Agentic Search and the Future of Hotel Meetings & Events Sales

Lure Agency

Agentic search isn’t coming. It’s already here.

AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity are reshaping how meeting planners find and choose hotels. And if your hotel isn’t answering questions before they’re asked—you’re not invisible… you’re irrelevant.

This is bigger than SEO. Bigger than digital brochures.

We’re talking about a new sales era where AI makes decisions before you even know there’s a lead. If your hotel’s data, content, and trust signals aren’t ready, you’re not just missing the shortlist—you’re not in the conversation.

The hotels that win in this new game?

✅ Structured for AI

✅ Built for humans

✅ Fueled by proof, not fluff

Wait 12–24 months, and you’ll be playing catch-up in a world that already moved on.

We're diving in below.

Top 10 Takeaways Summary: Agentic Search & M&E Sales

Your Website Is Your New Sales Rep—Trained by AI.
AI isn’t browsing; it’s scanning. If your M&E page can’t be easily read, parsed, and quoted by an agent, you’re off the list.
RFPs Are Getting Replaced by AI Shortlists.
Agentic search filters, compares, and recommends venues instantly. Fewer RFPs, but hotter leads—and only for those who show up in AI responses.
Content That Answers Wins.
FAQs, team bios, video tours, case studies—format your content like it’s talking to a planner through AI. Because it is.
AI Loves Trust: Be Transparent or Be Forgotten.
Opaque pricing, outdated PDFs, or vague promises? AI skips you. Transparent, structured, and human content gets surfaced and selected.
Sales + Marketing Must Marry. Now.
No more silos. AI needs sales insights (what clients ask) and marketing execution (how to present it). Unite or lose.
E-E-A-T Is Non-Negotiable.
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness—these are the signals AI uses to decide if you’re worth recommending. Build them or vanish.
Planners Aren’t Always Pros Anymore.
Thanks to AI, anyone can plan an event. Your site and your content must guide non-planners just as effectively as seasoned pros.
Fresh Content = Visibility.
AI doesn’t trust stale data. Update your meeting spaces, team bios, FAQs, and pricing regularly—or risk being dropped from results.
Independent vs. Branded? Doesn’t Matter—AI Judges the Info.
A big brand name won’t save you if your content is thin. Independent hotels can win by being more specific, transparent, and helpful.
AI Can Book Direct—If You Let It.
Frictionless booking experiences mean AI agents can recommend and execute. Make it easy for the agent, and you’ll capture more direct business.

The Strategic Importance of AI in Meetings & Events

AI as a Disruptive Force in the Sales Cycle: The rise of agentic search – AI-driven assistants like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini – is fundamentally altering how meeting planners and event organizers find and choose hotels.

Instead of manually browsing websites or relying on traditional channels, buyers can now ask an AI assistant for the best venues and get instant, curated answers.

This is disruptive because it collapses the research phase into a single conversation.

For example, a planner might ask an AI, “Suggest two venues in London with natural daylight for a summer party, close to a major transport hub.” The assistant can immediately return a short list of venues with key details, as shown below.

By providing a direct answer with locations and features, the AI spares the buyer from combing through multiple hotel websites. This “zero-click” search behavior means the decision-making journey often starts and ends with the AI’s recommendation, bypassing traditional discovery methods.

Why Hotels Must Adapt Now

What’s emerging is not a short-term trend but a permanent evolution in buyer behavior.

Major travel players are already integrating AI agent technology (OpenAI’s “Operator,” Google’s A2A protocol, etc.) into t heir platforms.

If hotels (especially those dependent on legacy request-for-proposal systems like Cvent or Convention Bureaus) fail to adapt, they risk becoming invisible.

Planners accustomed to sending RFPs and waiting days for replies will soon expect instant answers.

Indeed, AI agents can “instantly match planner requests with the best supplier profiles” by scanning RFP data. They can even autonomously navigate the web to compare options, complete bookings, and make payments on the user’s behalf. This threatens hotels that rely on slow, human-mediated lead channels.

A recent industry commentary warns that content “not structured for AI consumption may not even get surfaced” to travelers.

In short, hotels that don’t modernize their sales approach could “disappear from the booking journey altogether” as AI-driven agents favor properties with accessible, AI-ready information.

