hoteltech.news August 28, 2026
Tecnología HoteleraPublished August 17, 20261 min read

Your resort doesn't own its guests, Gen Z arrives via influencers

JSBy Joan SanzCurated by Joan Sanz. · August 17, 2026 · Follow on LinkedIn
Voice reading · ~1 min

The latest analysis from hospitality.today, covered by Hospitality Net, makes an uncomfortable point: you don't own your guests, you just rent them a room. OTAsOTAAn online travel agency is a channel that sells accommodation and travel online in exchange for a commission. Booking.com and Expedia are the biggest. They bring volume and visibility, but charge commissions that eat..., wholesalersMayoristaA wholesaler or bedbank buys rooms at a net rate and resells them to agencies, tour operators and other OTAs worldwide. It gives reach into distant markets, but it is a classic source of disparity when those rates end..., luxury advisors and AI platforms each grab a piece of the guest relationship. What's left for the hotel is the stay itself. Relying on that alone to build loyalty is a weak hand.

It gets better. Gen Z discovers hotels through influencers, not Google. That is no longer a side note. And your five hotel AIs, revenue, CRMCRMA CRM is the system where the hotel stores and works its guest relationships: history, preferences, campaigns and communications. It is used to build loyalty, win back past guests and personalize the stay. Used well i..., chatbotChatbotA chatbot is a program that converses with the guest by text or voice to solve questions or guide a booking. The old ones followed rigid scripts, today's use language models and sound natural. Done well it takes load..., housekeeping, feedback, have never spoken to each other. Each one sees a fragment of the guest.

Here is the opportunity. If the guest arrives because an influencer sent them, that relationship already exists before they check in. If your AIs talk to each other, you can use that data to make the stay so good they stop looking elsewhere. Tech is not stealing the relationship. It can hand it back to you.

Quick questions

Why doesn't the hotel own its guests?
According to the analysis, OTAs, wholesalers, luxury advisors and AI platforms each capture part of the relationship, leaving the hotel only the stay to build loyalty from.
How does Gen Z find hotels?
Instead of searching on Google, they ask influencers and content creators. That changes where you invest in marketing and how you build brand awareness.
What does it mean that my AIs don't talk to each other?
Each system, revenue, CRM, chatbot, feedback, sees a fragment of the guest. Without shared data you lose the full context needed to personalize the stay.
Can I get the guest relationship back?
Yes. Well integrated technology gives you the data to anticipate needs, and a great stay makes guests return even if an influencer brought them in.
Are OTAs the main problem?
The analysis points to them as intermediaries that capture relationship, but the real challenge is having your own direct sales and data strategy.

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