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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
Today, 11:21 AM
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Key takeaways
History is repeating: Just as Booking.com captured the discovery layer two decades ago, AI interfaces are now absorbing the informational layer of hotel websites.
Zero-click discovery is rising: Travelers get complete answers from AI tools without visiting hotel websites, leading to declining organic traffic.
Websites risk invisibility: Hotels still provide content, but AI platforms summarize and surface it, reducing brand presence and direct relationships.
Voice and structure matter: Schema-marked data improves citations, while authentic storytelling makes a property’s voice harder for AI to flatten.
The next “Booking moment” is here: Hotels must adapt early to ensure AI speaks for them, not over them.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
Today, 11:16 AM
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Google’s rollout of AI Overviews and AI Mode has transformed how people search online — and hospitality businesses are among the biggest losers. New research shows that as AI delivers answers directly on the results page, fewer users are clicking through to websites, slowing or even reversing traffic growth across most industries.
Key takeaways
Hospitality decline: The hospitality sector saw a –6.7% drop in monthly organic traffic — the steepest fall of any industry — compared to +47.9% growth the year before, a swing of 54.6 percentage points.
Widespread slowdown: Average organic traffic growth across all sectors fell from 26.3% to 3.7% year-on-year after AI search was introduced, indicating a 22.6-point slowdown overall.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
Today, 10:32 AM
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"The conversation around Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the hotel industry has shifted from if to how. Our recent study, which was based on a survey of 80 hotels conducted in the summer of 2025, confirms this momentum: more than 70% of respondents consider AI important for their hotel's success within the next two years.
However, there is a clear and significant gap between AI awareness and formal strategic implementation. While nearly 40% of the managers are discussing AI within broader digitalization efforts, only a small minority (9%) have anchored these topics in a formal strategy document. This inertia is creating an AI "Experimentation Trap.""
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
Today, 10:26 AM
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La conversation autour de l'Intelligence Artificielle (IA) dans l'industrie hôtelière est passée du si au comment. Notre dernière étude, basée sur une enquête menée auprès 80 hôtels pendant l’été 2025, confirme cette dynamique : plus de 70 % des répondants considèrent l'IA comme importante pour le succès de leur hôtel au cours des deux prochaines années.
Cependant, il existe un écart net et significatif entre la prise de conscience de l'IA et sa mise en œuvre stratégique formelle. Alors que près de 40 % des hôteliers discutent de l'IA dans le cadre d'efforts de numérisation plus vastes, seule une petite minorité (9 %) a ancré ces sujets dans un document de stratégie formel. Cette inertie crée un «Piège de l'Expérimentation de l'IA».
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
Today, 10:20 AM
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"Booking.com has announced the launch of its first customer-facing agentic AI innovations: Smart Messenger and Auto-Reply, designed to make partner-to-guest communication faster, streamlined, and more intuitive. Building on the company’s expanding suite of GenAI-powered solutions, the new features are seamlessly integrated in the platform to elevate the booking experience on both sides of the leading online travel platform’s marketplace. With intelligent response generation and automated workflows, Smart Messenger gathers relevant partner, property, and reservation information to autonomously take action – knowing when and what to suggest to support accommodation partners in their communication to guests. With Auto-Reply, the personalization is taken a level further, with partners able to define custom reply topics, allowing for instant responses to both common and unique guest questions relevant to their accommodation. The agent is continuously learning from past interactions and user feedback, adapting responses for accuracy and relevance. Early experiments yielded a 73% increase in partner satisfaction compared to previous messaging tools, and the products are now live in the Extranet with Auto-Reply available globally and Smart Messenger for all partners based in the US, UK, New Zealand and Australia along with those who have selected EN as their preferred language setting."
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
October 18, 7:16 AM
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Pendant plus de vingt ans, le SEO s’est joué entre deux acteurs : d’un côté, Googlebot, avec ses algorithmes toujours plus sophistiqués, et de l’autre, l’utilisateur humain, destinataire final du contenu. Toute stratégie de visibilité consistait à équilibrer cette équation binaire : être lisible par une machine tout en restant pertinent pour des personnes.
