: answer real questions, add rich FAQs, and implement structured data; deploy an AI chat layer that can hand off to staff seamlessly.
- Redesign service flows: define when a bot handles it and when a human steps in (with full context).
- Measure what matters: track assisted conversions, upsell acceptance, response times, and CSAT.
- Pilot high-impact use cases: pre-arrival messaging, dynamic offers, and post-stay win-back.
- Train your team: create playbooks for prompts, approvals, and guest escalation paths. For structured upskilling, explore role-based options at Complete AI Training.
Bottom line
AI isn't an add-on anymore. It's central to how hotels attract demand, convert it, and keep guests coming back. The real value shows up when technology clears space for people to deliver great service - and every touchpoint feels like you were reading the guest one step ahead.
If you're attending CSC MEA, bring clear use cases, clean data, and a one-page plan to test and learn. If you're not, start with one frontline workflow this week and move fast on results.
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