Hotels must embrace MCP to stay competitive in the age of AI assistants

This article was written by Hospitality Today. Click here to read the original article

How the Model Context Protocol could redefine hotel distribution and direct bookings

Dec 3, 2025

Hotels face a shifting landscape: more travel planning is starting via conversational AI assistants rather than traditional search engines, threatening to disrupt visibility and control over bookings. The article argues that a new standard — the Model Context Protocol (MCP) — can act as a “bridge,” enabling hotels to supply verified data and even allow AI-assistants to make bookings on their behalf. By adopting MCP and organizing their content and rates into a central, structured database, hotels can position themselves to thrive in a future where guest conversations, not searches, drive bookings.

Key takeaways

MCP standardizes hotel-AI integration: MCP works like a “universal connector” that allows AI assistants (e.g. ChatGPT, Gemini) to access official hotel systems — rates, availability, policies — avoiding bespoke integrations for each platform.
Reliable, structured data replaces third-party uncertainty: On-web content (reviews, forums, OTAs) is often inaccurate, incomplete, or inconsistent — especially when it comes to details critical for booking. MCP ensures hotels supply verified, granular detail.
Booking engines should lead transactional integration: Because only booking engines control real-time rates, inventory, offers and commercial rules, they are the proper backbone for MCP’s transactional side — other systems (PMS, channel managers, metasearch) are insufficient.
CMS and public websites are inadequate for AI-driven bookings: Typical hotel websites often publish only a fraction of operational details, lack granularity, and use architectures not designed for structured AI querying.
Implementing an internal canonical database (SSOT) is a critical first step: Hotels must gather disparate information — room types, services, policies, rates, FAQs, loyalty benefits — into a living, maintained “single source of truth” that can feed the MCP.
MCP is already relevant — and its strategic value will grow: Some AI assistants already support MCP (or are planning to), making today’s adoption a competitive advantage rather than a speculative investment.
Future bookings could become agentic and conversational: With MCP, guests may soon interact with AI assistants — not just for information, but to complete bookings, request invoices or extras. Hotels that are not prepared risk being bypassed in this shift.