The New AI-Driven Buyer Journey

With AI assistants acting as de facto travel concierges, the buyer’s journey is faster and more data-driven than ever. Planners (or even untrained organizers) can ask an AI for venue suggestions, pricing estimates, or capacity info and trust the immediate, synthesized answers. This changes decision-making in several ways:

Smaller Consideration Set: Instead of reviewing ten proposals, a buyer might get two or three AI-vetted options and choose from those. The AI’s ability to filter by specific criteria (location, capacity, features, dates, etc.) means hotels either make that shortlist or miss the opportunity entirely.
Data-Trumped Brand Loyalty: Decisions may rely more on objective data (reviews, amenities, value) than on brand recognition or sales pitches. An AI will “filter, select, and book hotels on behalf of travelers… Simply put, hotels without well organized AI-driven discovery will not show up in the results”. Ad spend can’t easily buy visibility in this context – relevance, reputation, and data quality determine which hotels an AI recommends.
Accelerated Closing: An agentic AI can progress the buyer journey from inspiration to booking in a single session. One example: OpenAI’s agent can handle the entire trip planning query – it “analyzes options, compares reviews, finalizes the reservation and makes the payment”, all in one go. This eliminates many of the touchpoints where hotels traditionally influenced decisions (website content, sales calls, site visits). If the AI’s choice satisfies the buyer’s criteria, the process effectively ends there.

In summary, agentic search is a strategic disruptor because it reshapes how hotels are found and chosen. The power is shifting toward AI-driven intermediaries, and hotels must urgently adapt to remain visible when “travelers rely on AI-powered recommendations rather than traditional search engines."

The Tactical Landscape: Impacted Marketing & Sales Elements

The advent of AI-guided search will touch nearly every aspect of hotel marketing and sales. Key elements include:

Website Structure & SEO

Hotel websites must evolve from passive digital brochures to AI-readable data hubs.

Traditional SEO (keywords, meta tags) is now table stakes; the new goal is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). This means structuring web content so AI models can easily ingest and quote it.

Sites should feature FAQ sections, short paragraphs, bullet points, and direct answers to common questions.

Using schema markup (for location, amenities, reviews, event spaces, etc.) helps AI understand and trust the content. For example, implementing FAQ schemas or Q&A content allows generative search engines to pull direct answers about your property without needing a click.

In the meetings & events context, this might include Q&As like “What is the maximum capacity of your ballroom?” or “Do you offer on-site AV support?” answered in plain language on the site. Being “agentic search-ready” means your digital content is structured, up-to-date, and rich in detail so that an AI agent can confidently recommend your venue from its knowledge base.

If your information is locked in PDFs or spread across fragmented systems, an AI may overlook you in favor of a competitor whose data is readily accessible.

Content Creation & Format

In an AI-driven landscape, quality content is more critical than ever – not just for humans, but for the AI that reads it on their behalf.

Generative AI tools tend to prioritize “high-quality, credible content from trustworthy sources”.

Tactically, hotels should invest in content that is authentic, informative, and aligned with user queries. This includes maintaining robust FAQ pages, how-to guides, and blog posts that answer planners’ questions about hosting events at the hotel.

Content formats that are likely to surface in zero-click AI results include:

FAQs and Q&A Pages: Direct question-and-answer content is gold for chatbots. If a planner asks an assistant about a venue’s offerings, the AI will pull from any FAQ or Q&A style content on that venue. Hotels should “structure content around the prompt-response model used by AI chatbots”, using common questions as headings and clear answers in the text.
Video and Virtual Tours (with transcripts): Video content can be a rich source of information if the AI can parse it. Posting virtual tours or event highlight videos along with transcripts or detailed descriptions ensures the AI captures key details (e.g., a video showcasing the conference center’s layout should be accompanied by text noting the room dimensions and tech features). While the AI might not “play” the video, it will utilize the textual context. This can improve a hotel’s chances of being recommended with notes like “features a 3D virtual tour of the meeting space,” demonstrating transparency.
Team Bios and Expert Insights: Showcasing the sales and events team’s expertise can influence AI-driven results. If a user asks, “Does this hotel have an experienced events team?”, an AI might reference the team bio page. Profiles that highlight planners’ certifications (e.g., CMP – Certified Meeting Professional), years of experience, or notable events executed can be picked up as credibility signals. Moreover, thought leadership content (e.g. blog posts or LinkedIn articles by your events director) positions the hotel as an authority that an AI might “quote” or at least weigh favorably.
Interactive Planning Tools and Data: If your site offers interactive floor plans, space calculators, or instant quote generators, make sure to describe these features in text as well. An AI might inform a user, “Hotel X’s website includes an interactive planning tool for event layouts,” which can be a differentiator. Additionally, structured data feeds (like an events API or participation in platforms that feed AI, such as Google’s Hotel schema for meeting spaces) will ensure your up-to-the-minute inventory and specs are available for algorithmic matchmaking.

SEO & Paid Media Evolution: SEO isn’t dead, but it’s Transforming

Classic search rankings matter less if 60%+ of searches result in no clicks to websites.

Hotels need to optimize for the AI overview or answer, not just the blue link. This means monitoring how your property is described in AI-generated snippets and training content to influence that description.

As for paid media, the old game of bidding on keywords could give way to new models. Industry experts predict marketing spend will shift “from cost-per-click to cost-per-agentic-search”, essentially paying to be the chosen answer an AI provides.

Hotels and brands will likely need to collaborate with AI platform providers or travel sites integrating AI to ensure they remain in the consideration set (this could involve data partnerships or even sponsorships within AI results in the future).

