Hotel Speak’s April article on The Future of AI-Powered Hotel Marketing explored how artificial intelligence could potentially reshape hospitality marketing strategies. This follow-up article moves from AI-enabled marketing as a futuristic concept with theoretical adoption to the implementation of concrete AI applications that enhance competitive edge among hotels that recognize AI is changing the rule of guest engagement.
Widespread adoption of AI-powered marketing in the hotel industry, must first begin with greater clarity on the part of technology vendors. The Phocuswire article 6 AI Trends That Will Matter to Hotels in 2026 points out that hoteliers have reached their limit with technology buzzwords like “AI-enabled.” The reality is AI applications differ greatly in their capabilities and uses.
“AI is changing how hotels are discovered, chosen, and booked…,” said Tom McCaleb, a managing director and partner at global management consultancy BCG and coauthor of AI-First Hotels: Faster to Build, Leaner to Operate, and Richer in Customer Experience. “As AI assistants take on more of the shopping and planning work, hotels will need to shift from optimizing for pages and ads to optimizing for algorithmic relevance…”
SEO, AEO and GEO
AI-powered Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) don’t simply search for keywords. Functionally the same, both scrape the web for content although their focuses differ. In both cases, content must be structured for answer engines across all platforms, from hotel websites and OTAs to the hotel’s Google Business Profile and social media channels. GEO and AEO are to AI what SEO is to search engines. But AEO responses are based on more diverse content sources, including guest reviews, social media and influential third parties.
“GEO and AEO are not replacements for SEO,” explained Sam Weston, Head of AI and marketing at digital creative agency 80 DAYS. “GEO is partly founded on really strong technical SEO, so those who have been investing in SEO for the last 10 years are well placed to navigate the next era of search.” Like the cut, clarity and carat that define the quality of a diamond, Weston determines the potential success of GEO on the consistency of the online marketing message, the clarity of that message and credibility. He added, “when it comes to credibility, every hotel believes itself to be the best in the destination, but neither AI nor travelers will take your word for it.” This is why GEO also relies on content from trusted sources like Forbes.
Also worth considering is the role that both SEO and AEO play in the purchase process. According to BCG’s report The Future of Discoverability, SEO is more important at the bottom of the funnel when intent is clearer. AEO has more influence in the inspiration and discovery phases at the top and middle of the funnel.
At booking platform HotelsbyDay.com, CEO Yannis Moati has his marketing team focus on communicating and marketing the platform’s model rather than spending excessive time outbidding competitors for keywords. “Experiences and reviews are more important than ever before,” he said.
Generative AI
Optimizing for GEO and AEO is part of the work hotel marketers face when implementing an AI-powered marketing strategy. Generative AI (GenAI) tools can also be leveraged to create new, customisable content and the international hospitality industry is investing. The global market size of GenAI in hospitality is expected to reach US$48.6 billion this year, up from US$34.22 billion last year, according to GII Global Information’s March 2026 report Generative AI in Hospitality Global Market. By 2030, market size is expected to reach US$196.1 billion.
That spend is driven by hoteliers who recognize how GenAI can strengthen their market position. The team at a new CoralTree Hospitality property used GenAI to create a detailed venue mock-up for a wedding, despite marketing collateral being limited to renderings. The visuals met the client’s requested specifications and were turned around within four hours of receiving the request without assistance from outside agencies or other supplemental spend.
“Generative AI has been particularly useful in accelerating content development and personalisation, whether that’s adapting messaging for different audiences, supporting social storytelling, or improving the efficiency of email and digital campaigns,” said CoralTree CEO Andre Fournier. “Importantly, we use AI as a complement to our teams’ judgment, not as a replacement. Brand voice, creative direction, and strategic decisions still come from our teams.”
Agentic AI
GenAI is well established in the hospitality industry compared with agentic AI. Where GenAI assists, agentic AI operates –with autonomy. It relies on current first-party data contained within a unified ecosystem across Property Management Systems (PMS), Central Reservation Systems (CRS) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). In terms of hotel marketing, it’s, intended to accelerate direct bookings.
“Agentic AI comes with speed, scale and optimization that humans aren’t familiar with, so hoteliers can feel like they’re losing control of the strategy,” said Brad Brewer, co-founder and chief AI Officer at Agentic Hospitality. “The strongest results we’ve seen for hotels happen when they give AI the room to act within guardrails and human oversight, but most hotels want to overwhelm AI so it speaks with the same voice, rather than allow it to speak while guiding it.”
In the report Agentic AI Will Redefine Travel and Hospitality in 2026, International Data Corporation (IDC), a market intelligence, data and events provided for the tech industry, predicts that by 2030, 30% of these travel bookings will be executed by AI agents, increasing direct bookings and profitability.
Brewer further explained that agentic AI ultimately serves as a new form of distribution. “With agentic AI, hotels don’t have to go through a middle man who takes 18 to 20% commission,” he added.
Already, Marriott has announced a direct booking integration with Google AI Mode in February and Wyndham did likewise last year when it also connected with Anthropic’s Claude.
“Agentic AI is the thing to watch,” said Simone Caracciolo, co-founder of Topworldhotel.com. “If it happens at scale, OTAs have a problem and hotels without structured data disappear.”
The Skills Gap
For all of the benefits that AI offers the hotel marketing as well as revenue and operations, only 28% of hotel and travel companies can be classified as ‘AI leaders,’ according to valuation firm HVS’ 2026 market report AI and the Next Wave of Hotel Technology. In its AI-First Hotels study, BCG reported that only 2.9% of full-time employees in travel and tourism possess AI skills, with AI-skilled full-time workers growing nearly 5% year-over-year. Understandably, hoteliers aren’t interested in technology products and services that are defined by tech jargon.
Fortunately, there are a number of AI-focused continuing education courses and certificates available through various hospitality associations and a few universities. But these are investments that aren’t necessarily available to all hotel staff, especially while they advance in their career path. Most hotels also lack the resources to train teams internally, even to incrementally introduce employees to AI tools like those that can assist in creating charts and graphs for marketing reports.
But at hotel tech firm Mirai, the entire team goes through in-house training. Sales managers are even required to complete and present an annual AI challenge. “Their project doesn’t have to show successful results, but the objective and the process have to make sense,” said CEO Pablo Delgado. “We tie their annual bonus to it.”
