Simone Puorto recently sad down with Brian Reeves, Founder and CEO of the roomangel Foundation where Brian shared his thoughts on how hotel distribution has evolved, and why it needs a serious rethink. Brian, who previously founded Avvio, spoke about the early days of digital booking. Long before the AI boom, his team was already working on personalization, conversion science, and machine learning to improve how guests search and book hotels online. At one point, they were even adjusting hotel websites and rate displays based on the user"s location and weather, showing a warm fireplace to someone browsing from a snowy New York, for example. But even with these early innovations, Brian says the core structure of online hotel distribution has remained deeply flawed. The guest experience in booking is still stressful and full of friction, he said. And hotels are spending billions on commissions and marketing just to stay visible. His new project, the roomangel Foundation, picks up where Avvio left off. The idea is simple, but ambitious: create a more efficient, transparent, and fair way for guests to search and book hotels directly. At the heart of this is a shift away from how OTAs rank hotels, often based on commission, and toward a model that puts value for money and guest relevance first. Brian also pointed out that today's search and booking systems are not designed for the guest. You start a search on Google, get pulled into an OTA, and have to start over. It's not efficient, and it's not fair to the consumer. With the rise of generative AI and conversational agents, Brian sees even more urgency to rethink the system. He shared an example of a client who received a booking for a room that didn"t exist, generated by an AI tool pulling outdated information from an OTA. These AI booking hallucinations, as he called them, could become a serious risk if the industry does not regain control over its own data and inventory. Looking ahead, Brian hopes hotel search will become more guest-centric and transparent, without unnecessary intermediaries. If we meet again in ten years, he said, I"d like to see a booking experience where the results are actually for the guest. Not shaped by urgency tricks or hidden costs. Just clear, useful, and direct. Click here for more About Hospitality Net For more than 25 years, Hospitality Net has been at the center of the global hotel and hospitality industry. Over this time, it has built a unique and trusted ecosystem where professionals come to share knowledge, insights, and perspectives. As a neutral and independent platform, Hospitality Net is respected by industry leaders worldwide for providing reliable information and a space where diverse voices in hospitality can be heard. Visit hospitalitynet.org.