In the short term, hotels should keep investing in authoritative content and technical SEO (site speed, schema, mobile usability) – these factors still influence whether Google’s AI (and others) deems your site a reliable source.

Also, social media and PR feed into AI visibility: positive news articles or viral social posts about your venue may be indexed as part of the AI’s corpus, contributing to its understanding of your reputation.

Social Proof & Reputation Signals

In agentic search, social proof becomes a deciding factor.

AI assistants will heavily incorporate reviews, ratings, and external testimonials into their recommendations. For example, an AI might say, “This hotel is rated 4.7/5 for events and is praised for its catering” if it has access to such data.

Hotels must cultivate a strong pipeline of recent, positive reviews on public platforms (Google Reviews, TripAdvisor, meeting planner forums) because “AI needs structured signals to support your claims” of quality.

Social proof extends beyond just star ratings:

Testimonials & Case Studies

While a human prospect might read a case study PDF on your site, an AI could ingest that content and cite the success story in summary. Having detailed case studies of past events (e.g., “How Hotel X hosted a 500-person international conference successfully”) not only demonstrates experience to human visitors but also feeds the AI concrete evidence of your capabilities (experience and trustworthiness).

Some innovative hotels (and chains like NH Hotels or Hilton’s EventReady program) have started publishing meeting/event case studies online as proof points, which could be referenced by AI assistants.

Consistency Across Channels

Ensure that your venue’s details (capacity, amenities, policies) are consistent wherever they appear. Discrepancies (like an outdated capacity on a CVB site or old photos on a Facebook page) can confuse AI models.

Being “agentic search-ready” means eliminating contradictory or stale information.

One practical step is to regularly audit third-party listings (Cvent, Destination Marketing Organization listings, etc.) so that any source an AI agent checks will reflect the same accurate data.

Brand-level vs. Independent Sites

There will be a nuanced interplay between brand umbrella sites and individual property sites.

Brand-level websites (for big chains) often have strong domain authority, which could help them rank in AI training data as authoritative. However, they sometimes lack localized, rich content.

Independent hotels have the freedom to create highly tailored content (detailed banquet menus, blog stories, client spotlights), which can give them an edge in specificity and authenticity. The key is to combine the best of both: leverage brand resources (if you are part of one) for global visibility, but localize your content to stand out. An independent hotel or smaller chain property must punch above its weight with content depth since they can’t rely on a household name.

Conversely, branded hotels must not get complacent; a generic brand page with minimal info won’t satisfy an AI seeking detailed answers. The brand’s corporate marketing teams should empower individual hotels to add more meeting-specific content.

In all cases, whether brand or indie, being “agentic search-ready” means your online presence is comprehensive, up-to-date, and easily digestible by AI – from the main site down to every digital touchpoint.

The Agentic Search Action Plan for Hotel Group Sales Teams

1. Reengineer the Sales Funnel for AI Discovery

To future-proof the Meetings & Events (M&E) sales funnel, hotels need to embed AI readiness at each stage:

Top of Funnel (Discovery)

Optimize content so that AI assistants find you first. This includes using AI-friendly keywords and phrases that planners might use in queries (e.g., “best hotel conference center in Chicago with 500 capacity”). Incorporate these naturally into your site’s Q&As and content. Also, supply structured data to channels that AI pulls from.

For instance, keep your Google Business Profile and Google’s hotel listing updated with attributes (many now include “business facilities” details). Similarly, ensure your Cvent profile (if you use one) is thoroughly filled; while a general AI like ChatGPT might not directly tap Cvent, specialized tools or plugins could.

Some hotels are even exploring AI plugins or integrations – for example, providing an API feed of their meeting space availability or using chatbot widgets that can interface with voice assistants.

The easier you make it for an AI to get answers about your venue, the more likely you’ll be recommended.

Mid Funnel (Consideration & Evaluation)

Collaborate across sales and marketing to provide AI with the content it needs to “sell” your venue. This means marketing teams should harvest FAQs from sales (what prospects usually ask) and publish those answers online.

Sales teams, in turn, can use AI tools to expedite proposals and responses.

For example, if an AI agent initiates an inquiry (some platforms might auto-generate an email or chat inquiry to a hotel), your team could deploy an AI assistant to instantly respond with a personalized proposal.

Hotels should also embrace tools that facilitate quick info sharing: interactive capacity charts, instant quote systems, and AI-driven RFP responders. If a planner’s AI says, “I can get you a quote from Hotel Y right now,” you need the back-end capability to produce that quote without human delay.

Sales and marketing must operate in lockstep, sharing data through a unified CRM that tracks not just human leads but also AI-initiated touchpoints. Marketing can nurture the AI’s “opinion” of your hotel by feeding it continual fresh content, while sales ensures any AI inquiries (which might come in 24/7) are handled promptly, potentially by an AI chatbot trained on your sales knowledge base.

