From how guests discover new properties to the way they ultimately book their stay, the hotel journey is evolving quickly.

More than half of U.S. travelers now rely on AI tools to plan trips, while 59% book hotels through a mobile website or app, making the smartphone one of the most important touchpoints throughout the discovery and booking experience.

Those same devices also power on-property communications, from text messaging to email and beyond, and guests expect one seamless, connected experience from discovery all the way through to post-stay.

A smiling hotel receptionist greeting a couple at the front desk while the man holds a smartphone, representing the connection between mobile booking and physical arrival.
Providing a unified, digital-first experience ensures every guest touchpoint—from booking on a mobile device to checking in at the front desk—is personalized and frictionless.

Deploying the right campaigns, building relationships, and creating a great experience hinges on convergence. Historically, distribution (where revenue management lives) was separate from marketing, with teams operating in silos.

Today, hoteliers who continue to manage these functions separately are leaving revenue on the table. As the path to purchase and guest experience become more complex, hoteliers need a unified strategy to capture customers through direct channels and build relationships that maximize revenue and profit—and that requires a seamlessly integrated tech stack.

The new guest experience

In today’s landscape, hoteliers, regardless of size, must look beyond the room rate. Ancillary revenue plays a big role in keeping the doors open, and they need to maximise the revenue potential of every guest interaction.

With the smartphone being the central touchpoint for travelers, they are constantly navigating between marketing, revenue and operations. Here’s an example: A guest may text a hotel to book a spa appointment and request to send additional towels.

This interaction generates an upselling revenue opportunity, captured by a marketing tool, that requires operational hotel staff support, a perfect opportunity to capture ancillary revenue. But in order to succeed, brands must have the technology that can handle both the upsell and the operational request seamlessly and move that guest through the purchase process.

Currently, AI is already helping travel marketers with everything from behavior analysis to content generation, but it’s also a major driver of distribution and marketing convergence. Using real-time data, AI is simultaneously influencing demand, personalizing offers, and shifting how bookings happen.

As adoption accelerates, AI-enabled tools will reshape everything from pricing to guest communications. In this rapidly-changing market, success starts with a seamlessly integrated and connected tech stack.

The importance of a connected ecosystem

Hotels can use anywhere from 10-50 technology vendors. In today’s world, each piece of technology impacts another, and hoteliers can’t afford to add tools without considering how they fit into their existing ecosystem.

Every piece of technology must work in harmony with the rest and, more importantly, drive measurable results. In a saturated market, it’s increasingly difficult  for hoteliers to evaluate every tool’s impact on their current tech stack and make confident purchasing decisions—technology simply evolves too rapidly to keep pace.

And that’s where trusted partner relationships matter. The key to creating a connected ecosystem is relying on partners or vendors to help adopt and elevate a strategy—and leverage their expertise.

What’s more, timing is everything. In some cases, it may make sense to be an early adopter, while in others a “wait and see” approach is the best choice.

Given their knowledge, partners can help steer hoteliers to make the best decisions for their business and their guests—freeing up time for hoteliers to do what they do best: focus on filling rooms and making guests happy.

A hotel guest using her smartphone to make a contactless payment at the front desk, illustrating a connected and modern tech ecosystem in action.
Building a connected ecosystem through expert partnerships allows hoteliers to streamline their operations and deliver a frictionless, modern payment experience to every guest.

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Find, attract, convert, and engage travelers at every stage. Sojern's Hospitality Marketing Platform helps hotels and global portfolios grow brands, boost ROI, and delight guests.

Sojern is an AI-powered marketing platform built to help independent hoteliers drive more direct bookings and increase profitability. We combine easy-to-use technology with travel marketing expertise to deliver actionable traveler insights, high-intent audiences, and multichannel activation that helps you compete with larger brands.

More than 10,000 travel marketers rely on Sojern each year to attract, convert, and re-engage travelers across the booking journey.

Founded in 2007 and acquired by RateGain in 2025, Sojern is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with teams across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific.

Our commission-based solution supercharges direct bookings across Google, Facebook, Instagram, email, SEM, and metasearch—so you only pay for completed stays.

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