When it comes to travel and artificial intelligence, the dominant narrative is quite clear. We are entering a new era where all decisions will be made within AI-controlled ecosystems and where user mobility will be reduced, reshaping the messy middle: fewer steps and touchpoints, for an increasingly smooth and "conversational" search experience that leads directly to conversion. But is reality really like this?
Although AI is effectively changing the way people search for information, the reality today is that we are not yet in a scenario where decisions—and especially hotel bookings—are made within AI ecosystems.
On the contrary, what we are observing in practice is that the technology required to complete transactions of this kind within AI environments is still in an early stage of development. The data shared by Google during the Blastness panel at ITB speaks for itself: today, the actual adoption of AI-powered search engines remains well below 5% of the total, while 100% of bookings still flow through traditional channels.
The effectiveness of these tools in strengthening the direct channel is still extremely limited compared to traditional search engines. Over the years, Google has built a highly advanced ecosystem for the travel sector, offering hotels tools that cover the entire user journey: from organic search to advertising, from hospitality-specific formats to integration with Maps and price comparison systems.
In this context, what we often refer to as “web real estate” continues to hold a central value. Owning visibility within the search landscape still means capturing real demand at the moment it is formed. And this means that the competition for the direct channel remains, even today, deeply tied to Google.
User behavior has not changed in its fundamental elements: people search, compare, evaluate, and book. What has already changed is the “how” people search for information online: one of the clearest signals of this evolution is search queries, which are becoming longer, more specific, and more conversational. Google has revealed that, according to the latest estimates, around 70% of searches are long-tail queries and that conversational searches with more than eight words have grown by over 800%.
In the travel sector, this phenomenon is particularly visible. A few years ago, a user would simply search: "Hotel in Barcelona". Today, the same traveler might search for something much more specific: "Best four-star hotels in Barcelona near the beach with family rooms and a pool".
For many years, we have described this decision-making journey using the concept of the "messy middle". The idea is simple: between the moment someone starts thinking about a trip and the moment they actually book, there is a phase of exploration and evaluation. Travelers compare destinations, read reviews, check prices, and explore multiple options before deciding. Especially in travel, this process has traditionally been very complex.
With AI-powered search experiences, travelers can now move through this process much faster. Instead of visiting dozens of websites and assembling information on their own, users can ask complex questions and receive instant synthesized answers. This means people can increasingly make highly considered decisions at the speed of an impulse. Adding further complexity to this picture, inspiration for a trip today can start almost anywhere: not only AI assistants but also YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. The result is a customer journey that is no longer linear: travelers move across multiple platforms before making a decision.
But something very interesting happens when travelers move from inspiration to evaluation: they return to search. In fact, Google highlights that 81% of social media users use Search to evaluate something they discovered on social platforms. And two-thirds of consumers say that search influenced their final purchase decision after discovering something on social media.
So while discovery can happen anywhere, intent and purchases still concentrate around search. And for hotels this moment is crucial: if your property is visible here, you can convert that demand into direct bookings instead of losing it to intermediaries.
How does all of this translate in practice for hotels?
To compete effectively in the direct channel, three elements become—and will increasingly remain—fundamental.
When these three elements come together coherently, visibility can be effectively transformed into direct bookings, even in a context shaped by constant change like the one we have just seen.