Come on, one more!

No, not another drink. Not another booking coming in. But another hotel in the queue trying to sell exactly the same thing as you.

’These are bizarre times. Everything is changing incredibly fast. Or is it? Or is nothing changing at all, and is more and more of the same simply being created? Because welcome to the Age of Average: an era in which everyone is simultaneously becoming ‘better’ and therefore no one stands out anymore. Instagram has taught us what is beautiful. Booking.com has taught us what works. And the combination of those two has filled the hotel world with brands without corners or edges.

This is a diagnosis.

What has happened in parallel in recent years is the proliferation of AI marketing and sales tools. ChatGPT, Claude, Canva AI, you name it. All incredibly useful, but here's the problem: your marketer uses the same tools as the marketer at the hotel two streets over. Same tool, same prompt, same result. Copy-paste in a different font.

AI is an amplifier, not an inventor. Give it nothing to work with, and it will give you nothing back. Shit in, shit out. The smartest marketing tool in the world is useless without a defined position, a sharp voice, a reason why your hotel is not to be confused with the next.

This is a call.

To work out what you stand for as a hotel, for which guests you are the ideal solution, and what atmosphere you want to create. Once you have that clear, then go all out with your artificial intelligence – because then you can also make those systems understand exactly what you expect.

In the projects we've managed ourselves, like The Ostendian, the first question is always: why would a guest book here? With The Ostendian, it was clear: it embodies the soul of the city. So, if a guest asks their AI assistant, “I want a hotel where I can truly feel like I'm in Ostend,” which hotel do you think the algorithm will suggest?

Today's booking platforms will soon be replaced by travellers planning their trips via ChatGPT and its ilk. They are looking for what makes you unique. No identity? Then you are invisible. To the guest and to the algorithm.

The rest disappears into mediocrity. And it's very crowded there these days.

The Brand Guys – Yuri Vandenbogaerde & Dries Henau Building UnAverage™ concepts & brands