2026 Is the Year of the Brand Evolution

In 2025, hospitality experienced its first true channel shift in consumer behavior since the introduction of smartphones. AI-driven booking channels and large language models (LLMs) moved from experimentation to influence, reshaping how travelers discover, evaluate, and choose hotels. This was not simply a new distribution channel, it was a fundamental evolution in how brand information is read, trusted, and acted upon.

For decades, hotel marketing followed a relatively stable model: build a compelling website telling a visually rich brand story, optimized for search engines, run paid media, and persuade travelers to book direct. That model still matters, but it now serves only part of the audience. The modern hotel brand is no longer consumed exclusively by humans. It is parsed, interpreted, and summarized by machines acting on the traveler’s behalf.

Historically, hoteliers learned to balance two narratives: one designed for guests and another engineered for search engines.  We learned how to reconcile these two narratives because they did not fundamentally compete with one another.  In 2025, that balance tipped. LLMs do not evaluate a hotel the way a human traveler does. Aspirational copy, evocative imagery, and claims like “best-in-class service” may still inspire emotion, but machines require authority. They seek corroboration across a broader and deeper set of signals, like how the hotel operates, how service is delivered, and how claims are supported by evidence rather than marketing language alone.

The nuance is that a brand story for an LLM is not a single page of copy or a hero image. It is an aggregate system of truth. Increasingly, that system appears to be composed of structured and unstructured attributes that must honor consistency and credibility: rates, inventory, property details, imagery, video, digital content, and the operational realities behind the promise. This information must then be parsed so that it can be optimized for dual consumption across different landscapes.

At the same time, consumer behavior has evolved just as dramatically. A traditional Google search might consist of three words: “hotels New York.” An LLM-driven query is often seventy words or more, shaped by context, intent, constraints, and personal preferences. Travelers now have a tool that enables deeper exploration and more expressive questions. That shift alone exposes how incomplete the old optimization model was.

This moment also echoes a pivotal fork in digital history. In the early days of search, Yahoo positioned itself as a destination, a directory designed to keep users engaged. Google made a different philosophical decision: move the user to the best external authority as quickly as possible.  Among several factors, that philosophical difference is why Google is the authoritative search tool today.  It was also that choice that reshaped consumer expectations, normalized short queries, and gave digital marketers a kind of hall pass to optimize for a small set of keywords and partial intent, trusting Google to do the rest. LLMs remove that abstraction. At seventy words, there is nowhere to hide. Brands must now supply significantly more context, clarity, and proof.

Complicating matters further is a question that surfaced forcefully in mid-2025: who has the authority to tell a hotel’s brand story? Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), leveraging scale and entrenched data relationships, have positioned themselves as default narrators within AI ecosystems. While expedient in the short term, this dynamic threatens long-term brand ownership, accuracy, and the direct relationship with the guest.  There is also a moment-in-time opportunity to reset the relationship with OTAs as their data model and integration cannot tell as authoritative a story across all of the signals that the LLMs are demanding.

The good news for hoteliers is that while the technical complexity of this transition is real, a significant portion of the solution itself remains firmly within their control and immediately actionable. This is, at its core, a brand challenge. It is an opportunity to tell a richer, more authoritative brand story, one that reflects not just how a hotel wants to be perceived, but how it truly operates and delivers value. As the industry looks toward 2026, those who invest equally in technology and a deep understanding of their brand and who build for both humans and machines will be best positioned to protect direct bookings, reclaim narrative authority, and succeed in an AI-mediated hospitality landscape.

Luke Markesky

Luke Markesky is the Executive Vice President, Operations at Cendyn.

About Cendyn

Cendyn is a global hospitality cloud-based technology company that enables hotels to Find, Book, Grow – driving revenue, maximizing profitability, and creating deeper connections with guests through its integrated solutions.

Serving hoteliers for nearly 30 years, Cendyn has over 32,000 customers in more than 150 countries including brands Outrigger Hospitality, Hyatt, IHG, Aman Resorts & Hotels, Relais & Châteaux, Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts, Coraltree Hospitality, and Onyx Hospitality Group – generating more than $20 billion in annual hotel revenue. The company supports its growing customer base with offices across the globe.

To find out more, visit cendyn.com.