Turning guest insights into smart marketing
By Amy King
Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping marketing in the hotel industry. While much of the attention has focused on AI’s ability to generate emails, social posts, and promotional copy in seconds, the technology’s greatest value comes before the first word is written.
Effective hotel marketers are using AI to understand how travelers think, what questions they ask, and what influences their booking decisions. Those insights allow hotels to create relevant content throughout the customer journey, from the earliest stages of trip planning to post-stay engagement.
Rather than replacing marketing strategy, AI strengthens it, helping hoteliers to listen before they speak.
This approach is especially valuable for hoteliers of independent properties that lack dedicated marketing teams. AI gives lean teams the ability to analyze guest behavior, identify trends, and create personalized campaigns with a level of sophistication that once required larger budgets. Many of the most valuable applications require little more than guest reviews, reservation data, and a willingness to ask better questions.
“The biggest ROI is coming from areas where AI improves speed, scale, and decision making,” said Jason Lee, chief technology officer at Travel Media Group. “Before, it might have taken a team of data engineers to analyze all this information. Now, we can use conversational AI models to better understand our market, understand our competitors, and understand our strengths and weaknesses through the eyes of guests.”
Hoteliers can begin by analyzing reviews, identifying recurring themes, and using those insights to create website content, email campaigns, and social media posts that reflect what guests value. AI-powered systems can summarize thousands of comments in minutes, allowing smaller properties to uncover insights that previously required significant time and expertise.
“I think this is where the independent property has a lot of opportunity,” said Lee. “Hotels are taking their data and using AI to create an analysis that gives them insights into their customers. Then they can use that information to create marketing that’s much more impactful.”
Where Discovery Begins
Travelers no longer begin planning a trip by visiting multiple websites to compare hotels. Instead, they use AI tools to ask specific questions related to their search needs. The conversations reveal what guests care about long before they decide where to book.
For marketers, understanding that intent has become one of the technology’s greatest strengths.
“We’re seeing AI play the biggest role during the discovery phase,” said Craig Carbonniere, AVP, hospitality at Milestone, Inc. “People are asking detailed questions early in their booking journey, but the information they receive plays a huge role in the decisions they eventually make.”
Instead of deciding internally what messages guests should respond to, marketers can identify the questions travelers are already asking and create content that answers them. The result is marketing that feels more helpful and relevant because it aligns with the way guests naturally research and plan travel.
Hotels don’t need complicated, non-industry software to gather insights. Carbonniere recommends regularly testing AI platforms either through a program that monitors conversations, such as Milestone’s AI Search Intelligence platform, or manually with questions prospective guests might ask about a destination or property via ChatGPT or Google Gemini, for example. The goal is to identify which hotels AI recommends, which it overlooks, and use those insights to improve your digital presence.
“We should be paying attention to when we’re not being recommended – and who is,” Carbonniere said. “If we’re missing from AI responses, it’s an opportunity to create content that fills the gap, whether that’s a destination guide, FAQ, blog article, or press release. Even if your hotel is mentioned, look at the source. If AI is citing an OTA instead of your website, that’s a clear opportunity to create more authoritative content and earn the citation.”
Getting Started
Understanding guest intent is only the first step. Once hotels know what travelers are looking for, AI can quickly create content that addresses those needs beyond traditional advertising. Today, hotels lean on AI to draft email campaigns, write blog articles, create destination guides, develop seasonal promotions, generate social media posts, build FAQ pages, and tailor website content to specific traveler segments.
Here, it’s about quality over quantity. Rather than produce extra content because AI makes it easy, successful marketers produce content with purpose.
Some of the best sources of marketing come from information hotels already possess. Reviews, guest surveys, reservation data, customer emails, and conversations at the front desk provide a constant stream of feedback, concerns, and questions.
Lee explains that information is often underutilized because it exists in too many different places for staff to analyze efficiently. Intelligent tools can quickly organize thousands of comments into meaningful themes, painting a clear picture for marketers of what matters most to guests.
