The Smackdown Between Code and Creative
In the blue corner: Brad Brewer, tech whisperer and champion of structured data.
In the red corner: Sarah Stahl, content strategist and storytelling evangelist.
And in the middle? Cory Falter and Susan Tucker, refereeing the biggest hospitality debate of 2025… Agentic Search.
This wasn’t just another roundtable chat.
The InnSync Show turned into a digital duel, with code and creativity squaring off to answer one key question: How do hotels stay discoverable in a world ruled by AI search engines?
Welcome to the era of Agentic Hospitality, where websites aren’t just digital brochures, they’re conversational, data-rich experiences that talk back.
Agentic Search for Hospitality
AI Search Isn’t Coming. It’s Already Here.
Let’s get something straight: SEO isn’t dead. It just graduated.
Or as Sarah Stahl put it, “SEO has gone through puberty, it’s getting married, it’s about to start having some kids.”
We’ve grown into the Agentic era, where search engines are no longer typing-and-linking assistants; they’re full-blown concierges.
We’re no longer talking about static keyword stuffing.
We’re talking intent-matching, preference-learning, and conversational retrieval.
That means how you show up in AI-generated search results depends on more than a keyword; it depends on how your site talks to a bot… and whether it speaks in schema.
Brad Brewer made it clear: “A single webpage becomes both documentation and API. It becomes a presentation layer and a data layer, and that’s what’s changing today.”
Translation: your website isn’t just for humans anymore. It’s for the machines that introduce you to the humans.
Most Hotel Websites Are Flat. Literally and Figuratively.
If hotels were people, most of their websites would be that guy at the party talking about his thread count.
They list amenities. They show empty rooms. They avoid emotion like it’s a resort fee.
“Most hotel websites… all say the same thing,” said Cory Falter. “They’re all talking about the same features, amenities, thread counts. It’s all flat, and it can’t pair my personal preference to my choice.”
That’s a problem. Because ChatGPT and Gemini aren’t just scanning your metadata, they’re interpreting your brand.
And if your content can’t signal emotion, identity, or experience, you’re not even in the game.
The OTA Dependency Is a Trap
Hotels have gotten cozy with OTAs (Online Travel Agencies). Maybe too cozy.
Sarah says, “They haven’t really changed their M.O. in 20 years. It’s time for them to grow up and move out of their parents’ basement.”
Hotels that rely exclusively on OTAs are feeding their revenue, and their future discoverability, to third parties who don’t care about their booking, just a booking.
Worse, most of them don’t even know if they’re breaking even.
And while OTAs spike their fees, hotels keep assuming someone else will handle discoverability.
But Agentic search demands direct visibility, which requires investment in both data structures and brand clarity.
Code Without Emotion, or Emotion Without Code?
The heart of the debate came down to this: what matters more: storytelling or structure?
Brad says, “Without the code, how do you put your pretty pictures out in front of the user?” He even threw the gauntlet down: “I will build a blank website with data, and I will capture more traffic and bookings than your most beautiful webpage ever.”
Shots fired.
Sarah conceded a key point: “Out of 10 properties I audited, only one popped up in ChatGPT search. That one had consistent PR coverage for five years.” The others? Beautiful, yes. But invisible to bots. “They had all those creatives… but no structure.”
The conclusion: creative gets you remembered, but code gets you seen.
Deep FAQs, Not Fluffy Fillers
Let’s talk about one of the most powerful (and most overlooked) tools in your arsenal: FAQs.
No, not your “Are pets allowed?” boilerplate.
We’re talking about deep FAQs that answer hyper-specific, long-tail questions AI models are trained on.
Questions like:
- “Can I charge my EV at this hotel in London?”
- “How far is the glamping tent from the lake, and is fishing gear included?”
- “Are there gluten-free options at the complimentary breakfast?”
Brad adds, “Google is creating those pages. If you don’t answer those questions, someone else (or something else) will.”
And with AI pulling answers from your site only 5% of the time, as per the MuckRock study Sarah cited, that one shot better count.
Your Website Is Still Home Base
Despite the rise of AI-native interfaces, the panel agreed: your website is still the home base.
Brad: “Every prompt is personalized. It knows who Cory, Susan, and Sarah are… But the transaction is still going to happen on brand.com.”
If you let third-party apps — including ChatGPT plugins and OTA integrations — own your user experience, you’re handing over your identity and your margin.
Instead, give users a reason to come to you:
- Build conversational interfaces into your site
- Integrate schema markup that machines can understand
- Offer humanized content that people actually enjoy reading
- Add video testimonials, team intros, and real-life storytelling
Susan adds, “Create content that doesn’t just say things, but does things.”
RELATED: Video Testimonials for B2B Sales in Hospitality
So… Who Won the Showdown?
Both sides agreed on one thing: it’s not code or creative.
It’s code AND creative.
Structured data unlocks discovery. Human storytelling drives conversion.
As Sarah said, “We’re building for a couple years ahead based on what consumers are doing now.” And as Brad reminded us, “Teach your customer how to come and have a conversation with your homepage.”
AI is learning what humans want. It’s time hotels do the same.
The Best Advice for 2026
If you’re a hotelier wondering where to start, take this advice from the trio:
- Sarah: “Start with basics. Structure, schema, storytelling. Stop being scared.”
- Brad: “Make your website natural language search ready. Let it talk back.”
- Susan: “Build helpful content. Be a resource, not just a reservation engine.”
And from Cory? Add more humanity. “AI is literally telling us: you need to be more human. Technology is saying that.”
Let that sink in.