Bottom of Funnel (Booking & Conversion)

Make the final steps AI-friendly and frictionless. This could include streamlining your direct booking process so an autonomous agent can navigate it.

As one tech commentator noted, the latest AI agents don’t even require API integration – they can “interact with sites just like a human”.

Test your online booking or RFP forms to ensure an automated tool could fill them (avoid captchas or unnecessary hoops).

Better yet, consider building a simple conversational booking interface.

For instance, some hotels are implementing chatbot booking flows for group inquiries, which an AI assistant could hook into.

Also, prepare for new metrics: instead of just measuring website conversion rates, you may need to monitor “AI referral” conversions (bookings that were clearly influenced or initiated by an AI source).

That feedback loop will inform how you continue to optimize content and offers for AI-driven shoppers.

2. Align Sales & Marketing Teams Around AI

The silos between sales and marketing must break down in an AI-driven world.

Marketing can no longer focus solely on branding and inbound attraction, leaving all client-specific communication to sales – because AI blurs those lines.

Every piece of information shared in the sales process might also need to live on your website or knowledge base.

For example, if sales managers often email clients a PDF of floor plans, marketing should turn that into an interactive web page or downloadable content online (so an AI can find it). Regular joint meetings should be instituted where sales shares the latest client questions or objections, and marketing strategizes how to address those through content (blog posts, FAQ updates, videos, etc.).

Additionally, train your sales team to leverage AI as well.

Just as planners use AI to research, sales can use AI to analyze leads and personalize outreach.

Salesforce reports that data-driven AI can transform sales processes in hospitality by identifying the best leads and suggesting tailored content.

If your salespeople use an AI tool to draft a follow-up email that includes links to relevant pages (which marketing created), you’re presenting a unified front to the AI-savvy customer.

Collaboration also extends to sharing success metrics: marketing might track how often the hotel is mentioned in AI platforms (e.g., appearing in Bing Chat answers), and sales might track the quality of AI-generated inquiries.

Together, they should iterate on strategies to improve those numbers. The bottom line: sales and marketing must co-create an “AI playbook” – mapping out likely AI queries and the hotel’s ideal responses – ensuring that whether an answer is given by a human or a bot, it’s accurate and compelling.

3. Content Creation with E-E-A-T and Conversational AI in Mind

Hotels should double down on content that demonstrates Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) – these are the qualities that both human users and AI ranking algorithms seek. When generating new content:

Emphasize real experiences – feature quotes from clients or staff, cite years of experience, and include specifics (names, dates, outcomes) to give content a first-hand feel. Google’s guidelines favor content written from personal experience, and AI models trained on those guidelines will too.
Attribute content to qualified authors. For instance, a blog post on “Tips for Planning a Successful Corporate Retreat” could be written by your Director of Events (with a bio stating her 15 years of event planning experience). Such bylines boost credibility. An AI scanning your site sees not just anonymous marketing copy, but advice from a professional, increasing the chances of your tips being recommended.
Maintain a conversational yet informative tone. Remember that AI outputs try to mimic a helpful human assistant. Content that is written in a natural, Q&A style is more likely to be directly used. Avoid marketing fluff and get to the facts in a friendly, advisory tone. For example, instead of a pure sales pitch about your ballroom, write a piece titled “How to Choose the Perfect Ballroom for Your Gala” and include your venue as a case example. This educational approach means even if the reader is an AI, the content is parsed as useful, not advertorial.
Use AI tools to augment your content creation, not replace it. AI can assist in generating outlines, doing research, or translating content into multiple languages for international events. Many hotels are already using AI for content – in one global survey, 31% of hotel chains use AI in content creation and another 27% plan to. However, always have human review to ensure nuance and accuracy (this maintains trust and distinctiveness). The goal is content that AI recognizes as high-quality, often because it’s original and human-validated – avoid the temptation to publish generic AI-written text (“AI slop” as it’s been called), which could harm your credibility.

4. Build Trust Through Social Proof and Expertise Showcases

In an AI-mediated world, trust signals have to be not only present, but highly visible and machine-recognizable.

Here’s how hotels can bolster trust:

Encourage and Curate Reviews

Actively solicit reviews from meeting planners and group clients on platforms likely to be data sources for AI (Google is a must, followed by Tripadvisor and industry-specific sites).

Then, integrate these into your site. For example, embed a widget or feed of recent reviews on your meetings page. This has a dual benefit: it reassures human visitors and signals to search engines and AI that your site contains third-party validated feedback.

As one marketing expert notes, a dedicated reviews page using known platforms’ widgets greatly boosts a site’s trust factor.

Showcase Media Mentions and Awards

If your hotel or events team has been featured in news articles, won industry awards (e.g., “Best Conference Hotel in X Region”), or even partnered with well-known organizations, highlight that.

Create a press & accolades section (as some resorts do) listing these mentions. AI models crawling your site will associate your property with those authoritative citations, enhancing your authoritativeness.