“AI can help connect guest intent to marketing execution,” said Lee. “By understanding different guest segments and summarizing guest sentiment, hotels can create marketing that reaches travelers when they’re ready to book.”
Guest reviews are particularly valuable because they reveal what travelers notice about a property. Recurring themes provide authentic material for marketing campaigns. Instead of promoting amenities equally, marketers can emphasize the experiences guests value most. Hoteliers can also convert frequently asked questions into content to help future guests and reduce repetitive inquiries for staff.
“Creating highly relevant, helpful content is one of the biggest opportunities in hotel marketing today,” Carbonniere said. “Hotels already have the answers. The front desk teams respond to hundreds of guest questions every day. Those FAQs, along with content about nearby events, attractions, and conferences, should be published on the hotel’s website. Not only does it help prospective guests, but it also gives AI platforms more relevant content to reference when recommending where to stay.”
AI also helps marketers personalize communications for different audiences by adapting messaging for each audience without creating new campaigns from scratch. That personalization becomes even more powerful when combined with localized content.
Hotel owners, operators, and/or their marketing teams can ask AI tools to identify upcoming concerts, festivals, and sporting events, allowing them to create timely promotions that appeal to travelers planning visits around those events while still remaining consistent with the property’s overall brand.
Avoiding AI Slop
Although AI makes it easier to create content, there is the challenge of avoiding generic marketing. Guests are increasingly adept at recognizing AI-generated copy that sounds polished yet lacks personality.
The solution is not to use less AI, but to use it more thoughtfully. Instead of having tools such as ChatGPT or Claude create campaigns from scratch, hotels should establish clear brand guidelines, define their target audiences, and identify characteristics that make their property unique. This allows AI-generated content to reflect the hotel’s distinct personality.
Feedback is another powerful tool for maintaining an authentic voice. Rather than relying on standard descriptions of guestrooms or amenities, hotels can use reviews to highlight the experiences guests praise. Those real-world insights often provide stronger marketing messages.
“When you understand your strengths and leverage those positive guest experiences, you’re creating something that’s truly localized because you’re reinforcing an experience that guests have already had,” said Lee.
Human oversight also remains essential. While AI can dramatically accelerate content creation, hotels should not publish content without someone reviewing it for accuracy, tone, and authenticity.
“I don’t think true marketing should ever be completely automated,” said Lee. “You have to have your humanity in it. AI can help you scale that, but I don’t think it takes you there by itself.”
The same principle applies to visual marketing. Rather than generating entirely artificial images, hotels are using AI to enhance existing photography. Newer image models can add people enjoying amenities, illustrate pet-friendly accommodations, or create event-specific variations while preserving the property’s actual appearance.
Those enhancements help travelers visualize the guest experience without misrepresenting the hotel itself.
For today’s hoteliers, AI’s greatest value is helping marketers listen more carefully, understand guest intent thoroughly, and create marketing that reflects the experience travelers can expect when they arrive.
“I think the better you treat your guests, the more positive signals you’re creating,” said Lee. “Your best marketing in the future is going to be how focused you are on delivering incredible guest service and experience.”
The Power of the Prompt
The results that AI tools such as ChatGPT and Claude generate are only as good as the prompt given to them. Whether drafting Instagram captions or analyzing guest reviews, powerful prompts lead to high-quality results. Follow these best practices when leveraging AI tools:
- Don’t be vague. Clear queries yield the best results.
- Provide context about your hotel, your intended audience, and other details, such as content form and tone.
- Set limits – provide brand guidelines, word counts, and what the AI tool shouldn’t emphasize.
- Review the result. All AI-generated content should be proofread for accuracy, authenticity, and alignment with style guidelines.
Tip: Ask an AI tool to put itself into a marketing manager’s shoes. For example: You are a hotel marketing manager creating an itinerary for a girls’ weekend in Miami. Include details about the best rooftop bars, brunches, nightclubs, and beaches within 5 miles of my hotel.
Source: University of Minnesota Extension
Image: VectorMine/stock.adobe.com
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