The hotel is using AI to keep bookings in-house, but most travelers still don’t trust a chatbot to plan their vacation.
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Tell Hilton you want a winter getaway, and its Hilton AI Planner will hand back a destination, a hotel and a plan for the whole trip. The Anthropic-powered tool has held more than 18,000 conversations with guests as of August, according to PYMNTS. Orlando, Aspen and the Caribbean are some of the top searches.
The larger goal is keeping you off apps like Booking.com, Expedia and newer booking upstarts like Uber. That matters to the franchisees who run Hilton hotels, since every room booked through a travel site means a cut for the middleman. More than 80% of Hilton’s business is already direct, and CEO Chris Nassetta calls AI “code for continuing to build more direct lines to our customers.” Hilton is also showing up in Google’s AI Mode and ChatGPT.
Travelers aren’t fully sold. Only 2% of leisure travelers would let AI book a trip for them, PYMNTS reports. Hilton’s own trends report finds just 22% trust AI to build a personalized itinerary, while 70% trust hotel staff.
Nassetta isn’t predicting a revolution either. “I don’t see that the whole system changes in a material way anytime soon,” he said on Hilton’s April earnings call.
Entrepreneur Staff