In the latest episode of Back of House Banter, Amy Branford sits down with Adam Hamadache, CEO of Formula Digital, to unpack the ways generative AI is reshaping hotel discovery. Beyond the changes in how your guests search, this conversation explores how hoteliers should think about visibility, reputation, and even direct bookings in an AI-first world.
For years, hotel marketers focused on one major goal: getting guests onto their website. That model is starting to shift. As Adam explains in the podcast, generative AI allows travellers to ask highly specific questions and get tailored recommendations instantly — often without ever visiting a hotel’s website.
“A lot more customers will be finding out about you outside of your website as opposed to on your website, which is what Google's main purpose is.”
A guest searching for “a quiet boutique hotel near the beach with excellent breakfast and good family reviews” may receive recommendations directly from an AI assistant, complete with summaries pulled from multiple sources. Once they get their answer, they might visit the hotel website simply to complete their bookings.
That means being visible is no longer just about ranking well; it’s about making sure AI can understand and confidently recommend your property. To formulate its recommendation, these tools seek out information from well beyond your website. They carry out a digital sweep, gathering clues and indicators of what the actual experience on offer is like. As Adam points out:
"There's a sort of omnipotence to these large language models like ChatGPT. They see everything."
One of the standout points from the episode is how online reviews are evolving from social proof into discoverability signals. A reviewer isn't just recommending a hotel (or not). Reviews often provide detailed and specific information that hotel websites or listings miss (or choose not to display).
AI tools are incredibly good at scanning and summarising huge amounts of text, which means guest reviews can reveal details that traditional marketing copy often misses. Comments about room comfort, service, breakfast quality, noise levels, or even how family-friendly your property feels become part of how AI understands your hotel.
Most details about the guest experience aren't covered on a hotel website, but they are hugely relevant when it comes to matching the right hotel to a guest with specific needs. For this reason, managing and responding to these comments is just as crucial as maintaining a strong online reputation, as it correctly informs the digital assistants that ultimately select the hotels.
A key takeaway is that traditional website traffic metrics may become less meaningful. If AI can answer many of your guests' questions before they click, a drop in traffic doesn’t necessarily mean a drop in visibility. It may simply mean that potential guests are doing more of their research within AI tools.
That’s why Adam suggests a different mindset: hotels should test how their property appears in AI-generated results themselves. Ask an AI assistant about your destination, your hotel, or the type of stay you offer. This kind of audit can expose outdated descriptions, inconsistent amenities, or weak third-party mentions that could affect how your hotel is represented.
Perhaps the most interesting theme in the conversation is how blurred the line between marketing and operations has become. If a guest repeatedly mentions poor Wi-Fi or noisy rooms in reviews, that operational issue quickly becomes a marketing problem because AI can surface it instantly.
The strategy should be to have a more connected internal ecosystem. Teams can no longer treat marketing as something separate from guest experience. Every review response, every service improvement, and every operational fix contributes to the digital story AI and potential guests see.
There’s also an optimistic side to this shift for independent hotels. AI recommendations don’t rely solely on traditional authority signals like company size or advertising spend. Instead, they often prioritise relevance. A well-reviewed independent hotel can be recommended over a larger competitor if it better matches a guest’s query.
That levels the playing field in a way many smaller operators haven’t experienced before. Properties that understand their niche and deliver on guest expectations may find themselves competing much more effectively against global brands.