Agentic AI will redefine hotel distribution by shifting power from OTAs to hotels that control their data. Five key dimensions are expected to determine future booking competitiveness.

Artificial intelligence is no longer just another technology trend in hospitality. It is redefining how travelers search, compare, and book hotels, fundamentally transforming the booking journey. According to Brian Reeves, CEO and co-founder of roomangel Foundation, agentic AI will reshape hotel distribution and challenge long-standing OTA dominance.

“In this new scenario, instead of opening 10 tabs on Google to search and book trips, hotel bookings are made agentically. That is, through an AI Agent where the search is no longer done through keywords but through conversations that allow you to search, compare, book, and hyper-personalize your experience all in one place,” says Reeves.

While many industry analysts predict that OTAs will continue to dominate distribution, the current landscape has been built on old consumer search behavior. In the agentic AI future, Reeves argues, competitive advantage will shift from marketing budgets to data quality, giving hotels the opportunity to regain control over distribution and costs.

The five data dimensions that will shape agentic bookings

According to roomangel Foundation, five key data dimensions will determine how and where bookings are made in an AI-driven future:

1. Speed: Agentic AI requires instant responses. Hotels must provide real-time, high-speed data to support hyper-personalized booking experiences. Booking delays will no longer be acceptable as AI agents prioritise fast conversion.

2. Data structure: Unstructured data creates errors. When AI fills data gaps, it can hallucinate, producing misleading or incorrect results. Structured hotel data is essential to prevent misinformation and booking failures. Speed and structure are baseline requirements for agentic participation.

3. Depth: Agentic booking requests go beyond simple availability. They involve personalized, multi-layered preferences. Reeves gives an example: “I need a 4-star hotel in central London on Monday, December 1st. A room on a high floor, away from the elevator, with an iron and ironing board, and a pull-out bed for a 3-year-old. A dinner reservation at 8 PM on the 1st and a babysitting service from 7:30 to 10:30 PM that evening.”

Such requests prove OTA data is too shallow. Hotels that provide deep content and operational data will win in agentic AI environments.

4. Trust: Trust remains a major barrier for AI-driven bookings. According to roomangel Foundation, AI needs to verify hotel authenticity, images, prices, and booking conditions. The foundation is introducing a cryptographic verification system that certifies hotel data so AI agents can trust and use it confidently.

5. Value: AI agents will evaluate value for money, not just price. Reeves explains that tagging each hotel rate with a value signal – an objective and transparent value-for-money code – will prevent overpricing and biased rankings. This approach challenges OTA commission-driven models.

Reeves also believes loyalty will evolve: “Loyalty and rewards systems in this agentic world will become part of the overall value dataset, but we will need to rethink what that agentic loyalty marketplace might look like. There is no technical reason, for example, that a customer cannot define the rewards that are meaningful to them.”

Travel Daily News

Article link