We’ve heard this promise before.
The Internet was supposed to decentralize travel. Then came social media, metasearch, and the so-called “sharing economy.” Each new wave arrived with the same story: this time, hotels will finally connect directly with their guests again.
But every single time, history repeated itself. The early web (once open and free) was recaptured by Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple. The “peer-to-peer” revolution of Airbnb and Uber – quickly became platform empires. Even blockchain and crypto, built on decentralization itself, consolidated into a handful of exchanges and power players.
So let’s call it what it is: true decentralization, at scale, has never been achieved – not in business, not in tech, not anywhere in the history of humanity.
And yet, today, we’re hearing the same promise again, this time wrapped in the glow of AI. “AI search will democratize discovery. It will connect travelers directly with hotels. It will finally end the era of middlemen.”
It’s a beautiful story. But it’s also dangerously naïve.
Because once AI platforms (OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Meta) become the ultimate interface between the traveler and the hotel, we’ve simply replaced one middleman with another. Only this time, it’s not just about who controls distribution. It’s about who controls the relationship with the consumer.
If we don’t move fast, AI platforms will continue strengthening their relationship with whoever already owns the most structured, trusted, and accessible supply — and right now, that’s the OTAs.
So what do we do?
We stop chasing the fantasy of total decentralization and start building a new, better kind of centralization – one that works for the hotel industry, not against it.
A platform (or network) that is:
- Centralized for discoverability, but federated in control
- Openly connected via standards like MCP, so AI systems can access verified hotel data directly
- Fair and transparent, with minimal commissions or flat fees
- Fully data-sharing, so hotels always receive their guest information
- Rooted in trust, through verified identity and content authenticity
In other words: if decentralization isn’t achievable, then let’s rebuild the center on our own terms.
This is our moment
AI search and the emerging Model Context Protocol (MCP) era offer a once-in-a-lifetime reset button. For the first time in 25 years, the infrastructure of online discovery is being rebuilt – and we have a narrow window to decide whether hotels are visible participants… or invisible data points.
If we act now (by publishing structured, AI-readable content, by building our own MCP servers, and by uniting around a transparent, industry-owned layer for verified hotel data) we can become the trusted source AI platforms rely on.
But if we sit back and wait, we’ll wake up to find that the same old intermediaries have already filled that role. We’ll have lost again – this time not just to search engines or OTAs, but to AI itself.
This is not about eliminating the middleman. It’s about redefining who the middleman serves.
It’s about reclaiming control over our data, our visibility, and our margins – together. Because if we don’t build the future we want, someone else will.
And they’ll charge us for access to it — again.
How do we do it?
We’re not chasing “perfect decentralization.” We’re talking about creating a shared, industry-owned digital infrastructure – a federated hub – that connects hotels directly to AI search systems through open standards like MCP.
Think of it as a public utility layer for hotel data: verified, structured, and accessible to all AI agents.
This structure would:
- Keep data ownership and customer relationship at the property/brand level.
- Enable collective visibility and trust at the industry level.
- Offer AI platforms a single, authoritative source to query instead of 10,000 fragmented sites.
This kind of effort requires a coalition of equals, not a single company. The model already exists in other sectors – think of:
- IATA (airline standards, NDC protocol)
- W3C (web standards)
- Linux Foundation (open-source collaboration)
Who would drive it?
We need to form an Alliance comprised of several categories of stakeholders who could make this happen, in partnership:
- Industry organizations:
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- AHLA / HTNG — already manage technical working groups; could formalize an AI Distribution Federation Committee.
- HEDNA — deep distribution expertise, ideal for defining the commercial framework and API governance.
- HFTP — already manages USALI — effectively the global accounting standard for hotels, which gives it deep credibility in defining and maintaining neutral, cross-industry frameworks.
- HSMAI – uniquely positioned to translate the technical vision into commercial action.
- Academia and Thought Leaders – can run pilots, contribute research, lead education, and help shape governance frameworks. Neutral academic oversight adds credibility and transparency.
- Startups and open-source contributors can build the technical scaffolding (AI-ready schemas, validation tools, visibility dashboards).
- Hotel companies from all segments of our industry.
Unlike past attempts (metasearch, direct-booking coalitions like Roomkey), the AI era creates a technical reason for collaboration.
AI agents need structured, verified data from trusted sources.
If hotels provide it collectively, AI systems will use it — not because of politics, but because it’s the best, most comprehensive and trustworthy data available.
That’s the leverage point we’ve never had before.
Bottom line
We don’t need to destroy centralization. We need to rebuild it in our image — transparent, fair, and open. If the hotel industry aligns now — through open data, shared standards, and a neutral trust foundation — it can finally own the interface between its product and the traveler.
That’s not a dream. It’s an engineering problem — and we already have the blueprint.