Depuis trois ans, les intelligences artificielles génératives ont rebattu les cartes en redistribuant elles aussi du trafic, avec leurs propres sources. Mais les IA ne sont pas seulement de nouveaux diffuseurs d’information, elles deviennent aussi de véritables outils de production, capables d’automatiser et d’enrichir les pratiques SEO. De là à transformer en profondeur la façon de faire du référencement
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
October 18, 6:45 AM
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"L’intégration des géants du voyage au cœur de l’IA conversationnelle n’est pas une simple innovation. C’est une potentielle prise de contrôle du nouveau point d’entrée du parcours client et le début d’une nouvelle bataille pour la distribution.
Depuis octobre 2025, ChatGPT intègre directement des applications tierces, dont les géants du voyage Expedia et Booking.com. Cette évolution marque un tournant majeur : l’intelligence artificielle conversationnelle peut désormais accéder en temps réel aux inventaires, tarifs et disponibilités des agences de voyage en ligne (OTAs). Concrètement, un utilisateur peut maintenant rechercher et comparer des options de voyage directement dans la fenêtre de dialogue. Plus qu’une simple innovation, cette fonctionnalité transforme ChatGPT en un assistant de voyage capable d’initier le parcours de réservation, modifiant ainsi le point d’entrée traditionnel du consommateur."
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
October 18, 6:40 AM
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A new study from marketing agency Nectiv reveals that ChatGPT triggers a web search in 31% of user prompts, averaging more than two searches per query — each far longer and more specific than typical Google searches. The findings suggest that SEOs can increasingly shape what ChatGPT retrieves and presents, particularly for commercial and local-intent queries.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
October 18, 6:35 AM
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"Wondering when AI will fundamentally alter online research, discovery, and search behavior? You’re too late. Hot on the heels of the ascent of social media as a means of researching and buying products, consumers are quickly defaulting to AI-powered search (through both AI-powered apps like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, and Claude, and Google’s AI Overview) to guide their choices, evaluate brands, and increasingly to discover new ones."
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
October 18, 6:24 AM
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"How agentic commerce could quietly transform the way travelers plan, choose, and pay for their stays — and what hotels must build before it can truly work
Key takeaways
Agentic commerce describes AI systems that can plan, decide, and act on behalf of users — potentially managing complete travel bookings end to end.
Travel is a natural testing ground, yet fragmented data, legacy infrastructure, and limited payment interoperability slow real progress.
Current implementations in answer engines and retail remain largely assistive, not autonomous — capable of guiding decisions, but rarely completing transactions."
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
October 16, 10:23 AM
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Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered trip planning platform Mindtrip is launching new in-app features, giving users the option to capture and categorize travel inspiration.
Travelers can share articles, Instagram posts, TikTok videos, YouTube clips and Google Pins directly to Mindtrip’s app. With these capabilities, users will now be able to take inspiration from “anywhere,” according to Mindtrip, a PhocusWire Hot 25 Travel Startup for 2025.
“With so much travel inspiration at our fingertips across mobile web and social apps, it’s easy for travelers to feel overwhelmed,” said Andy Moss, co-founder and CEO of Mindtrip. “Our new AI-powered tools bring it all together in one place—right inside the app.”
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
October 15, 12:37 PM
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Vers l’ère des paiements par agents IA
On paie tous sans contact aujourd’hui et ça nous paraît déjà naturel. Mais demain ? Est-ce qu’on pourra simplement demander à ChatGPT ou Perplexity « réserve-moi un hôtel »… et la réservation et le paiement se feront automatiquement ?
C’est un sujet que j’entends de plus en plus parler dans le secteur. Alors pour y voir plus clair, j’ai eu le plaisir de rencontrer Jean-Robert Raynier, vice-président Product Solutions France chez Mastercard. Avec lui, on a parlé de l’évolution des paiements, de la sécurité, et surtout de ce que ces agents IA vont changer… aussi bien pour les voyageurs que pour les destinations et les acteurs du secteur.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
October 14, 6:34 AM
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For years, chatbots have been the entry point to automated customer interaction. They were useful, predictable, and cost-effective. But they were also rigid, limited, and often frustrating. Today, a new generation of AI agents is emerging and they represent a clear evolution in how businesses and users will connect.
AI is changing guest behavior and users’ expectations are already shifting dramatically. The rise of AI agents is the natural response to this new reality, moving hotels from simple automation to true intelligence.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
Today, 11:17 AM
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A new whitepaper by Sabre explores how conversational AI—tools like ChatGPT, Expedia’s AI travel assistant, and Sabre’s agentic systems—is changing the way travelers find and book accommodation. Rather than browsing sites or scrolling social media, guests are now planning and booking through dialogue-driven platforms that blend discovery, comparison, and conversion into a single seamless interaction.
