Twenty-five years ago, could you have imagined how the internet would transform our lives? Everything changed with one click. If I tell my friends’ kids how I used to do research, they look at me like I’m from another planet — and honestly, I can’t blame them.
Without dating myself too much, I still remember going to the public library to consult encyclopedias, making photocopies of pages to literally cut and paste into my school assignments. The idea that one day all of that information would be available at the click of a button, by just Googling it, was unimaginable.
Now, we are standing at a similar turning point with generative artificial intelligence. Only yesterday I found myself saying “ChatGPT it,” and while we may not fully grasp yet how deeply it will impact our lives, one thing is clear: it has fundamentally reshaped how we work, learn and create.
What strikes me the most is its simplicity — how natural it feels to just ask for something and get a response. That intuitive conversational interaction is what I believe is the engine behind its rapid adoption. Reality is that there is a behavioral shift: instead of browsing numerous websites, it is much easier to ask and get the work done vs. us doing the work, isn’t it?
When it comes to travel, I often catch myself asking the same questions many others do: do you have any hotel recommendations in [insert destination]? What are the must-sees for a history lover in this city? Where can I go this summer that’s dog-friendly and driving distance to/from “x”? These seemingly casual questions are now increasingly being directed not to friends or search engines, but to AI.
AI is quickly becoming the new “top of the funnel” for travel discovery. In fact, 50% of Gen Z travelers plan to use AI to plan their holidays in 2025, and according to Globetrender, 70% of Americans are either already using, planning to use or are open to using AI tools for travel arrangements. Discovery is shifting from social media to intelligent assistants, and it is not just a trend, it is a fundamental change in how travelers dream, search and decide.
What does this mean for us in hospitality? To me, the answer is clear: we are entering what could become a new phase — or even will dare to call a new channel — in the distribution landscape. The conversation should be less about whether AI will impact distribution and more about how or who will control the customer journey in the AI-powered travel ecosystem.
The large online travel agencies (OTAs) like Booking.com and Expedia are fully aware of the accelerating shift toward AI-powered travel planning and are actively adapting their strategies. Expedia has already integrated with ChatGPT, and Perplexity has partnered with Selfbook and Tripadvisor to enable direct hotel bookings within its platform. Booking.com, meanwhile, is quietly but significantly evolving too, from experimenting with AI-powered trip planners to piloting in-app conversational assistants and investing heavily in personalization and predictive search.
What does this mean for hoteliers? It means the rules of engagement are being rewritten. Distribution is no longer just about price, availability, and content, it is about presence in AI. Consequently, hoteliers are beginning to understand that they need to optimize content for AI ensuring their information is easily digestible by LLMs. The use of MCPs (Model Context Protocol) is key to that end. If you are not familiar with MCPs, think of a universal AI translator for prompts, an open standard framework that help AI agents find everything they need.
The good news is that the OTA’s are not the only ones leading the game, there are a few initiatives and solutions emerging in hospitality that want to leverage AI to drive direct bookings for hotels and reduce reliance on OTAs, the challenge is standardizing data flow across our already fragmented industry. Here are few initiatives worth exploring:
- DirectBooker.com (lead by former Google and TripAdvisor execs) leverages MCP to deliver real-time hotel data into a new platform bypassing OTAs.
- DirectBookAI, offers a custom AI agent designed for hotels making hotel content discoverable and easily understood by AI agents.
- Connect AI (Lighthouse) also leverages MCP but it is not a new platform, instead it answers to the concept of "data bridge” between hotels and AI travel agents (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, etc.), making the hotel's own website the primary AI interaction point, enabling real-time access to rates, availability and direct booking.
Looking ahead, one thing is certain — the AI new distribution game is on.
Mercedes Blanco is chief partnerships officer at The Hotels Network and a founding member of Women in Travel Thrive.
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