In a world where algorithms increasingly guide our travel decisions, creating an “illusion of choice,” we sit down with Katarina Railko, a leading expert in hospitality marketing strategy. With a unique focus on the intersection of consumer psychology, digital technology, and guest experience design, she offers a compelling perspective on how hotels can reclaim their narrative. Today, we’ll explore how hoteliers can restore a genuine sense of autonomy for their guests, build trust in an age of sponsored content, and leverage psychological principles to create deeper, more valuable connections that translate directly to the bottom line.
Travelers often encounter a funnel of algorithms, from sponsored placements to AI suggestions, that narrows their options. How can a hotel design a direct booking experience that restores a genuine sense of autonomy? Please share a specific, practical tactic.
The key is to make every recommendation explainable. When a guest is on your booking site, and you suggest a specific room or a package, don’t let it feel like a black-box decision. Instead of just showing a “recommended for you” tag, add a simple, transparent note that ties the suggestion directly to the traveler’s stated preferences. A line as simple as, “Based on your preference for quiet mornings, we suggest our garden-view suite,” immediately reframes the interaction. It’s no longer an opaque algorithm pushing a product; it’s a thoughtful system listening to their needs. This small change shifts the dynamic, making the guest feel seen and in control, which builds the trust needed for them to confidently click “book.”
With platforms like Tripadvisor managing over a billion reviews and featuring paid placements, organic visibility is a major challenge. Beyond paid ads, what is one key strategy independent hotels can use to ensure their unique story stands out and is discovered by the right guests?
Beyond the ad spend, the most powerful strategy is to develop and consistently project a clear, ownable brand persona through recurring editorial content. In a sea of 9 million listings on Tripadvisor alone, you can’t just be a collection of rooms; you have to be a destination with a soul. This means creating a narrative that expresses your values. Are you about serene wellness, vibrant social connections, or family adventure? Publish content that brings this to life—stories about your local suppliers, your team’s philosophy on service, or guides to the neighborhood that reflect your unique perspective. This builds an authentic voice that can’t be bought with a sponsored placement and attracts guests who are looking for a story they can see themselves in, not just a place to sleep.
Tastemakers can drive massive demand, yet guests are increasingly wary of sponsored content. Considering new ideas like receipt-verified influence, what are two concrete steps a hotel can take to prove its endorsements are authentic and build genuine trust with potential guests?
First, hotels must practice radical transparency and clearly disclose all creator collaborations, as required by regulators like the FTC. But don’t just bury it in fine print. Embrace it. Create a dedicated section on your website that outlines your philosophy on partnerships, celebrating the creators you work with and explaining why their voice aligns with your brand. This turns a legal requirement into a statement of integrity. Second, hotels can borrow the core idea from receipt-verified concepts like Selleb by showcasing real, organic loyalty. This could involve featuring testimonials from long-time repeat guests or even creating a “Guest Curated” section on your blog where real visitors share their itineraries and photos. It anchors your social proof in genuine experience, not just paid impressions, which is far more powerful in building lasting trust.
The IKEA effect suggests people value what they help create. How can hotels translate this psychological principle into their pre-arrival process to increase a guest’s perceived value of their stay? Could you walk us through a light co-creation flow that works?
Absolutely. The pre-arrival window is a golden opportunity to harness the IKEA effect. Imagine a guest receives an email a week before their stay. Instead of just confirming details, it invites them to “co-design” their experience through a simple, visual interface. The flow could start with, “Help us prepare your perfect arrival.” The first step might offer a choice of in-room music genres or a selection of three welcome beverages. The next step could allow them to pre-select their pillow type or choose from a short list of local artisanal snacks for the minibar. The key is to make it a quick, finishable process with visible, reversible steps. By investing just a few minutes, the guest has built psychological ownership. The room is no longer just a room; it’s their room, which they helped prepare, and that feeling dramatically increases its perceived value before they even walk through the door.
The discovery layer is shifting from search results to AI-generated answers. What is the single most important change a hotel marketer should make to their content strategy to ensure they appear in these new AI answer engines, and what metric would you use to track success?
The single most important change is to shift from optimizing for keywords to optimizing for citable facts. This is the core of Answer Engine Optimization, or AEO. Your website content needs to be structured with entity-rich, unambiguous information that a large language model can easily digest and present as a trusted source. Instead of just a flowery marketing description, create clear, distinct pages or sections for who you are, what you offer, for whom, and why you’re different. Use structured data to label amenities, location, and unique features. The key metric for success here isn’t just ranking, but citation frequency—monitoring how often your hotel’s name and specific details appear directly inside the synthesized answers generated by platforms like Google AI Overviews or ChatGPT.
Self-Determination Theory links autonomy to higher satisfaction. How does offering a few “you-shaped” choices, rather than an endless list of options, directly lead to better reviews and fewer cancellations? Please explain the psychological connection and the business outcome.
The connection is powerful. When a guest is presented with a curated set of two or three well-defined paths—like a “quiet wing near the spa” versus a “corner suite with late checkout”—they feel their preferences have been heard and respected. This targeted approach gives them a strong sense of authorship over their decision without the paralysis that comes from an endless menu of options. This feeling of control creates an immediate psychological attachment. Because they chose it, they are more invested in the outcome being positive, a phenomenon called choice-induced preference. This leads directly to better business outcomes: they are less likely to cancel because they feel ownership over the plan, and post-stay, they are more forgiving of minor issues and more likely to leave a positive review because their experience validates their own good decision.
What is your forecast for the role of AI in hospitality over the next five years?
Over the next five years, AI will become the central nervous system for personalized guest journeys, moving far beyond chatbots. I foresee AI agents becoming the primary interface for travel discovery, bypassing traditional search engines and OTAs for guests who want conversational, synthesized recommendations. For hotels, this means survival will depend on feeding these AI ecosystems with structured, high-quality data. We’ll also see AI deeply integrated into on-property operations, not just for efficiency but for hyper-personalization—anticipating a guest’s needs for dinner reservations or spa treatments based on past behavior and stated preferences. The hotels that thrive will be those that use AI not to replace human touch, but to empower their teams to deliver more meaningful, seemingly intuitive moments of hospitality at scale.
