The hospitality industry is entering what experts call the agentic era. A future where AI-powered travel agents will be able to book complete journeys with little or no human involvement. While this promises greater convenience and potential savings for travellers, it also presents serious risks for hotels, particularly in the way they manage pricing and inventory. In this new scenario, revenue management strategies relying on last-minute rate drops will come under increasing pressure as AI agents learn to exploit these fluctuations.
For quite a while now tools could alert guests to a rate drop, cancel, and rebook at the lower price. But that wasn’t AI, it was just a trigger and the traveller had to actually do the rebooking. Now imagine an agent constantly checking and rebooking automatically — the same thing, but at scale. Hotels will be punished if they drop rates too close to check-in, certainly if they do so in publicly available channels but perhaps not in closed-user groups or offline channels.
The data already shows the financial impact of this behavior and can clearly see when a guest books 60 days in advance and then rebooks the same room five days out at a lower rate. The resulting losses can amount to millions of euros annually, depending on the hotel chain’s approach to revenue management. While rebooking is not a new phenomenon, the spread of AI agents working silently in the background means it will only become faster, easier, and more widespread.
The impact of the agentic future extends beyond revenue management. Sales, marketing, and guest communications will also need to adapt. As AI agents book on behalf of travelkers who have already given guidance on where and when they want to stay, hotel systems must be ready for seamless navigation, and confirmation details must be crystal clear.
From the traveller’s perspective, the shift could be overwhelmingly positive. The same room at a lower price makes for a better deal and reduces the incentive to book far in advance. But for hotels, it means carefully reconsidering how and when discounts are offered.
The broader challenge is that AI-powered travel agents will make the market more unforgiving for hotels that rely on outdated pricing tactics. What has always remained true, however, is that the guest experience must stay at the center of hospitality. The needs of the guest don’t change. Maybe the way they book changes, but hotels still have to deliver a great stay. That’s the constant. What’s different now is that AI agents will make the market far less forgiving.
As the agentic era takes shape, the hotels that develop more sophisticated approaches to inventory, rate, and revenue management—using data-driven strategies to anticipate demand and optimise pricing – will be best positioned to avoid last-minute discounts, protect revenue, and maintain guest trust