Likewise, any backlinks from reputable news or association sites improve your standing in traditional SEO and by extension AI training data.

Thought Leadership and Transparency

Have your experts speak up.

A robust strategy might include publishing thought pieces on LinkedIn or hospitality blogs, speaking on webinars/podcasts, or contributing to industry publications about trends (like sustainable events or hybrid meeting technology).

When AI combs the web, seeing your hotel’s associates quoted or your website linked in “expert tips” articles increases the confidence it has in your expertise.

Simultaneously, be transparent on potentially sensitive topics: publish clear information about pricing models (e.g., typical package rates, any extra fees), contract terms (cancellation policies), and what planners can expect in terms of service. If a question like “Does Hotel Z have hidden fees for events?” is posed, an AI that can find a transparent statement on your site will answer favorably (trustworthiness up!), rather than defaulting to generic or competitor info.

In fact, hotels that openly share such information are likely to be preferred by AI, as transparency aligns with trustworthiness in algorithmic eyes.

By executing these action plans, hotels can “rebuild their digital brand for AI” – making it easy for AI agents to crawl, interpret, and trust their information. The payoff is staying visible in the new AI-driven marketplace and even gaining an edge over slower-moving competitors. As one hospitality tech CEO observed, “Properties which embrace these changes now will gain a considerable strategic advantage in this era of AI-driven travel”.

E-E-A-T Evaluation for Agentic Search

To effectively appeal to both AI algorithms and discerning human planners, hotels must excel in E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness.

Below is how each pillar applies to meetings & events sales, and how hotels can measure up:

1. Experience (First-Hand Event Experience)

Hotels need to showcase real-world event experience to prove they “practice what they preach.” This could be through detailed case studies, testimonials, and media highlights:

Case Studies: Do you provide narratives of successful events held at your venue? For instance, a case study might describe how a tech company’s 3-day conference was executed, including objectives, how your team delivered, and the outcome (perhaps with quotes from the client). Such content demonstrates experience in action. Some hotel groups now publish case studies on their M&E microsites (e.g., NH Hotels’ “success stories” section shares how clients’ events were transformed at their properties). This not only aids human buyers but feeds AI concrete examples to reference.
Testimonials & Reviews: First-person testimonials from event planners or corporate clients serve as proof of experience. A planner’s quote like “The banquet team at Hotel X handled our 500-person gala flawlessly” is powerful. Featuring these on your site (and linking to their source for credibility) boosts E-E-A-T. AI will interpret multiple consistent testimonials as evidence of real outcomes, enhancing your profile.
Event Media & Photos: Show, don’t just tell. A gallery of past event setups, video snippets of a conference in your ballroom, or news articles about high-profile events you hosted (“Local news covered the charity ball at Hotel Y”) all add to the sense that this hotel has been there, done that. Experience is about track record – the more visibly you document yours, the more an AI (or a skeptical human) will trust that you can handle the next event.

In evaluating their Experience factor, hotels should ask: Are we visibly demonstrating our event capabilities through real examples? If the answer is no – it’s time to gather those stories and put them front and center.

2. Expertise (Knowledge and Skills in M&E)

Expertise is about showcasing deep knowledge and skill in event planning and hospitality. Hotels can boost perceived expertise through:

Visible Planner Profiles: Put the spotlight on your team’s credentials. Does your Director of Catering hold a CMP (Certified Meeting Professional) or has your AV manager produced events for 20+ years? Listing bios with qualifications, years in industry, specialties (e.g. “expert in South Asian weddings” or “specializes in pharmaceutical conferences”) signals that knowledgeable people are behind the scenes. Some hotels include a section like “Meet the Team” on their events page – this humanizes the sales process and instills confidence.
Educational Content & Thought Leadership: Are your hotel’s experts contributing tips, guides, or commentary that help planners? Examples might include a blog series like “Ask our Event Expert,” where your sales manager answers common planning questions, or publishing whitepapers on topics like event sustainability if that’s a niche you excel in. Providing valuable insights not found elsewhere establishes that your staff are experts, not just order-takers. An AI scanning the web might find, for instance, an article on MeetingsNet where your banquet chef discusses menu planning for dietary restrictions – this could make the AI more likely to recommend your venue for queries about culinary expertise at events.
Certifications and Partnerships: Highlight any special certifications (e.g., IACC certification for conference centers, or if your staff are certified in Pandemic Compliance Advisor training, etc.). Also, affiliations with industry associations (MPI, ILEA, PCMA) or roles like hosting industry workshops at your property underscore expertise. These are concrete signals of professional involvement. Remember, “Google is effectively asking about the reputation and credentials of the site’s authors” when evaluating expertise – so make those credentials and affiliations known.

In essence, a hotel demonstrates expertise by being the subject-matter expert about itself and its services. That means providing exhaustive detail on facilities and services (so the AI sees your site as the ultimate reference about your venue) and letting your skilled people do the talking whenever possible.

