The AI Bubble in Hospitality: A Social Media Déjà Vu

There was a time, not so many years ago, when it seemed that any hotel not on Facebook was doomed to disappear. Then came Instagram, then TikTok, then the “engagement” gurus, then the experts in “humanising brands”, then the webinars, the crash courses, the certificates, the “specialised” agencies and the consultants promising to turn any hotel into a viral phenomenon. I remember that collective sense of urgency perfectly. It seemed that anyone who did not post stories every day, respond to comments in record time or invest in social campaigns was out of the market. Many hotels began acting out of fear rather than strategy. And fear, in hospitality, almost never produces brilliant decisions. Today, I see exactly the same dynamic around artificial intelligence. The tools change, the technical terms change and the protagonists change, but market behaviour is remarkably similar. AI has become a new corporate religion, with more evangelists than real cases of deep transformation. dejavu

Every week, new “experts” in artificial intelligence applied to hotels emerge. Many of them have never managed a hotel operation, dealt with an overbooking on an August Saturday, had to contain a reputation crisis at eleven at night, or managed an unmotivated team in the middle of peak season. Yet they speak with overwhelming confidence about how AI will revolutionise the guest experience.

I have even seen something on social media that I find, frankly, as fascinating as it is worrying: the profiles of supposed “experts” delivering masterclasses on how to redesign a check-in, eliminate reception queues or reorganise a hotel’s operational layout… without ever having worked in one. People who have never experienced an overbooking at eleven at night, never had to manage the simultaneous arrival of a group of 80 people while the PMS goes down, or never felt the real pressure of a guest waiting for an immediate solution in front of other customers. And yet they speak with almost surgical certainty, as though hospitality could be solved through a LinkedIn thread, a thirty-second video or a Canva template with coloured arrows.

What is truly dangerous is not only the superficiality of the discourse, but also its patronising tone. Simplistic ideas are put forward for extraordinarily complex operations, ignoring the human, architectural, cultural, financial and emotional factors that shape every decision in a hotel. They reduce decades of operational experience to phrases such as “automate this”, “remove that desk” or “do check-in on mobile”, as if the guest were an algorithm rather than a tired, emotional, unpredictable person who is different every day. It is pathetic to watch some people turn practical ignorance into digital authority, while professionals who have spent years keeping real hotels running barely have time to record themselves offering advice because they are, quite simply, working in the real world.

And this is where the real problem begins: when an industry historically obsessed with chasing trends starts confusing innovation with collective anxiety.

AI Is Being Sold More as a Symbol Than as a Solution

Hospitality has a certain structural weakness for management fads. We find it hard to admit, but historically we have been a highly impressionable sector. We have chased concepts, certifications, marketing trends and operating models many times before truly understanding their economic or operational impact. Something similar is happening with AI, but on a larger scale. Today, many hotels feel the need to “do something with AI” simply to avoid appearing outdated. And when technology is implemented due to reputational pressure rather than strategic need, the risk of disappointment is enormous. The pattern is almost identical to the one we experienced with social media:

First, an apocalyptic narrative emerges.
Then comes the sense of urgency.
Then the gurus arrive.
Later, there is a mass offering of courses.
Then miracle solutions proliferate.
Finally, the market discovers that reality was far more complex.

With social media, we were promised:

Mass loyalty.
Hyperactive communities.
Ongoing conversations with customers.
Direct conversion into sales.
Automatic brand humanisation.

The reality was quite different. Many hotels ended up:

Generating irrelevant content.
Posting out of obligation.
Hiring community managers without a strategy.
Chasing empty metrics.
Measuring success in likes instead of profitability.

Something similar is happening with AI today. I constantly hear statements such as:

“AI will completely change hospitality.”
“Anyone who does not adopt AI will disappear.”
“AI will replace entire departments.”
“AI will revolutionise the customer experience.”

But when you scratch beneath the surface and analyse specific cases, reality is still far more limited.

Much Talk, Few Genuine Success Stories

This is probably the most striking aspect of this entire frenzy. There is an enormous amount of content about artificial intelligence… and surprisingly few solid, in-depth and sustainable cases of genuine success in hospitality. I am not talking about:

using ChatGPT to write descriptions,
automating emails,
generating review responses,
creating images for social media,
or summarising reports.

