Gabriela Otto, President of HSMAI Brazil and Latam, from Indianapolis, USA, at HSMAI Commercial Strategy Week 2025
HEDNA & HSMAI join forces to discuss hotel distribution at the heart of global commercial transformation.
In a world where guests arrive knowing more about the hotel than the front desk, hotel distribution has ceased to be a question of channels and has become a question of intelligence. In this panel, HEDNA (Hotel Electronic Distribution Network Association) presented a precise snapshot of what's coming next in hospitality sales management.
Andrea Daniels (Board Member, HEDNA), Lisa Murphy (VP, HEDNA) and Professor Jason Shames (NYU) opened the panel with an in-depth analysis of the future of distribution, driven by data, hyper-personalization and technologies that are effectively redefining hospitality, not replacing it, as some still fear.
Distribution is now a branding strategy.
In an environment where the guest journey begins (and sometimes ends) in the OTA algorithms, meta searches and direct platforms, understanding the right channels and how to behave within them has become a competitive advantage. But what caught my attention most was the focus on real, practical trends, not just digital futurism.
Key points from the panel that every hotel professional should consider:
- Hyper Personalization: Deep segmentation that connects behavior with value proposition. Think of a GDS where the search is preconfigured based on the user's journey.
- Autonomous Pricing Models: Algorithms that learn from market sentiment in real time. Dynamic, yes, but with contextual reading (not just of the competition).
- Virtual agents with emotional intelligence: chatbots who now respond with empathy, which radically changes the relationship with the customer.
- Payment and trust: Guests want to pay however they want, wherever they are. Virtual cards, wallets digital and security through tokenization are the new standard of satisfaction.
And what does this mean for Latin America?
The Brazilian market, still highly dependent on OTAs and often with rigid distribution, offers an ocean of opportunities. But it requires a change of mindset. The panel left some important reflections:
- Are we ready to sell by attribute and not just by room type?
- Does our data inform strategic decisions or just occupancy reports?
- Are we offering a seamless payment experience or creating friction that complicates the customer's life?
Paths suggested by the panelists:
- Reassess channel architecture: Each channel has a role—and a cost. It's time to stop selling in a generic way.
- Integrating distribution data with CRM and RM: These are not silos, they are interdependent layers.
- Crafting content with surgical precision: It's not just about having beautiful photos, but also knowing where, when, and how to use them for each channel profile.
And to close, a provocative phrase that resonated throughout the panel:
"Artificial intelligence is not replacing hospitality — it's redefining it. The future of guest service will be driven by intelligence, not just intuition."
It's the end of the era of "feeling" as the sole compass. The hotelier of the future will be, yes, sensitive and empathetic—but also analytical, data-driven, and deeply strategic.
Instead of waiting for a receptionist to intuit a guest's preferences, AI anticipates them based on real patterns, prior learning, and past interactions.
The role of humans, in this new landscape, is to create meaning, emotional connection, and elevate the experience with creativity—and no longer perform repetitive tasks that a machine can (and should) perform better.
The alliance between HEDNA & HSMAI already marks a turning point in the way we conceive distribution, not as a system, but as part of the brand promise.
In short, hospitality isn't dying. It's evolving. And whoever understands this first will reposition themselves with a competitive advantage.
Technology without soul is cold. But soul without strategy is too romantic to produce results.
If the future of hospitality is digital, let it at least be strategically human.