When a traveler opens ChatGPT and types "charming hotel with a spa that accepts dogs," they're asking a question that would have been impossible to answer just a few years ago. But today, that casual request triggers a quiet revolution in the hospitality industry—one that's forcing hotels worldwide to rethink how they present themselves to the world.
The shift is happening fast. According to a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group, 37% of travelers are already using AI-enabled sites to plan and book trips, a number that's climbing rapidly. In France alone, Nicolas Marette, founder of Custplace, a company that helps businesses optimize their digital presence, notes that 35% of French people used artificial intelligence to find hotels, cafes, or restaurants just last year. This isn't a distant future—it's unfolding now, and hotels that don't adapt risk becoming invisible in a landscape where AI recommendations have replaced the endless scrolling of search results.
The technical challenge is profound. When Google answers a search, it returns roughly 50 results. ChatGPT delivers five. That scarcity makes placement exponentially more valuable, but it also means hotels can no longer rely on the strategies that worked for traditional search engines. "What a hotel needs to do to get well referenced by search engines is not the same thing that they need to do to get referenced by artificial intelligence," explains Johanna Benesty at BCG. Nicolas Maynard, AI and data science chief at French hospitality giant Accor—which operates brands like Pullman, Sofitel, Mercure, and Ibis—calls it "complete upheaval," noting that his company has spent the past year trying to understand how to make itself more visible to these new gatekeepers.
The real complexity lies in language itself. When someone asks an AI for a "romantic hotel in the south," they're using vague, human language that current hotel systems aren't designed to interpret. Most hotel databases classify properties by specific, structured categories—room type, price range, amenities—not by the poetic, subjective qualities that people actually care about. Accor's Maynard says the group needs to "adapt our systems to take semantics into account," a fundamental shift in how hotels organize and present their information.
But the opportunity extends beyond matching descriptions. Hotels are beginning to deploy AI chatbots to answer granular guest questions—like whether there's a power socket on the left side of the bed for someone with specific charging habits. Olivier Cohn, director of Best Western France, believes that "what will make the difference is our ability to answer client questions more thoroughly." His chain operates more than 4,000 hotels worldwide, giving him a window into how deeply personalized travel expectations have become.
A quarter of hospitality firms have already developed AI strategies that are producing measurable returns across their organizations, according to BCG. Yet success won't depend on hotels alone. Algorithms increasingly favor properties with comprehensive, high-trust information from multiple sources—meaning customer reviews and detailed descriptions matter as much as the hotels' own optimization efforts. As the dust settles on this transformation, a familiar pattern is emerging: just as online travel agencies once charged commissions for prominent placement, AI models are beginning to offer "distribution fees" for algorithmic prominence. The tools have changed, but the economics are becoming familiar once more.