Is Operator the Death of Traditional Search for Hotel Websites?

Welcome to "The AI Advantage," a monthly series by Michael J. Goldrich, Chief Experience Officer at The Hotels Network and Founder and Chief Advisor at Vivander Advisors. Each month, Michael explores the latest AI trends and innovations shaping the hospitality industry and their impact on hoteliers.

For decades, the hotel industry has fought to reclaim control of its direct booking channel. First from traditional travel agents, then from OTAs, and more recently from Google itself. But the latest challenge isn’t a middleman in the traditional sense. It’s something entirely different.

Operator.

It doesn’t compare prices across OTAs. It doesn’t pull up a list of hotels ranked by star ratings or location. It doesn’t encourage travelers to visit your website at all, unless they already know your name.

Operator, OpenAI’s new AI “Computer Use” agent, is the next iteration of search. And if left unchecked, it may accelerate a shift that hoteliers aren’t ready for: a future where AI books rooms without guests ever visiting a hotel website.

What is Operator?

Operator is an AI-powered assistant designed to handle tasks on behalf of users. It navigates the web, searches for flights, hotels, restaurants, and events, and, after checking in with the user, completes bookings. It doesn’t just suggest options. It acts.

The promise? Frictionless travel planning. No more opening ten tabs to compare prices. No more endless scrolling. Just a simple, seamless, AI-driven experience where guests say what they need, and Operator delivers the best match.

But here’s the catch.

During testing, Operator overwhelmingly directed searches to OTAs rather than hotel websites. Unless a traveler specifically requested a hotel by name, the AI defaulted to aggregators like Booking.com and Expedia.

Let that sink in.

This is not a Google-style search where potential guests sift through multiple options. Operator makes the choice for them. And if your hotel’s brand isn’t top of mind, the AI will route that guest straight to an OTA.

Which means the battle for direct bookings is about to get even harder.

The Four Audiences of a Hotel Website

For years, hotels have optimized their websites for one type of visitor: humans. The strategy was simple, drive traffic, tell a compelling brand story, and optimize conversion.

But in the age of AI, your website will now serve four distinct audiences:

Humans – The guests who still arrive via direct search, digital marketing, or loyalty-driven intent.
Human Agents Like Operator – AI tools booking on behalf of guests, favoring the most structured and authoritative data sources.
The Hotel’s Own AI Chatbots – On-site assistants that engage users, answer questions, and attempt to convert visitors.
Crawlers (SEO & AI) – The behind-the-scenes bots scraping data for search engines, AI models, and voice assistants.

Here’s the problem: hoteliers want more humans on their site, but that number is going to shrink. AI will increasingly act as the gatekeeper, filtering search results before a human ever clicks a link.

Which means when a human does land on your site, you need to convert them.

And you need to do it fast.

What This Means for Hotels

If Operator and similar AI agents dictate the booking journey, hoteliers must rethink their digital strategy from the ground up.

The old model, driving traffic through SEO and paid search is becoming obsolete. In its place, a new set of imperatives is emerging:

Brand Recognition is Survival

If AI agents only surface hotels by name, branding becomes the single most important asset in your digital arsenal.

Be everywhere your guests are. Social media, email, PR, metasearch, and digital ads all play a role in reinforcing your brand.
Own your messaging. A strong, consistent brand presence ensures your hotel is top-of-mind when travelers use AI-driven tools.
Use structured data . AI doesn’t ‘read’ like humans do. It pulls from structured sources like Google Business Profile, schema markup, and authoritative travel sites.

If your brand isn’t explicitly requested, you’re invisible.

First-Party Data is Your Lifeline

The battle for direct bookings doesn’t start when a traveler reaches your website. It starts with owning the guest relationship.

Loyalty programs that go beyond points think personalized offers, exclusive perks, and direct communication.
Email & SMS engagement to maintain direct contact before, during, and after a stay.
A data strategy that works without cookies because AI-driven search will render third-party data increasingly irrelevant.

The hotels that invest in guest relationships now will be the ones still standing when AI fully takes over the discovery process.

Optimizing for AI (Not Just SEO)

Search engine optimization used to be the endgame. Not anymore. Now, hotels must optimize for AI-driven discovery.

Structured data is non-negotiable. If AI can’t easily pull information about your hotel, it will default to an OTA that has invested in better data.
Conversational AI optimization. AI tools like Operator pull responses in natural language. Your content needs to match the way guests ask questions.
Content built for AI-generated search. Direct, authoritative, and FAQ-driven content will help your hotel appear in AI-generated travel recommendations.

Think of it this way: SEO was about being found by humans. AI optimization is about being recognized by algorithms.

If You Get a Human on Your Site, Convert Them Immediately

Fewer humans will organically visit hotel websites in an AI-first world. Which means that every visitor must be treated as a high-value conversion opportunity.

Personalized content. Show guests the most relevant offers based on their preferences and browsing behavior.
AI-driven chatbots. Your chatbot isn’t just a customer service tool anymore. It’s a conversion engine that must match (or exceed) the intelligence of AI agents like Operator.
Exclusive direct booking perks. OTAs won’t disappear, but you can still make booking direct the obvious choice through loyalty-driven incentives.

The stakes are higher. The guest journey is shorter. The window for conversion is closing.

The Future of Hotel Distribution: AI vs. Human Choice

For the last decade, hotels have been playing defense against OTAs. The game just changed.

AI-powered travel agents like Operator are eliminating the search process entirely. They’re deciding for the traveler choosing which options to present and which to ignore.

If hotels don’t take action now, the direct booking channel will shrink to those already loyal to your brand.

But for those who adapt?

Invest in branding.
Own your first-party data.
Structure content for AI discoverability.
Use every tool at your disposal to convert human visitors.

The next chapter of hotel distribution won’t be won with better SEO or more paid ads. It will be won by the hotels that understand the shift from human-driven search to AI-driven answers.

Operator is just the beginning. The AI-first era of travel is here.

P.S. If you’re wondering just how Operator works in practice, I shared a video where I prompted it to find airline reservations (from NY to Indianapolis) and a hotel near the Indianapolis conference center for HSMAI’s Commercial Strategy Week. The result? Operator went straight to Expedia. No comparisons. No brand-direct options. Just a seamless handoff to an OTA.

This isn’t some distant future. It’s happening right now. The AI-first booking journey is here, and if hotels don’t take action, they’ll be relegated to the background while AI funnels guests elsewhere.

Watch the video and see for yourself. (NOTE: It took a total of 15 minutes, so I increased the video playback speed 5x.)

Then ask: What’s your direct channel strategy to stay visible?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael J. Goldrich is THN's Chief Experience Officer and Founder and Chief Advisor of Vivander Advisors, specializing in digital and AI strategies for thought leadership, thought education, and thought solutions. A leading expert in generative AI, he authored Too Many Hats, Too Little Time. After spending nearly two decades in digital marketing and project leadership for multimillion-dollar brands and startups, his expertise in has established him as a sought-after consultant and a pivotal figure in shaping the future of customer engagement within the hospitality sector. Connect with Michael on LinkedIn.