Direct bookings are calling

LLMs have made voice a viable distribution channel. Most hotels still aren't picking up

The hotel industry spends enormous energy optimising digital distribution. Brand.com conversion rates, metasearch bids, OTA commission negotiations, channel manager configurations. Meanwhile, forty percent of incoming phone calls go unanswered. Recent data from StayNTouch puts the figure even higher: up to 62 percent at properties without dedicated reservations staff.

Every missed call is a potential direct booking handed to an OTA. A guest ready to book calls the hotel, gets voicemail, and opens Booking.com instead. The commission that could have been margin becomes cost. This has been true for decades, but hotels accepted it as unavoidable—staffing a reservations line around the clock costs more than the bookings it captures. Large language models have changed that calculation.

From cost centre to conversion engine

Hospitality AI investment grew from $15.69 billion in 2024 to $20.47 billion in 2025, a 30.5 percent compound annual growth rate. More than seventy percent of hotel executives now prioritise AI spending, with voice technology leading their investment lists. The reason is distribution economics: previous voice systems could answer FAQs but couldn't complete bookings. LLM-powered systems handle the full reservation flow.

Cloudbeds launched Engage with sub-100-millisecond response times and direct PMS integration for real-time availability and booking confirmation. Canary deploys in under thirty minutes, supports automatic translation across more than a hundred languages, and connects to CRS and payment systems. PolyAI handles 70 to 90 percent of calls without human intervention. These systems don't just answer phones—they close bookings.

The Trapp Family Lodge in Vermont saw call volume drop thirty percent with response times falling to thirty seconds. Marriott reported 67 percent fewer abandoned calls after implementation. Abandoned calls that would have converted elsewhere.

The distribution maths

Hotels using voice AI report 80 percent fewer missed calls and 25 percent higher ancillary revenue—the upsells that happen naturally when a guest speaks to someone (or something) that can suggest a room upgrade or spa booking during the reservation call. Guest satisfaction scores increase 27 percent, which matters for repeat direct bookings.

For independent hotels competing against OTA dominance, a voice system that converts phone inquiries represents genuine distribution advantage. The guest who calls has already chosen the hotel—they just need someone to complete the transaction. Sending them to voicemail sends them to an OTA.

Why purpose-built systems win

Generic consumer assistants failed in hotel environments because they couldn't access inventory or process payments. Purpose-built systems from Aiello, The Hotels Network, and SoundHound's Amelia platform integrate directly with PMS, CRS, and payment systems. They check real-time availability, quote accurate rates, and confirm bookings—the full transaction that turns an inquiry into revenue.

Properties implementing voice AI report operational cost reductions of up to twenty percent while capturing revenue that previously leaked to intermediaries. The phone line becomes what the industry has wanted brand.com to be: a direct channel with no commission and higher guest lifetime value.

The concerns remain. Privacy-conscious guests may resist in-room voice devices. Accent recognition and multilingual accuracy require careful vendor evaluation. Integration complexity varies. But these are implementation details, not structural barriers.

Distribution, not innovation theatre

Hotels have spent years fighting for direct bookings through loyalty programmes, rate parity battles, and metasearch investment. The phone has been sitting there the whole time, ringing. Voice AI finally makes it economical to answer. For properties with meaningful call volume, this is no longer about guest service innovation—it's about distribution strategy. The direct bookings are calling. The question is whether anyone picks up.

by Markus Busch, Editor and Publisher of Hospitality.today

Read also: AI trends that will shape hotel operations in 2026

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