3. Authoritativeness (Credibility in the Industry)

Authoritativeness comes from external recognition and a strong reputation. It answers the question: “Does the broader community consider this hotel a credible authority for meetings and events?” Hotels can cultivate authoritativeness via:

Third-Party Accolades: Awards, rankings, and lists – being named “Top 10 Convention Hotels in Europe” by a credible publication or winning a meetings excellence award lends immediate authority. Make sure these are mentioned on your site (in an “Awards” section or press releases). Also, when such accolades occur, ensure they are publicized so they appear in industry news (AI crawlers will find those). A cited example in a hospitality SEO context: Zemi Beach House created a page listing all their press mentions and awards, which “demonstrates that this site is the true expert on the property” – thereby boosting its authority.
Media and Case Study Features: If your property or staff are quoted in industry publications (Skift, Meeting Professionals International blog, etc.), or if you have co-authored case studies with partners (like a convention bureau success story), these are gold for authoritativeness. They indicate the hotel’s voice is respected and referenced. For instance, if Meetings & Incentive Travel Magazine or a CVB site features a story on an event at your hotel, that’s a high-authority signal. Share these links on your media page.
Reputation in Data: AI doesn’t just look for human-written accolades; it also gauges patterns in data. A hotel consistently rated highly across multiple platforms gains authority in the eyes of algorithms. Additionally, consistent engagement and responsiveness can be a factor (e.g., responding to reviews shows active management). It’s been suggested that AI will favor “hotels that demonstrate their competence through data” – meaning quantifiable excellence like high ratings, many successful events (perhaps measured by volume of reviews or return clients), and so on.

To evaluate authoritativeness, hotels should audit their presence: Do we appear in credible sources outside our own website? If not, it’s worth investing in a PR push or strategic partnerships (perhaps hosting an industry meet-up or getting involved in local tourism boards) to build that external credibility. Remember, authoritativeness is partly earned by longevity and consistency – a history of doing great events that people talk about. AI will pick up on that “digital paper trail.”

4. Trustworthiness (Transparency and Reliability)

Trustworthiness is the foundation that ties everything together – without it, the other attributes fall flat. For hotels, trustworthiness in M&E sales means being transparent, reliable, and honest in all content and dealings:

Transparent Information: Make essential information easy to find and truthful. This includes clearly stating what spaces and services you have, being honest about any limitations (e.g., if your largest hall has some obstructed views, mention how you address it), and especially being upfront about pricing and policies. While many hotels have historically been coy with pricing for meetings (preferring “Contact us for a quote”), the AI era rewards openness. Consider providing indicative price ranges for common meeting packages or a sample “Day Meeting Package” price right on the site. Also outline standard contract terms (cancellation deadlines, attrition allowances) in plain language. A planner’s AI might be asked, “Does Hotel Z have flexible cancellation for events?” – if your policy is posted, the AI can affirm your flexibility, building trust before the sales manager even speaks to the client.
Up-to-Date and Accurate Content: Nothing erodes trust faster (for humans or AI) than outdated content. If your website’s meeting room floor plan shows a layout that changed after renovation, or lists amenities you no longer offer, it creates confusion. AI might cross-verify information and catch inconsistencies. As one AI hospitality article stressed, establishments must ensure their data is “reliable, up-to-date and well-structured, in order to avoid any errors or misunderstanding”. Regularly review and refresh your content. Update photos to current decor. Remove references to years (like “Upcoming in 2023…” now past). Show that the site is actively maintained – perhaps with a latest news or blog update in the last month – so AI knows the information is current.
Trust Signals on Site: Incorporate elements that give visitors (and AI) confidence. This could be security badges (if your booking engine is secure, display the icon), privacy policy and GDPR compliance notices, and clear contact information. An AI scanning your site can recognize if you have a detailed contact page with an address, phone, and names – all signals of a legitimate business. Trustworthiness is also enhanced by showing human touch: for instance, a note from the General Manager about the hotel’s commitment to successful events, or video testimonials from clients (real people vouching for you).
Consistent “Experience Delivery”: While harder for an AI to gauge directly, it will manifest through reviews and feedback – ensure that what you promise, you deliver. Trustworthiness in an AI’s eyes is basically absence of red flags. Negative signals like multiple recent 1-star reviews citing “misrepresented facilities” or a news article about a contract dispute will weigh heavily. Thus, operational excellence ties back into your digital reputation. Proactively manage issues, respond to feedback publicly, and demonstrate problem-solving. If something goes wrong and is mentioned online, a forthright response from the hotel can mitigate loss of trust (and even show the AI that the hotel addressed the issue).

To summarize E-E-A-T: A hotel that shows real event experience, leverages its team’s expertise in content, is recognized as an authority by the wider community, and maintains a trustworthy, transparent online presence will be well-regarded by both AI assistants and human clients. These factors are interdependent and all are needed to build a compelling profile. As Google’s quality raters would agree, and AI models trained on that philosophy would echo: a high E-E-A-T hotel site is far more likely to be recommended in response to a query about “the best place to hold an event.”

