Intelligence · hospitality tourism
A hotel booking is no longer the end of the sale, travel researchers say
What changed
PhocusWire reported on September 30, from the Skift Global Forum, that travelers now pass through 65 touchpoints before a trip is booked, up from 45 in 2018, according to a McKinsey and Skift Research report. The article reports that 78% of travelers keep researching after they book and 50% have changed a confirmed accommodation after seeing a better option online. IHG's Heather Balsley said hotels 'can't stop at the booking' and that IHG is preparing for agentic booking to become a scale opportunity. The article adds that IHG took part in a Google AI Mode booking pilot, with reservations processed as direct bookings, and cites an upcoming Propellic study in which AI platforms told 71% of participants to book directly with an operator rather than through an agency.
Why it matters here
Our read: if a booking no longer ends the decision, a hotel here is competing for the guest after the reservation too, including in whatever an AI assistant tells someone who has already booked. If the Propellic figure holds, assistants often point travelers to the operator directly.
Sources
- 'Constant intention to buy' forces hotels to rethink the marketing funnel — PhocusWire (2026-09-30)
Not confirmed by us
- Sourced from secondary reporting; we did not read a primary document.
- We read PhocusWire's account, not the McKinsey and Skift Research report or the Propellic study. PhocusWire does not say how many travelers either surveyed, and the Propellic study is unpublished.
How this was made: researched and written at the desk with AI; every figure checked against its source by Claude Haiku (subagent), one pass over all five seed briefs, then a second pass on six flagged claims, with a planted-error test the check caught; published by Sat Singh on October 5, 2026.