NEW DELHI, 12 June 2026: RateGain’s latest internal data shows the traveller experience has already become ‘AI-first’ with 70% of travellers across the Asia-Pacific using AI throughout the entire travel experience.
Based on emerging trends across Asia Pacific and the Middle East, RateGain Executive Vice President APMEA Anurag Jain points out that rapid changes in traveller behaviour and accelerating technology adoption are reshaping how destinations and hotel brands compete.
Despite widespread adoption of digital tools and AI among consumers, the hotel industry continues to lag behind in its operational transformation.
Fragmented systems and disconnected data environments continue to limit the effective use of AI across commercial and operational processes, meaning many critical decisions remain largely manual.
According to RateGain, up to 50% of revenue opportunities are being lost due to a lack of automation in decision-making. This inefficiency is also evident in demand generation and performance management, where 70% of marketing teams struggle to demonstrate return on ad spend (ROAS) clearly. In comparison, 80% of revenue management teams spend up to two days per week on reporting tasks that could be automated.
“At RateGain, our focus is on helping hotels become more discoverable at the moments that matter, ensuring they are present where demand is created and strengthening direct channel performance,” says Jain.
“Our AI-first approach is about removing friction from commercial decision-making and enabling faster, more accurate responses to shifts in demand.”
“We also want hotels to move away from fragmented vendor ecosystems and instead work with a single integrated partner that drives growth across the full commercial funnel. AI should not add complexity, but simplify operations and deliver scalable, performance-driven outcomes,” he adds.
AI as the connective layer of hotel commercial performance RateGain argues that the hotels currently outperforming the market are those that have moved beyond standalone tools and are embedding AI as a connective layer across the entire guest journey.
“The hotels that will win are not those with more tools, but those with smarter systems capable of connecting all guest data across the full travel cycle. The most successful operators are not simply adding more technology, but building smarter commercial practices that connect marketing, revenue, distribution, and guest experience,” Jain concluded.
RateGain highlights that early adopters of AI-driven commercial models are already achieving significant performance gains: more than a 100% increase in demand through intent-based marketing, a x2 increase in direct conversion via AI-powered booking engines, revenue uplifts of around 30% through intelligent pricing, and up to 300% growth in ancillary revenue through AI-driven concierge solutions.
(Source: RateGain)