Bonus Considerations

Planner vs. Non-Planner: How AI Levels the Field

AI-generated search will impact professional event planners and casual or first-time planners differently – potentially disrupting the traditional planner value proposition.

A seasoned meeting planner might use AI as a power tool: to speed up venue research, generate initial budgets, or summarize venue options (like using ChatGPT to collate RFP responses into a comparable table). This makes them more efficient, but doesn’t replace their expertise.

In contrast, non-professional planners (novices) stand to gain a planning ally that guides them through tasks they might have hired a professional for in the past.

For example, an executive assistant tasked with organizing an offsite can ask an AI, “What steps do I need to plan a 2-day retreat?”, essentially getting a roadmap that a professional planner would normally provide. The AI can suggest venues, draft schedules, even create stakeholder presentations. This empowers those without planning experience to perform more like a pro.

From the hotel’s perspective, this means the gap between planners and non-planners narrows in terms of how informed their initial inquiry is.

Hotels may start receiving inquiries from individuals who, thanks to AI, have done considerable homework (they might say “Your hotel was recommended to me by an AI and I already have a draft agenda and budget”).

Hotels should be prepared to serve both: the pro planners who will appreciate deep-dive info and data (perhaps an AI or data portal integration just for them), and the lay planners who might need more hand-holding (even if AI got them to you, they may lean on your sales team for validation and final details).

Another consideration: planners might shift their role – focusing on higher-level design and client management, while delegating research and initial venue selection to AI.

The human touch remains vital (creativity, negotiation, on-site coordination), but AI will handle the grunt work. Professional planners who embrace AI will deliver faster outcomes, which hotels should welcome (faster turnarounds, more clarity).

Those who don’t use AI might actually diminish in influence over time.

In short, AI is like an equalizer: it raises the floor for novices and raises the ceiling for experts. Hotels should anticipate more DIY planners entering the fray with AI guidance, and adjust their sales approach to be ready to engage a very informed but possibly inexperienced customer.

It’s wise to create planning resources and checklists on your site as well – so whether it’s a planner or not, the AI might pull your guidance to assist them, positioning your hotel as extra helpful.

The Cost of Stale Content: Keep It Fresh or Be Forgotten

Content freshness is no longer just an SEO best practice – it’s crucial for AI relevance and user trust.

Hotels that don’t update content regularly risk multiple problems

Firstly, AI models (especially those like Google’s Gemini that “pull more live info”) prioritize up-to-date data.

If your brand’s main site or property page hasn’t been updated in a year, an AI might interpret that information as potentially outdated, and opt for a competitor’s site that had a recent update or a third-party source.

We’ve already seen that zero-click searches mean users might not visit your site to notice an update date; they’ll trust whatever the AI delivers. So if that AI has a cached or old understanding of your offerings, you might be left out of the consideration set due to outdated info.

Secondly, not updating means missing out on highlighting new features or improvements that could sway decisions.

Imagine a hotel that invested in new hybrid meeting technology or renovated meeting rooms but didn’t update their web content – an AI recommending venues for, say, “high-tech meeting facilities” won’t even know to include that hotel.

Meanwhile, a competitor that actively posts news (“We’ve just installed 1Gbps dedicated line in our conference center as of 2025”) will surface for queries about high-speed internet venues.

Brand sites are especially vulnerable they often have standardized content that isn’t frequently refreshed, and the hotel’s team might assume corporate is handling SEO/updates. But corporate content teams may not be focused on each hotel’s M&E specifics. As a result, independent competitors or more agile brands can leapfrog with timely content and blogs that catch AI attention (which favors recency for factual questions).

Additionally, stale content undermines trustworthiness.

Planners notice if a hotel’s latest “news” is from 2019; it raises the question if anything is being maintained. AI might even use the last-modified timestamps as a signal; for instance, some search engines favor recently updated pages for queries that imply up-to-date info is needed.

In the context of events (especially post-pandemic), policies and capacities have changed, so current info is crucial. If a hotel doesn’t update regularly, it might also accumulate inaccuracies – and an AI could inadvertently spread those (e.g., still mentioning a retired sales contact or an old capacity chart). This could lead to misinformed AI recommendations, which hurt both the guest experience and the hotel’s reputation when corrections come to light.

The remedy is straightforward: treat content as a living asset.

Hotels should implement a content review calendar (at least quarterly for key pages like event spaces, and immediately after any significant change in offerings). Brand-affiliated hotels should lobby their brand web team for more frequent updates or supplemental sections they can control.

Another idea is to use dynamic content feeds – for example, embedding your latest Instagram photos of events or a Twitter feed of announcements on your site can show activity.

At the very least, ensure your basic data (hours, capacities, offerings) are always current on all platforms.

