Artificial intelligence is increasingly deciding which hotels travellers see first, but Hilton’s chief executive insists that does not change what makes them stay loyal. In an interview with travel industry publication Skift ahead of his appearance at the Skift Global Forum in New York this September, Christopher Nassetta laid out his view of how AI is reshaping hotel booking, and why he believes Hilton’s fundamentals still hold the advantage.
A new gatekeeper, the same old test
Nassetta’s core argument is that AI tools have become intermediaries in travel search much as search engines and booking sites once were, but that the qualities which earn a recommendation have not shifted. According to Skift, Hilton positions positive guest reviews as the mechanism that feeds into and shapes how AI models recommend hotels.
“Ultimately, earning a place in an AI recommendation comes down to the same thing that has always earned guest loyalty: being relevant to the traveler and delivering the industry’s most reliable and friendly stays.” — Christopher Nassetta, President and CEO, Hilton
He extends that logic directly to the mechanics of AI recommendations. “When we deliver on that promise, it turns into positive reviews that reverberate across the network, including into the AI models that increasingly shape how people search,” Nassetta told Skift.
Hedging bets across AI platforms
Rather than relying entirely on third-party AI systems to route guests to its properties, Hilton has built its own consumer-facing tool, the Hilton AI Planner, which combines property content with local venue and activity information. The tool is powered by Anthropic’s technology, but Hilton has deliberately avoided betting on a single AI partner: the company is also working with OpenAI and Google AI, and has been preparing a ChatGPT app as part of its broader distribution strategy.
That multi-platform approach reflects a wider uncertainty across the hospitality industry about which AI systems will end up controlling travel discovery, and how much leverage hotel groups will retain once algorithms, rather than travel agents or search rankings, decide what travellers see.
Scale and loyalty as insurance
Hilton’s other defence against AI disruption is sheer scale. The company’s portfolio spans 28 brands from luxury to midscale, paired with the Hilton Honors loyalty programme, which now counts more than 260 million members according to recent company figures. Hilton frames its 28-brand-plus-Hilton Honors structure as designed to keep guests in a single relationship across price points, destinations and trip purposes amid a fragmenting hospitality market.
Nassetta also pointed to a demand signal he sees as encouraging: a rebound in midweek business travel from small and medium-sized enterprises, which he says is broadening demand beyond luxury into midscale and upper-midscale segments, suggesting steadier, more balanced growth ahead. Hilton has also highlighted its workplace culture in this context, having been named the No. 1 World’s Best Workplace by Great Place to Work and Fortune, a distinction it links to its service quality narrative.
Nassetta’s comments come as Hilton, which employs approximately 500,000 team members and operates more than 9,400 properties with nearly 1.4 million rooms in 144 countries and territories, prepares to appear at Skift Global Forum from September 22 to 24. He will share the stage with other senior travel executives, including Accor’s Sébastien Bazin, Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi, Wyndham’s Geoff Ballotti and Carnival Cruise Line’s Christine Duffy, all grappling with how AI is redrawing the map of travel discovery and booking.
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