​​How AI is reshaping the inspiration to booking journey for hotels and resorts

The guest journey is changing again. Artificial intelligence has created a new planning environment where travelers expect fast answers, personalized recommendations, and seamless decision-making. For properties and marketing teams, this shift requires a fresh approach to hospitality marketing.

Travelers are researching more but finding less clarity

Studies show that travelers view more than one hundred pages of content before booking. At the same time, most people are not satisfied with current planning tools. They consult social media, influencer content, and community platforms to gather ideas. This creates a long, nonlinear path from inspiration to booking.

AI shortens this process. Assistants can interpret preferences, compare destinations, and assemble options instantly. This compresses the journey and positions AI tools as a primary source of discovery.

Answer engines are replacing long results pages

Search is evolving from lists of links to direct answers. Google’s AI Overviews and similar tools summarize complex topics into short, relevant responses. For properties, this means that content must be structured and optimized so AI systems can understand and retrieve key information.

Traditional SEO remains important, but modern hospitality marketing must also account for answer engine optimization.

Why ROAS alone cannot guide strategy

Many properties focus heavily on ROAS. While this metric has value, it can unintentionally limit growth. Optimizing only for last click interactions ignores earlier phases that influence guest decisions. Properties risk missing out on travelers who are still shaping their preferences.

A balanced approach ensures visibility throughout the journey and supports long-term direct booking growth.

How to increase direct bookings in the age of AI

The following tactics help properties strengthen their presence across search, social, and AI-powered platforms:

1. Ensure strong website technical health
2. Add schema and structured data
3. Optimize local listings and guest review responses
4. Build detailed FAQ pages
5. Write conversational, question-focused content
6. Expand on page content for key topics
7. Publish itineraries and local area guides
8. Participate in forums and community platforms
9. Create structured, answer-oriented social content
10. Invest in PR and link building

Each of these steps supports discoverability and improves how AI platforms interpret your content.

Preparing for AI-powered advertising

Google is testing new ways to include ads in AI-driven results. While this space is still developing, hotel metasearch and Google Hotel Ads remain essential sources of demand and will likely integrate with future ad products.

How GCommerce is supporting properties

GCommerce connects direct inventory to AI assistants and delivers transparent reporting through Metadesk and Summit. Our hospitality marketing agency helps properties understand performance, identify opportunities, and build strategies that align with new guest behaviors.To stay ahead of the curve, properties must approach hospitality marketing with a data-informed mindset and a clear understanding of how AI changes the inspiration to booking journey. Contact us today to get started.

From chaos to clarity: The new era of hospitality data transparency

The data paradox in hospitality

Hotels have never had more data at their disposal. PMS reports, CRS exports, Google Ads dashboards, OTA extranets, the list goes on. But more data hasn’t meant more clarity. Instead, it’s created chaos:

• Reports that don’t align.
  
• Spreadsheets that eat up hours.
  
• Conflicting KPIs that leave leaders second-guessing decisions.

For ownership groups, this chaos multiplies. Each property reports differently. Each channel measures performance in silos. Benchmarking becomes guesswork.

The shift toward transparency

Hospitality is moving into a new era: data transparency. Rollup tools now consolidate results at the property, portfolio, and channel level. Instead of drowning in fragments, hoteliers gain one coherent story of performance.

Transparency matters because OTAs already use their data advantage to optimize in real time. If hotels want to compete, they need to level the playing field with equally fast, clear insights.

What transparency unlocks

• At the property level — Managers can see where campaigns succeed and fix weak spots quickly.
  
• At the portfolio level — Owners can benchmark properties consistently and act with confidence.
  
• At the channel level — Marketers can identify waste, prove efficiency, and reallocate spend.

Transparency turns data into action. It shifts reporting from backward-looking to forward-driving.

From burden to competitive edge

With transparent, unified reporting, hoteliers reclaim control. They can compete on strategy, not just budget. They can move faster, invest smarter, and grow stronger.

The era of chaos is ending. For hotels ready to embrace transparency, clarity is now within reach.

Discover how GCommerce can take your property’s data from chaos to clarity. 

Seeing the whole picture: Why channel-level data matters for hotel marketing

The blind spot in hotel marketing

Every hotel marketer faces the same dilemma: where should we put the next dollar? Paid search, metasearch, social, display, retargeting, video — the options are endless.

The problem is that channels are usually measured in isolation. Paid search may look strong on clicks, metasearch may boast high ROAS, and display may drive awareness. But without seeing all channels together, decisions are made in the dark.

Why channel rollups matter

Channel rollup reporting delivers the holistic view marketers need. By aggregating spend, clicks, conversions, and revenue into one clear framework, hotels can:

• Pinpoint efficiency — Spot high-performing channels and amplify them.
  
• Eliminate waste — Scale back underperformers draining budget.
  
• Balance strategy — Ensure reliance on branded campaigns doesn’t mask gaps in unbranded visibility.
  
• Test smarter — Evaluate emerging channels fairly against proven ones.
  

