Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is profoundly reconfiguring the global hotel industry, but the promise of eliminating intermediaries faces a complex reality. Contrary to initial estimates, Google’s first list of partners for agentic AI bookings includes Booking.com and Expedia, suggesting that the new infrastructure expands the reach of online travel agencies (OTAs) instead of eliminating them.<\/p>\n
An analysis published by hospitality.today highlights that agentic AI adds a layer on top of OTAs, concentrating control over customer relationships instead of returning it to hotels. In parallel, a study conducted by h2c and Pertlink shows that 86% of European hotel chains use AI tools, although 80% do not have a formal strategy due to skill shortages and poor data infrastructure. To support hoteliers, Lighthouse has acquired Hotelrank.ai to track the visibility and positioning of accommodations on ChatGPT and Gemini. At the same time, a World Panel analysis raises questions about the end of the traditional “pay-at-hotel” model, amid the digitalization of payments and agentic bookings.<\/p>\n
How does AI affect online travel agencies (OTAs)?<\/strong><\/p>\n Instead of eliminating OTAs, agentic AI expands their reach, adding a layer on top of them and concentrating control over customer relationships.<\/p>\n What percentage of European hotel chains use AI?<\/strong><\/p>\n A study shows that 86% of European hotel chains use AI tools, but 80% do not have a formal strategy due to skill shortages and poor data infrastructure.<\/p>\n What is Hotelrank.ai and how does it help hoteliers?<\/strong><\/p>\n Hotelrank.ai, acquired by Lighthouse, is a tool that helps hoteliers track the visibility and positioning of accommodations on AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is profoundly reconfiguring the global hotel industry, but the promise of eliminating intermediaries faces a complex reality. Contrary to initial estimates, Google’s first list of partners for agentic AI bookings includes Booking.com and Expedia, suggesting that the new infrastructure expands the reach of online travel agencies (OTAs) instead of eliminating them.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":126381,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3693],"tags":[148],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-126464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-booking"],"article_style_override":"on","post-style":"style2","post_via":[{"title":"hospitalitynet.org | 28.05","post_source_url":"https:\/\/www.hospitalitynet.org"}],"post-top-image":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/hotelieri-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126464"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126516,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126464\/revisions\/126516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126464"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=126464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}