AI distribution is being wired in now, and it costs the chains far less than a season of OTA commission. On 20 February 2026, Linda Fox reported in PhocusWire that Wyndham CEO Geoffrey Ballotti told the company's fourth quarter 2025 earnings call it has connected its hotels to Google AI Mode, ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude, at a cost he put at "less than $100,000" with no transaction costs.
The part independents should read twice
The booking still lands on the hotel's own site. In Claude and ChatGPT, the guest gets a link and books on brand.com. According to Rafael Osborne (Profit Guest Services), that is the point: AI discovery can route demand into your direct channel instead of taxing it.
Wyndham's own 2026 Hotel Owner Trends report found 98% of owners have started using AI, but fewer than a third have it embedded across operations.
Three moves worth making now:
- Write your property data as plain, structured facts a model can read.
- Keep rates, availability and policies identical on every channel.
- Ask Google, ChatGPT and Claude about your hotel, then fix what they get wrong.
Do you need a chain budget for this? No. The connection was never the expensive part.
This content was created with the help of artificial intelligence and reviewed by Rafael Osborne (Profit Guest Services) before publishing.
