Hotels have spent two decades building loyalty programs, CRM stacks and direct-booking incentives on a single assumption: the guest relationship lives in the brand's database. That assumption is now being tested from the outside.
When an AI assistant holds the traveler's preferences, accessibility needs and payment credentials, the profile that powers personalization may never enter the hotel at all. Traveler-controlled profiles and verifiable credentials propose one answer. Large brands, OTAs and platform players are working on others. Meanwhile, spoofed agents and AI-driven fraud are raising the stakes on knowing who, or what, is on the other side of a booking. What does a hotel actually need to own to keep the guest relationship, and what is it willing to let a third party hold?
This roundtable examines how traveler data will move through an AI-driven ecosystem, what it means for personalization and loyalty and who stands to win or lose control of the customer relationship.
