Hello,

Getting the cadence back in. Last week’s column on Overtourism Travel Distribution problems got quite some thoughts going. I didn’t realize how many people had already written about the issue. Let’s keep the debate going – we might just find some better ways to address the problem than throwing things at the people coming to visit our countries. And without further ado – here’s the newsletter.

Best, Martin

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Loyalty Investors

Six by Nico’s crowdfunding initiative invites loyal customers to become co-owners, raising over £1,750,000 within five days. It’s a great example of converting loyalty into money rather than an expense (rewards). Could this be how the next citizenM chain grows? If one doesn’t buy the real-estate it is a possibility. Even if the loyal customers just invest in a single property – it will most definitely turn them into hard-core brand loyalists.

CROWDFUNDING CUSTOMER LOYALTY

Cutting labor costs at Hilton

It is unpopular to talk about cutting labor costs in hospitality, we’re a people industry. And I do believe that tech and AI can facilitate the back of house work so the people can spend more time with guests. But the fact is, many people work back of house because they don’t like to be in front of people. So there will be labor shifts either way. Some really interesting points on using process and tech to tweak labor. Or in this case, probably increase efficiency.

HILTON LABOR COSTS

About me: I'm a fractional CMO for large travel technology companies helping turn them into industry leaders. I'm also the co-founder of 10minutes.news a hotel news media that is unsensational, factual and keeps hoteliers updated on the industry.

Google search, evolving?

It seems AI search is mostly taking the “low value” searches from Google. I.e. those searches that have low intent such as “where should I go this year” those queries don’t generate revenue. For most companies the main revenue are brand name or exact product name (hence why Booking bids on hotel names and why Google fought so hard to open bidding on brand names). This could mean that Google searches will be more profitable and PPC costs too (less window shopping). But not sure this will last.

AI AND COMMERCE

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Airbnb is back into hotels

While I admire Airbnb for a lot of the tech work they’ve done. Simplifying the booking and stay process with tech solutions etc. I must also say that the strategy of the business seems to be a little random or opportunistic. The move into hotels some years ago was smart, but then they canned that. Then they did experiences, and canned that. Now they’ve back with experiences and with hotels. I admire that they try things and iterate – but the way the announcements are made, it seems a bit random.

AIRBNB HOTEL STRATEGY

Agentic AI and Hotel Distribution

That AI and agents (or as Steven Sinofski called it, a rebrand of really slow computers) will impact hotel bookings funnels is a given. It isn’t there yet. Booking a hotel is a much bigger expense than buying toothpaste on Amazon. And there are a lot of technical issues as described in this article. But it is coming. I do believe (and hope) that this creates a whole new industry of “personal travel agents” who use AI to research and manage travel at scale.

AGENTIC AI HOTEL DISTRIBUTION

What if the ads are pointless?

How many times have we turned on ads, seen dozens of conversions from them and cheered. While thinking that, maybe those conversions would have happened anyway? While I’m not a fan of over-analysis, this post lists a few key metrics to help measure if the ads are actually generating new conversions or if this is just the same conversions being attributed differently.

META ADVERTISING IMPACT

OpenAI Ads

In a recent note OpenAI said they wouldn’t rule out ads. Personally I don’t see another business model for them. The subscriptions are most likely not profitable. Yes they can increase the price but how much. They will probably need to start caching replies to save costs at one point. But for the first time in tech, there is a “cost of goods” for all work done. So ads are an obvious model. Some interesting tips on how to take advantage of this.

OPENAI ADVERTISING PLATFORM

Podcast: I was invited to talk about AI in hospitality on this podcast, along with many other great industry thought leaders. A great discussion, we didn't agree on everything. Which made it more interesting.

Opinion

Reviews, LLMs, Hotel SEO

We’re still in the early days of figuring out how generative AI, LLMs, and search engines are index hotels. Everyone has their theories, and I’m sure thousands of actual SEO experts are running experiments as we speak. But one area where I’m increasingly convinced we’ll see a seismic shift is in reviews. I wrote about this some months ago, but with Google adding review summaries I think it bears repeating.

Reviews are already critical in hotel selection, but I believe they will be training the machines that filter what travelers see in the first place.

A hotel can write on its website that it’s an “amazing retreat with stunning sea views.” Nice words. But AI can instantly cross-check those claims against the reality described in guest reviews. If reviews consistently mention the sea view, the AI amplifies that message. If not, the system may downrank the claim or flag it as misleading marketing. While I enjoy poetic copy on hotel websites, it needs to reflect reality.

Reviews also contain the real attributes that matter to guests: “great for families,” “easy subway access,” “great towels,” “quiet courtyard.” These might not be the things the marketing team highlighted, but they’re gold for AI systems trying to match intent. When someone asks, “Find me a family-friendly hotel near Paris,” the answer might not come from a glossy hotel pdf/website it will be easier and safer to take it from guest reviews.

Some weeks ago I tested the Brochure-to-Reality feedback loop. I fed an AI the reviews of hotel Costes in Paris and asked it to create a style and tone-of-voice guide for the property. The result matched the hotel’s actual marketing almost perfectly. In other words, the guests were telling the same story the brand was telling. (I know it might be easy for such an iconic hotel, but this example wouldn’t make any sense to you if I told you some random boutique hotel in the suburb.) My point is, that alignment becomes a very powerful feedback loop and “truth” meter for AI.

So, what does this mean for hoteliers? Encourage longer, more detailed reviews. Push for specifics, not just “great stay.” Bullet points, anecdotes, and small details are what AI bots will parse (enough plugs? sophisticated shower controls? etc). I believe the richer the dataset, the more likely your hotel is to surface in AI-driven discovery.

We don’t yet know what the SEO playbook of the future will be. But my bet is this: the hotels with the best, most authentic, most detailed reviews that match the marketing will win the AI-indexing war. This is why I think reviews are making a comeback, not just as social proof, but as the raw material that will define how (and whether) your hotel shows up at all.

But at this point this is just speculation. Ask for detailed reviews, it wont hurt. But we still need the results from the SEO analysts.