I woke up this morning with a strange feeling — like I was witnessing yet another “end of something.” Not the end of the world, don’t worry. We’ve postponed that one far too many times already. I’m talking about the end of the booking engine as we’ve always known it. Or more precisely, its slow, assisted euthanasia. Its name (maybe): Google UCP.
What the Universal Commerce Protocol subtly suggests is that hotel booking has always been… unnatural. A kind of digital voodoo ritual where guests must relearn every time where to click, what to tick, which policy to accept — all while metaphorically sacrificing a chicken to Satan.
Now, all of that is being swallowed by a conversation. One interface. One transactional language. Human or machine — it doesn’t really matter anymore.
On paper, it’s beautiful. It smells like super apps, like WeChat, like the ultimate one-stop shop, like UX nirvana. The problem? Hospitality isn’t retail. We’re NOT selling shoes. We’re dealing with chaotic inventories that change faster than my mood — and that’s saying something.
Let’s be honest: ARI has always been our original sin. Remember “Book on Google”? It didn’t fail because of bad intentions, but because of infrastructure that simply wasn’t up to the task.
The real issue, in my view, is the illusion that removing friction on the guest side is enough. In hospitality, friction is structural. Philosophical. Almost ontological. Definitely masochistic.
If we don’t fix what’s behind the scenes, UCP will just be another shiny layer sitting on top of a rusty engine.
Google will build the door. Guests will open it.
But if there’s nothing behind it, they’ll walk in — only to walk out again, frustrated.
See you next week,
Simone
SIMONE PUORTO