Key takeaways
From inspiration to instant booking: Social media sparks travel dreams, but conversational AI closes the loop—turning inspiration directly into hotel bookings through natural, one-to-one conversations.
Hotel discovery in chat: As travelers ask AI assistants where to stay, which area to choose, or what fits their preferences, hotel visibility increasingly depends on structured, trusted data integrated with these conversational engines.
The new storefront: Chat-based interactions are becoming a new layer of distribution. Hotels need to ensure their content, images, and inventory are ready to surface accurately in AI-driven booking flows.
Agentic AI behind the scenes: These systems don’t just answer questions—they act. They can check rates, verify availability, and complete bookings, reducing friction across the guest journey.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
Today, 10:44 AM
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Lufthansa Group is banking on AI and digitalization to drive a major turnaround, aiming for ambitious financial targets by 2030. This strategy includes a massive fleet renewal and cutting 4,000 administrative jobs, which will be replaced by digital processes. AI is already used in maintenance, cargo, and dynamic pricing, but concerns about job displacement and AI reliability persist.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
Today, 10:30 AM
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Die Diskussion um Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) in der Branche hat sich von der Frage des Ob auf die des Wieverlagert. Unsere letzte Studie, die auf einer Umfrage bei 80 Hotels im Sommer 2025 basiert, bestätigt diese Dynamik: Über 70 % der Befragten halten KI für den Erfolg ihres Hotels innerhalb der nächsten zwei Jahre für wichtig.
Allerdings besteht eine klare und signifikante Lücke zwischen dem Bewusstsein für KI und der formalen strategischen Umsetzung. Während fast 40 % von den Hoteliers KI im Rahmen breiterer Digitalisierungsbemühungen diskutieren, hat nur eine kleine Minderheit (9 %) diese Themen in einem formalen Strategiedokument verankert. Diese Trägheit schafft eine KI-"Experimentierfalle".
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
Today, 10:23 AM
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91% of global respondents say they are excited about AI and 79% are familiar with the technology, though levels vary across regions.Despite widespread enthusiasm, only 6% fully trust AI and the majority (91%) have at least one concern about its implications. Only 12% of consumers are comfortable with AI making decisions independently
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
October 19, 3:10 AM
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"Over the past decade, I’ve done several reports with multiple clickstream panels analyzing Google search behavior at scale. The last such analysis was in 2021, and behavior almost certainly looks different today thanks to changes from both Google itself and its search consumers. In past reports, I’ve only been able to look at searches for the United States. This time, given the European Union’s recent rules around Google’s self-preferencing behavior, and the rollout (and rollback) of AI Overviews, I wanted to extend the analysis to both regions."
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
October 18, 7:16 AM
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Il y a encore deux ans, les outils d’IA générative mettaient en avant certains facteurs différenciants pour se démarquer. Aujourd’hui, leurs fonctionnalités tendent à s’uniformiser. Mais offrent-elles réellement le même niveau de performance ? Pour y répondre, BDM a comparé les fonctionnalités des principaux outils disponibles sur le marché.
L’analyse d’image fut l’une des premières capacités multimodales intégrées aux IA généralistes grand public, comme ChatGPT, Gemini et consorts. Elle permet d’uploader une image, un visuel ou une photo, et de demander au modèle une description précise, analyse approfondie, un conseil pratique…
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
October 18, 6:42 AM
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Generative engine optimization (GEO) isn’t a rebrand of SEO. It’s brand marketing adapted to a world where AI models decide what gets recommended. To know if your GEO is working, you don’t look at rankings or keywords — you track share of search, buyer intent, prompt visibility, and how your brand performs inside generative systems.
Key takeaways
GEO is not SEO: It’s about influencing AI-driven discovery, not tweaking metadata or publishing more “helpful” content.
The key metric: share of search: Rising branded search volume signals brand strength — and is the clearest indicator that your GEO efforts are creating demand.
Two diagnostic lenses: Track both brand demand (how many people search for you) and buyer intent (how much of your traffic is commercial vs. informational).
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
October 18, 6:39 AM
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Agentic commerce — where AI agents act, decide, and even purchase on behalf of users — is emerging fast, but the reality is still experimental and uneven. Forrester analysts unpack what “agentic” really means in commerce, where it’s happening today, and what’s coming next as answer engines and merchants start to collaborate more closely.
