Roiback Next Madrid. The future of direct sales starts with the guest

Yesterday, we brought together some of the leading hotel chains from Spain and Portugal in Madrid to share perspectives on the major challenges facing the industry.

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What began as a presentation of our HotelTech vision—which aims to connect technology, data, and knowledge centered on the guest to support them throughout their entire journey and generate more revenue and profitability today, as well as greater long-term value—soon turned into an open conversation about the concerns, priorities, and opportunities that hoteliers foresee for the coming years.‍

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We’re in the business of experiences. A simple idea that, in the midst of a conversation dominated by artificial intelligence, automation, and Agentic Commerce, ended up becoming one of the key takeaways from Roiback Next Madrid.

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Because perhaps the real challenge isn't incorporating more technology, but rather using it to better understand guests, help them make decisions, and build a more meaningful and profitable relationship with them.

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And that relationship begins long before the reservation is made.

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Be there before the click

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Travelers are spending more and more time seeking inspiration, researching, and comparing options. During the event, Marta Zurera from Google showed that the period between October and Christmas already generates 1.7 times the number of clicks seen during the traditional January peak for flights, vacations, and hotels. At the same time, searches are becoming longer, more visual, and more conversational.

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This is a significant shift: we’re no longer competing just to get a click. We’re competing to get on the traveler’s radar (and that of LLMs, long before the first visit).

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This requires the hotel to be present during the moment of inspiration, but also to ask itself a fundamental question: Are we effectively explaining why they should choose us?‍

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One of the discussions at the event centered precisely on this point. A hotel’s website should reflect its value proposition, feature attractive images, and use video when it helps convey the experience the traveler will have later on.

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Because not all hotels start out with the same level of name recognition or apparent appeal. Knowing how to explain what makes a property special, who it appeals to, and why it deserves to be chosen can be just as important as having a good offer.

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From Driving Traffic to Understanding Intent

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But being inspiring doesn't mean losing sight of the goal: profitability.

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71% of hoteliers who responded to our survey cited conversion as one of their top priorities for the direct channel in 2027. The same percentage chose AI and automation. These two priorities are increasingly interconnected.

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AI can help us interpret signals that we previously considered in isolation: what a user is looking for, when they want to travel, which rooms they view, whether they return to the website, or how far they progress in the booking process. This is precisely what our "marketing intelligence" solution, OdysseIA, addresses.

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The goal isn't simply to have more data. It's to use that data to make better decisions: which user deserves more attention, which message is most relevant, or where it makes sense to invest each euro.

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Technology changes. The guest remains.

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The next transformation will go even further. Travelers are beginning to replace browsing with conversation: they explain what they want and expect technology to find, compare, and recommend options for them.

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But for that experience to work, there is a more fundamental problem to solve: Most of the technological solutions in hotels remain disconnected.

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Booking engines, CRM, loyalty programs, contact centers, payment systems, check-in, and PMS handle different aspects of the same guest experience. In fact, fragmented systems were the barrier most frequently cited by participants as an obstacle to providing a more connected guest experience.

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For the guest, however, those systems don't exist. There is a hotel.

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That’s probably the biggest challenge: connecting technology, data, and intelligence around a single person and maintaining that context from the moment of inspiration through to after their stay.‍

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That's also the shift we're making at Roiback: moving from focusing solely on reservations to focusing on guests.

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We don't know if people will make reservations tomorrow through a website, Google, ChatGPT, WhatsApp, voice commands, or an interface that doesn't even exist yet. What we do know is that behind all of them, there will still be a person looking for an experience.

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The interface will change. Our relationship with guests will not.

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And that's why direct sales for the future don't start with the reservation. They start with the guest.

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