These are tactical operational improvements. Useful, yes. Revolutionary, no. Real transformation happens when technology:

radically changes profitability,
alters the cost structure,
substantially improves the experience,
creates sustainable competitive advantages,
or redefines a business model.

And honestly, we are still far from that in most hotels. Most current implementations remain focused on basic automation, simple customer service, data analysis, automated marketing and content generation. In other words: evolutionary improvements, not revolutionary ones. The problem is that the public narrative is moving far faster than operational reality.

The New Industry of the “AI Expert”

There is another fascinating parallel with the social media era: the mass emergence of instant experts. Suddenly:

everyone gives talks,
everyone sells training,
everyone has frameworks,
everyone talks about prompts,
everyone has “the definitive method”.

And I often sense something dangerous: AI is discussed from technological fascination, not from the hotel business perspective. Hospitality does not need more technology for its own sake. It needs:

more profitability,
more productivity,
less operational friction,
better decisions,
better leadership,
better processes,
and more efficient teams.

Technology only has value when it solves one of those problems. The greatest current risk is falling into what I call “innovation theatre”: doing things that look modern but have minimal real impact.

A spectacular chatbot that does not improve conversion.
A virtual assistant that creates frustration.
An automated system that forces the guest to do more work.
An AI-filled dashboard that nobody consults.
A hyper-automated hotel that loses its humanity.

Because yes, there is also an uncomfortable truth that almost nobody wants to say out loud: many guests do not want more technology; they want less friction. And they are not always the same thing.

Hospitality Has a Fundamental Problem: It Confuses Tools with Strategy

This is nothing new. For years, many hotels confused:

having social media with having marketing,
having a CRM with having loyalty,
having a channel manager with having strategic distribution,
having a PMS with having operational control.

Now the same thing is beginning to happen with AI. Having AI does not mean being innovative. In fact, some of the most efficient hotels I know barely talk about artificial intelligence. They simply use it where it delivers real, quiet value. Because true innovation almost never makes noise. Hospitality should ask itself far more uncomfortable questions before rushing into any implementation:

What specific problem are we solving?
What operating cost are we reducing?
What experience are we genuinely improving?
What KPI is changing?
What financial return do we expect?
Which human tasks are worth preserving?
Are we automating for efficiency or because it is fashionable?

And this is probably the most important question of all: Does AI genuinely improve hospitality… or merely improve the perception of modernity?

The Great Irony: The More AI There Is, the More Important Humanity Will Become

There is something deeply paradoxical about all this. The more automated the sector becomes, the more valuable what cannot be automated will become. In an environment saturated with:

automated responses,
generated messages,
robotised processes,
virtual assistants,
and standardised experiences…

human authenticity will become an even scarcer and more valuable asset. Hospitality existed long before technology. And it will continue to exist long after the current AI trend has passed. Because guests may forget:

a brilliant automation,
an efficient chatbot,
or a flawless digital process.

But they rarely forget:

how you made them feel,
how you solved a problem,
how your team reacted,
or the emotional impression they took away from the hotel.

The human experience remains extraordinarily difficult to replicate technologically.

We Are Entering the Market Maturity Phase

I believe AI will survive this bubble. Unlike other passing fads, it has genuine transformative potential. But I also believe we are approaching an inevitable stage: the filtering stage. Soon, the market will begin to distinguish:

utility from spectacle,
efficiency from marketing,
genuine innovation from performative posturing,
and strategy from opportunism.

And, as happened with social media, those who understand something fundamental will survive: technology never replaces a poor strategy. A disorganised hotel with AI is still a disorganised hotel. Mediocre leadership with AI is still mediocre leadership. A poor operational culture cannot be fixed with prompts. And an irrelevant product does not become extraordinary by using automation. AI will probably transform many parts of hospitality. I have no doubt about that. But the real competitive advantage will not lie in using AI. It will lie in knowing:

where to use it,
where not to use it,
and when the human experience remains infinitely superior.

Because perhaps the great lesson we should have learned from the social media era is this: tools change constantly; the fundamentals of hospitality do not.

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