And almost without exception, the thing holding them back isn’t a lack of knowledge, or a lack of budget, or a bad strategy. It’s this: the belief that doing something different is risky.

I want to challenge that, because I think it’s backwards.

For years, safe marketing made sense. You invested in what you knew worked — Google, SEO, maybe some paid media — and it delivered. The channels were stable, the results were predictable, and sticking to the playbook was a perfectly reasonable strategy.

That world doesn’t exist anymore.

The way guests search for and book accommodation has fundamentally changed. AI search is reshaping customer acquisition faster than most brands or head offices can keep up with. Traditional SEO results are being compressed. Direct revenue is declining for hotels that haven’t adapted, even when their Google visibility looks strong on paper. The landscape has shifted — and it’s still shifting.

Think about that for a second. If you keep doing what’s always worked, you’re creating a deep dependency on channels that are becoming less and less effective. That’s not a safe strategy. That’s a slow bleed.

I spoke recently with a hotel that was performing brilliantly in traditional Google search — 37% visibility, ahead of every competitor. By all conventional measures, they were winning. But their direct revenue was declining. Why? Because fewer people are starting their search on Google the way they used to. AI tools are intercepting that journey earlier.

Doing nothing — or worse, doubling down on what used to work — isn’t a neutral position. It’s a decision with real financial consequences.

I had a conversation with a senior hotel advisor not long ago, someone who works closely with a portfolio of properties. They said something that stuck with me: the GMs they work with are smart, but a lot of them are scared to make decisions that might go against the corporate machine. So they wait. They follow the company line. They ask for head office approval. They look for a case study from another hotel before they’ll take the first step.

And by the time all of that happens, the market has moved on.

Here’s the reframe I’d offer: trying new things in the right way isn’t risky. It’s strategic. It’s intentional. It’s disciplined.

Seven years ago, we were telling hotels that guests were searching “hotel near me” and “Italian restaurant near me” on their phones. Nobody believed it would be significant. Now hyperlocal search performance is one of the strongest and most adopted strategies across the industry.

That didn’t happen by accident. It happened because a handful of GMs and DOSMs were willing to back a business case, test a new approach, and report on the results. They took what looked like a risk — and turned it into a competitive advantage.

The same opportunity exists right now with AI search. And the window is open — but it won’t stay open forever.

If you’re considering making a move but want to do it properly, here’s how to think about it:

Start with data. The compression happening in traditional search channels is visible and measurable. You can see it in your own analytics. A proper opportunity analysis will show you the traffic you’re missing, the revenue within reach, and a clear ROI model to baseline your KPIs against. That removes the guesswork entirely.

Lean on the right partners. You don’t have to figure this out alone. Work with people who have a track record, who’ve been in the market long enough to have seen things work and things fail, and who can back their recommendations with evidence. Your hotel advisor or asset manager can help you pressure-test the case before you commit.

Start at a scale that makes sense. You don’t have to go all-in on day one. Test, measure, and grow from there. That’s not timid — that’s smart.

Define what success looks like. Set your benchmarks upfront. Report against them. If something works, you’ve got a story to tell — and a foundation to build on. If it doesn’t land the way you expected, you understand why and you adjust. Either way, you’re ahead of the person who never started.

Think about the GMs and commercial leaders getting up on stage at hospitality awards — IHG, Accor, industry-wide. They’re not being recognised for toeing the company line. They’re being recognised for doing things differently, leading their markets, and driving results that their peers are still trying to catch up to.

Innovation doesn’t have to mean going rogue or going against your brand. It means being the person who says: here’s the opportunity, here’s the case, here’s what I’m going to test — and then actually doing it.

That’s leadership. And the industry needs more of it right now.

If you’re sitting on the fence waiting for someone else to prove it first, by the time they do, you’ve already lost your first-mover advantage. You’re just moving with the market — doing the same thing as everyone else, getting the same results as everyone else.

Einstein’s definition of insanity comes to mind.

At OmniHyper, we work with hotels to identify exactly what’s happening in their market, what the opportunity looks like in real numbers, and how to move on it in a way that’s backed by data — not guesswork. If you’d like to understand what AI search means for your property, we’d love to have that conversation.