AI thrives on fresh data; as one 2024 study noted, in Google searches a vast majority of AI Overview results led to zero-click because the answer was right there. You want that answer to include you, and accuracy is a must.

In short: update or fade out. The hotels that treat every month as an opportunity to refine their online info will stand out sharply against those frozen in time.

Direct Bookings vs. RFP Leads: The AI Impact

Agentic search has significant implications for whether bookings come to hotels directly or via traditional RFP channels:

On one hand, AI could increase direct bookings for meetings/events in cases where it connects the buyer straight to the hotel.

For example, if a prospective client asks an AI assistant to book a venue, and the AI can interface with the hotel’s website (remember, advanced agents can “navigate... and interact with sites just like a human”), the booking or inquiry might go directly through the hotel’s booking engine or chat, cutting out middlemen.

This scenario would be a big win for hotels, as it streamlines the process and avoids third-party commissions or fees.

Essentially, the AI acts as the new concierge, but one that can book on the hotel’s own site.

To capitalize on this, hotels must ensure their direct booking path for events is AI-friendly (as discussed, no login walls, easy navigation, maybe even an API or agent handoff).

If done right, one could envision a future where saying “Hey Google, book my meeting at Hotel X on June 10th” triggers a direct booking with Hotel X, not through an OTA.

On the other hand, the risk is that existing intermediaries (OTAs, meeting marketplaces like Cvent, or global distribution systems) will integrate AI faster and retain control of the booking flow.

We see early signs: Booking.com and other giants are integrating OpenAI’s tools, meaning an AI on their platform could recommend hotels (perhaps even contract meeting space one day) but route the transaction through the OTA.

If a corporate meeting planner uses, say, Cvent’s forthcoming AI assistant (and Cvent certainly has the data to build one), they might get recommendations and send RFPs via that platform without ever individually researching hotels.

In such cases, hotels might still get the lead through the third-party channel rather than direct. However, even within those platforms, AI will change the dynamic: Instead of receiving dozens of blind RFPs where the client is fishing broadly, hotels might see fewer, more targeted RFPs (because the AI filtered out unsuitable venues already). Those leads might be highly qualified but also potentially less negotiable if the AI provided comparative pricing up front.

For hotels slow to adapt, the outcome might be fewer direct inquiries and continued dependence on third parties, possibly worse if the AI prefers certain partners.

For example, if an AI finds that data from one platform (like an OTA) is more structured and reliable, it might lean on that source for info and bookings, sidelining direct channels. This reinforces the importance of hotels providing reliable data openly – to encourage AI to use direct info.

In summary, agentic search can both increase direct engagement and strengthen third-party intermediaries, depending on who seizes the advantage.

Hotels that embrace AI and make themselves easily bookable will likely enjoy more direct bookings (as AI finds no friction in completing the transaction).

Those that do not may see the AI simply hand off the user to an OTA or keep them within an AI-enabled RFP system, with the hotel paying the usual commission or fee for that lead. Also, the nature of RFP leads will change: expect more “one and done” decisions.

A planner might ask an AI for the best venue and only send an RFP to that single recommendation, rather than blast 10 hotels. So while the volume of RFP leads might drop, the ones you do get could be essentially yours to lose. That heightens the pressure to be the recommended choice from the start.

For now, hotels should play both sides: optimize for direct (make sure AI can execute a direct booking or inquiry) and maintain strong presence on key third-party channels (so that if the AI uses Cvent or similar, your profile there is rich and your response times are swift – perhaps even using AI to answer RFPs within minutes).

Ultimately, the goal is to guide the AI’s user toward your property through whichever path they prefer, but ideally capturing them directly by offering the path of least resistance. As the industry adapts, we could even see new commercial models (maybe paying for placement in AI results much like ads). But irrespective of channel, the hotels with robust content, competitive offerings, and strong reputations will get the booking. AI will simply expedite the match-making.

Sources:

Goldrich, M. (2025). The Emerging Disruption of Travel Search – Hotels Need to Act Now. LinkedInlinkedin.comlinkedin.com
Doppler, D. (2025). Generative search and AEO: The future of Hospitality. Quicktextquicktext.imquicktext.im
Craig, D. (2024). Content Strategy for Hotels in 2025: It’s Time to Embrace AI. Hotel Yearbookhotelyearbook.comhotelyearbook.com
Nunley, J. (2025). Be the Independent Hotel AI Recommends. LinkedInlinkedin.comlinkedin.com
Hire Space (2024). 6 Weeks to 6 Hours: How AI is Changing How Business Event Planners Book Venues.hirespace.comhirespace.com
Baraban, R. (2024). AI and the Meetings Industry: What Planners Need to Know. Prevue Meetingsprevuemeetings.comprevuemeetings.com
Leonardo (2023). How Hotels Can Leverage Google’s E-E-A-T Principles.blog.leonardoworldwide.comblog.leonardoworldwide.com