How AI Is Rewriting the Rules of Hotel Marketing: Insights from Hotel Leaders
AI isn’t just another buzzword floating through conference halls—it’s rapidly reshaping how travellers search, discover, and choose hotels. At a recent HSMAI discussion, commercial leaders from across the industry came together to unpack the reality behind the headlines and share how brands of all sizes can thrive in this new era.
On stage were:
Anthony Green – Global Head of Digital Marketing & E-commerce, Minor Hotels
Mark Shrives – Vice President – APEC Digital, Marriott Digital Services
Alexander Eaton – Co-Founder & Director, Resolute Hotels & Resorts
Yvonne Yau – Director of Revenue & Distribution at Swire Hotels
Their perspectives painted a clear picture: AI is not only transforming the marketing landscape, but also redistributing power between global chains and independent hotels. Read on for some practical advice.
AI: Leveling the Playing Field—or Creating New Gaps?
The first big question: is AI the great equalizer?
Anthony believes AI is a huge opportunity, especially for smaller brands. Unlike past digital revolutions—when only large companies could afford sophisticated tools—AI is now democratized.
“AI multiplies what we can do. Before, only the big guys could afford these tools. Now smaller companies can experiment and scale.”
Alex sees this shift as a turning point for independent hotels. Their agility, personality, and flexibility let them adapt far faster than brands carrying global standards and multi-country infrastructure.
Independent operators finally have the ability to compete not through budget, but through unique identity, storytelling, and niche positioning.
How Big Brands Are Evolving Their Digital Strategy
Mark lifted the curtain on how Marriott is responding to AI-driven search, zero-click experiences, and Google’s emerging “agentic” technology.
The brand is investing heavily in:
- AI-powered distribution and discovery
- Seamless pathways between inspiration and direct booking
- A dedicated AI division to accelerate experimentation
- Better integration into the new search ecosystem
For global brands, the challenge isn’t adopting AI—it’s scaling AI responsibly across thousands of hotels without compromising service or consistency.
The End of SEO? Not So Fast.
Despite the rumours, the panel agreed:
SEO isn’t dead. It’s evolving.
AI-powered search still relies on the fundamentals:
- structured data,
- clear content,
- crawlable pages, and
- consistent signals across digital platforms.
But the way hotels write must change. No more robotic “luxury hotel in Bangkok” copy. AI operates on intent, experience, and helpfulness.
Alex explained it perfectly:
Guests aren’t searching for keywords—they’re searching for experiences. Think: “I want a hotel near Bangkok’s best street food,” not “boutique hotel Bangkok.”
This means hotels win by focusing on:
- Helpful, experience-driven content
- Multi-channel storytelling (blogs, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, PR)
- Writing from the guest’s perspective, not the hotel’s
Reviews, too, now play a bigger role in discoverability.
Responses should reinforce guest experiences, not offer generic thanks.
Finding Your Niche: The Real Game-Changer
A major theme emerged:
Finding your niche identity matters more than ever.
Wellness, fashion-led concepts, design-forward stays, culinary neighbourhoods—whatever a hotel’s strength is, it needs to own that niche everywhere online.
It was emphasised that niche isn’t a trend; it’s a survival strategy in an AI-first world.
Independent hotels, especially, can differentiate through:
- Hyper-local experiences
- Cultural relevance
- Emotional connection
- Unique brand personality
These stand out far more than generic “luxury” labels.
Measuring Digital Success: ROI Isn’t Enough
One of the biggest pain points discussed? The industry’s obsession with ROI by channel.
“You can’t measure success by the ROI of a single channel. That’s most likely just the last touch point, not where the inspiration happened.”
Focusing only on last-click ROI leads to underinvestment in:
- Social content
- Upper-funnel storytelling
- New source markets
- Brand visibility on emerging platforms
Hotels should be looking at total digital revenue vs total digital marketing spend, benchmarked across properties.
Anthony agreed: marketers need new terminology to explain the value of spend across different stages of the funnel—because ROAS alone doesn’t tell the full story.
Tech Foundations Still Matter: Schema, Structure & Site Health
For all the talk about AI, the technical fundamentals haven’t gone away.
- Clean site architecture
- Structured data and schema markup
- Well-written FAQs
- Removing blocks to crawlers and AI agents
- Testing booking flows with AI tools
- Translation scalability (a huge cost saver)
Thanks to modern tools, hotels can now translate into 20–30 languages with ease—unlocking secondary markets that were previously too expensive to pursue.
A Glimpse Into the Future
The conversation wrapped with some rapid-fire predictions.
Robots or AI-savvy humans?
Mark chose humans—“I love my team.”
What scares leaders most about AI?
Anthony: losing Google as a stable, familiar source of direct traffic.
What futuristic idea might soon be reality?
Alex: fully voice-operated guest rooms integrated with PMS, POS, and service systems.
Think: “Order me a club sandwich” → automatically sent to the kitchen.
Not as science fiction as it sounds.
The Bottom Line
The hospitality world is shifting fast.
AI isn’t here to replace marketers
—it’s here to push us to rethink how discoverability works, how we connect with guests, and how we position our hotels in the moments that matter most.
The hotels that win will be the ones who:
- Embrace helpful, experience-driven content
- Understand audience intent
- Use AI tools to scale—not replace—the human touch
- Invest across the entire funnel
- Build strong niche identities
- Maintain strong technical hygiene
DO YOU WANT TO LEARN HOW?
And for those who want to dive deeper, HSMAI has just launched new courses on AI search, GEO, and everything reshaping hotel marketing today.
LEARN MORE: CHECKOUT THESE GUIDES & ARTICLES
LEARN MORE: Checkout these guides and articles:
