The two things driving change in the sales and marketing disciplines for hotels right now seem to be artificial intelligence and collaboration.
AI, in particular, is viewed as a game changer, much like it is across other business functions and industries.
"I think it's an amazing opportunity, and AI will become a force multiplier of sorts," said Ankur Randev, principal and chief commercial officer for Highgate Hotels, at the 2025 HSMAI Commercial Strategy Conference.
Here are some takeaways from CoStar News Hotels' recent coverage from that event.
Kristie Goshow, chief commercial officer for Peregrine Hospitality, agreed AI is likely to change the workflow for hotel sales people and marketers.
"I think it's going to relieve us of the burden of all the drudgery and things that we really don't want to do every day that limit our ability to think and think deeply," she said. "That will just make for far more enjoyable hours at the desk."
Meanwhile, Milestone Inc. Founder and President Benu Aggarwal gave some concrete takeaways on how hotel companies should be adapting to AI, particularly when it comes to website content. She said simplicity and consistency are the key to success.
"Decide [on] getting 20-plus amazing images and get every single channel to use the same images and same information because search at the end of the day is multimodal," she said. "Your images, your content, your experience, your videos, everything needs to be consistent and needs to have the same data."
This runs contrary to how hotel marketing has traditionally approached the various channels they present on, but Aggarwal stressed that "less is more in AI-powered search."
Representatives from the two major online travel agencies discussed how their companies can be resources for hoteliers looking to leverage new technology — such as AI.
Julie Kyse, vice president of hotel global partnerships for Expedia Group, said her company is sitting on roughly seven petabytes of data hoteliers can leverage for decision making.
"We don't expect you to wade through all that data," she said. "That's what our teams are for. That's what our tools are for. So we want to provide you with useful insights that will help you figure out things like: What [should] your top pricing strategy should be? How are your campaigns delivering? Then you can tweak and adjust and go after the business that's most meaningful to you."
At the same time, the hotel industry remains a thoroughly human business, and that includes collaboration between sales, marketing and various other stakeholder groups.
Experts stressed the need for sales and marketing to understand the revenue function and vice versa.
"Most marketing people don't know how to read a STAR Report, and I know that because I've trained probably 100 of them at this point," said Lauren Travis, corporate director of integrated marketing for Sage Hospitality Group.
Hotel leaders are also expected to have a productive relationship with their owners, which includes understanding what key performance indicators they care about and what their investment goals are.
"It's crucial that you provide the right, detailed data and a well-thought-out plan to communicate effectively," said Kelly Klocke, vice president of commercial strategy for Apple Hospitality REIT. "Every interaction that you have with ownership is an opportunity for your team to either gain confidence or lose confidence."
That relationship building should also happen within teams, and keeping the best talent means building incentive programs that reflect the work done by young employees and giving them things they want beyond simply cash.
Steven Chrappa, director of ecommerce at the Hard Rock Hotel New York, said young employees want to see a path to growth.
"It really comes down to career progression and how you can realistically show it," he said. "It doesn't have to be a title change, but there if there are new projects that you can be involved in or new opportunities that you can go into, whether it's networking opportunities or organizations. But if someone's just being stagnant for two-plus years, it gets a little tough to stick around when you see your friends on LinkedIn getting promotions or moving around."