Key takeaways
Loose definitions, high expectations: Agentic commerce refers to AI-driven systems that can plan, adapt, and act autonomously in buying or selling contexts — though few examples today live up to that promise.
Owned vs. non-owned experiences: Owned experiences happen on brand-controlled sites and apps, where AI tools guide product discovery but rarely enable checkout. Non-owned experiences occur in answer engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity, which are beginning to support direct purchases.
Assistive, not autonomous — yet: Most so-called agentic commerce tools are still “assistive” rather than fully agentic, helping shoppers find products but not completing transactions independently.
Fragmented checkout reality: Current “buy in chat” experiences are clunky — disconnected from retailer accounts, loyalty programs, or inventory systems — reflecting an early stage of integration between agents and merchants.
Rising B2B and agent-to-agent interactions: In early tests, business agents are beginning to negotiate prices or terms autonomously, signaling the coming phase of automated commercial negotiation.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
October 18, 6:33 AM
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AI-powered search is already transforming how consumers discover, evaluate, and buy products. With half of all online shoppers using tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity to make decisions, brands risk losing up to half their traffic from traditional search if they don’t adapt to this new reality.
Key takeaways
The rise of AI search: Around 50% of Google searches already include AI summaries — a number expected to reach 75% by 2028. Tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are becoming consumers’ go-to advisors for product discovery.
Mass adoption across generations: McKinsey data shows that even older generations, including baby boomers, are using AI-powered search to guide purchase decisions.
Decline of traditional search traffic: Brands could lose 20–50% of traffic from classic search engines as AI tools capture early-stage consumer research and decision-making.
From SEO to GEO: Generative engine optimization (GEO) is emerging as the new playbook for visibility, requiring brands to optimize not just their websites but the broader ecosystem of content AI models reference — from affiliates to forums.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
October 17, 3:40 AM
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En 2024, le Groupe de travail IA et Tourisme a lancé son premier sondage sur l’usage de l’intelligence artificielle (IA) dans l’industrie touristique. Ce premier exercice, réalisé auprès d’environ 300 professionnels du secteur, a permis d’identifier les besoins, les défis et les opportunités liés à l’IA dans notre industrie. Un an plus tard, en juin 2025, nous avons renouvelé l’expérience avec plus de 320 répondants afin de mesurer l’évolution des connaissances, de l’adoption de l’IA et des attentes des acteurs touristiques. Ce deuxième sondage nous permet également de suivre les progrès réalisés en douze mois et d’identifier les besoins de l’industrie en matière d’intelligence artificielle.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
October 15, 1:08 PM
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As AI agents begin to book travel on behalf of consumers, the traditional discovery and booking models that hotels depend on are being rewritten. Rafat Ali’s essay at Skift argues that in this new agent-driven ecosystem, hotels must re-earn their “permission to exist” — not just physically, but digitally — by becoming discoverable, bookable, and valuable to AI systems that control future demand.
Key takeaways
Delegation replaces discovery: Travelers are no longer browsing; they’re delegating. AI agents will handle trip planning and booking directly, meaning hotels must be ready to interact with these systems, not human browsers.
Visibility depends on data, not marketing: AI agents don’t respond to branding or ad spend — they respond to structured, high-quality data. Hotels that make rates, room types, and experiences easily readable and transactable via APIs will dominate visibility.
MCP becomes the new GDS: The Model Context Protocol (MCP) — the technical layer connecting AI agents with business systems — will define which hotels appear in AI-driven search and booking flows, much like the GDS did for travel agents.
Direct booking redefined: The next wave of “direct” will be agent-to-hotel, not guest-to-hotel. Success depends on making your systems simple for AI agents to query, book, and confirm instantly.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
October 15, 1:55 AM
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"What happens when the fundamental assumptions underlying the travel industry's business models stop being true? Who has agency: who makes decisions, who controls discovery, who influences choice, and critically, who gets left behind when those power dynamics shift in an AI age.
Reflections on relevance, agency, and the future of an industry in transition.
The $500 billion+ online travel booking market was built on a simple premise: Travelers want to browse, compare, and manually coordinate their trips. That premise is becoming obsolete.
When Expedia and Booking.com launched as integrated apps inside ChatGPT this month, they acknowledged what the data has already started showing: Travelers are in the early phases of shifting from browsing to delegating. They're not saying "show me options"—they're demanding "handle this for me." The entire UX layer that OTAs spent decades perfecting becomes irrelevant when the user never sees it."
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