The impact in action

Consider a marketing director managing $500,000 in annual spend. On paper, social campaigns look strong — plenty of engagement. But when rolled up against other channels, social is driving impressions without bookings. Meanwhile, metasearch and retargeting are generating the majority of revenue.

With this insight, even a 10% budget reallocation could significantly boost returns.

Stretching budgets further

Hospitality marketing is under constant pressure to deliver more with less. OTAs are spending aggressively across channels, making efficiency critical for independents and groups alike.With rollup data, marketers no longer just ask “what happened?” They can finally answer: What should we do next?

Contact GCommerce today to take the next step and receive channel rollups for your property.

How hotel groups can unlock portfolio-level benchmarking

The challenge of fragmented data

Hotel ownership groups and asset managers are awash in data. Every property produces reports on occupancy, bookings, marketing, and revenue. But because each property tracks and reports differently, it’s nearly impossible to compare results in a clean, consistent way.

The reality is that most reporting still happens at the property level. While useful, this creates blind spots when owners need to see the big picture.

Why portfolio benchmarking matters

Portfolio-level benchmarking changes the conversation from individual performance to collective insight. With a unified rollup, owners can:

• Spot outliers — Identify top performers and struggling properties instantly.
  
• Compare consistently — Measure ADR, RevPAR, ROAS, and direct booking share apples-to-apples.
  
• Reallocate resources — Direct capital, staffing, or marketing investment where it will drive the greatest impact.
  
• Build accountability — Ensure each property is held to consistent benchmarks, not arbitrary local standards.

A practical example

Imagine a 10-property portfolio. Eight hotels are delivering a healthy marketing ROAS, but two are significantly underperforming. With rollup benchmarking, those underperformers don’t get hidden in averages — they’re flagged for immediate attention. Owners can investigate if it’s a budget issue, a market dynamic, or an operational gap.

Meanwhile, standout properties become models of best practice. If one property is generating exceptional direct bookings, owners can replicate that approach across the portfolio.

From reactive to proactive leadership

With portfolio-level data, ownership groups move from reactive reporting to proactive strategy. Decisions about where to invest, where to intervene, and how to grow are backed by transparency.

For hotel groups, the future is clear: portfolio-level benchmarking is no longer optional. It’s the foundation of profitable growth.
Contact us today to get started with your portfolio-level benchmarking.

The hospitality data platform: What it means and why hotels should care

The hospitality data platform: What it means and why hotels should care

Every hotel marketer knows the challenge. There’s more data than ever, but it lives everywhere and connects nowhere. Media reports sit in one dashboard. Booking data is stored in another. Benchmarks arrive by email. Guest behavior is buried in CRMs. The result is a fragmented view that makes decision-making harder than it should be.

The hospitality data platform changes that. It is more than a reporting tool. It is an intelligent infrastructure built to unify the information that drives performance—media, bookings, operations, and market insights—into a single, connected ecosystem.

This is the difference between visibility and intelligence.

When data is fragmented, opportunities slip through the cracks. Without unified insights, a property might overspend on paid search while missing retargeting opportunities. Multi-property groups can struggle to see where one hotel is outperforming another. And without accurate channel attribution, bookings may be credited to OTAs that could have been direct.

A hospitality data platform eliminates that disconnect. It gives hoteliers a complete, actionable view of performance across every level of their business.

What a hospitality data platform enables

See the whole picture
Access every layer of performance, from individual campaigns to portfolio-wide insights, in one centralized view.

Benchmark with confidence
Compare performance against market peers, property types, and channels using real-time hospitality benchmarks.

Respond faster
Spot shifts in demand early, adjust campaigns automatically, and align spend with the channels that drive profitable bookings.

Forecast smarter
Use predictive intelligence to anticipate demand instead of reacting to it after the fact.

More than connection—activation

A hospitality data platform does not replace your agency, booking engine, or CRM. It amplifies them. It brings each system into a connected framework where data powers every decision.

When media, revenue, and guest data work together, the conversation shifts from “what happened last month” to “what will happen next—and how can we act on it?”

This is what turns information into intelligence and strategy into growth.

Why it matters now

Competition from OTAs is rising. Media costs continue to climb. Guest expectations are evolving. Hoteliers who rely on disconnected systems will fall behind, while those who invest in unified data will lead.

A true hospitality data platform allows hotels and resorts to move from fragmented reporting to proactive performance management. It empowers teams to make faster, smarter decisions—and to increase direct bookings with clarity and control.

The future of hospitality intelligence

The hospitality industry doesn’t need more tools. It needs better connections between them. That’s what the hospitality data platform delivers: one source of truth, purpose-built for hotels, management companies, and partners who want to understand not just what happened, but what to do next.

It is the foundation for how hospitality marketing, media, and data will work together in the years ahead. And it is how GCommerce is helping hotels turn data into growth.

Ready to unify your marketing data and uncover the insights driving your next direct booking? Connect with GCommerce to learn how our Hospitality Data Platform brings intelligence, transparency, and performance together for hotels and resorts. Get in touch today.