We’ve heard this promise earlier than.
The Web was presupposed to decentralize journey. Then got here social media, metasearch, and the so-called “sharing economic system.” Every new wave arrived with the identical story: this time, lodges will lastly join straight with their visitors once more.
However each single time, historical past repeated itself. The early internet (as soon as open and free) was recaptured by Google, Amazon, Fb, and Apple. The “peer-to-peer” revolution of Airbnb and Uber – shortly grew to become platform empires. Even blockchain and crypto, constructed on decentralization itself, consolidated right into a handful of exchanges and energy gamers.
So let’s name it what it’s: true decentralization, at scale, has by no means been achieved – not in enterprise, not in tech, not anyplace within the historical past of humanity.
And but, in the present day, we’re listening to the identical promise once more, this time wrapped within the glow of AI. “AI search will democratize discovery. It should join vacationers straight with lodges. It should lastly finish the period of middlemen.”
It’s a ravishing story. However it’s additionally dangerously naïve.
As a result of as soon as AI platforms (OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Meta) change into the last word interface between the traveler and the lodge, we’ve merely changed one intermediary with one other. Solely this time, it’s not nearly who controls distribution. It’s about who controls the relationship with the patron.
If we don’t transfer quick, AI platforms will proceed strengthening their relationship with whoever already owns essentially the most structured, trusted, and accessible provide — and proper now, that’s the OTAs.
So what can we do?
We cease chasing the fantasy of complete decentralization and begin constructing a brand new, higher sort of centralization – one which works for the lodge {industry}, not towards it.
A platform (or community) that’s:
- Centralized for discoverability, however federated in management
- Brazenly linked through requirements like MCP, so AI programs can entry verified lodge knowledge straight
- Honest and clear, with minimal commissions or flat charges
- Absolutely data-sharing, so lodges all the time obtain their visitor info
- Rooted in belief, by verified identification and content material authenticity
In different phrases: if decentralization isn’t achievable, then let’s rebuild the middle on our personal phrases.
That is our second
AI search and the rising Mannequin Context Protocol (MCP) period supply a once-in-a-lifetime reset button. For the primary time in 25 years, the infrastructure of on-line discovery is being rebuilt – and now we have a slender window to resolve whether or not lodges are seen contributors… or invisible knowledge factors.
If we act now (by publishing structured, AI-readable content material, by constructing our personal MCP servers, and by uniting round a clear, industry-owned layer for verified lodge knowledge) we will change into the trusted supply AI platforms depend on.
But when we sit again and wait, we’ll get up to search out that the identical previous intermediaries have already stuffed that position. We’ll have misplaced once more – this time not simply to search engines like google or OTAs, however to AI itself.
This isn’t about eliminating the intermediary. It’s about redefining who the intermediary serves.
It’s about reclaiming management over our knowledge, our visibility, and our margins – collectively. As a result of if we don’t construct the longer term we wish, another person will.
And so they’ll cost us for entry to it — once more.
How can we do it?
We’re not chasing “excellent decentralization.” We’re speaking about making a shared, industry-owned digital infrastructure – a federated hub – that connects lodges on to AI search programs by open requirements like MCP.
Consider it as a public utility layer for lodge knowledge: verified, structured, and accessible to all AI brokers.
This construction would:
- Maintain knowledge possession and buyer relationship on the property/model degree.
- Allow collective visibility and belief on the {industry} degree.
- Supply AI platforms a single, authoritative supply to question as an alternative of 10,000 fragmented websites.
This sort of effort requires a coalition of equals, not a single firm. The mannequin already exists in different sectors – consider:
- IATA (airline requirements, NDC protocol)
- W3C (internet requirements)
- Linux Basis (open-source collaboration)
Who would drive it?
We have to type an Alliance comprised of a number of classes of stakeholders who may make this occur, in partnership:
- Business organizations:
- AHLA / HTNG — already handle technical working teams; may formalize an AI Distribution Federation Committee.
- HEDNA — deep distribution experience, perfect for outlining the industrial framework and API governance.
- HFTP — already manages USALI — successfully the worldwide accounting commonplace for lodges, which provides it deep credibility in defining and sustaining impartial, cross-industry frameworks.
- HSMAI – uniquely positioned to translate the technical imaginative and prescient into industrial motion.
- Academia and Thought Leaders – can run pilots, contribute analysis, lead training, and assist form governance frameworks. Impartial tutorial oversight provides credibility and transparency.
- Startups and open-source contributors can construct the technical scaffolding (AI-ready schemas, validation instruments, visibility dashboards).
- Resort corporations from all segments of our {industry}.
Not like previous makes an attempt (metasearch, direct-booking coalitions like Roomkey), the AI period creates a technical purpose for collaboration.
AI brokers want structured, verified knowledge from trusted sources.
If lodges present it collectively, AI programs will use it — not due to politics, however as a result of it’s the greatest, most complete and reliable knowledge out there.
That’s the leverage level we’ve by no means had earlier than.
Backside line
We don’t have to destroy centralization. We have to rebuild it in our picture — clear, honest, and open. If the lodge {industry} aligns now — by open knowledge, shared requirements, and a impartial belief basis — it may possibly lastly personal the interface between its product and the traveler.
That’s not a dream. It’s an engineering downside — and we have already got the blueprint.
