Hi, I'm Gonzalo 👋
In this edition I want to share with you a piece of news that could change the way people find you online, a reflection on the details, a concrete idea for your marketing and the new episode of the podcast, with a guest who's going to spark some nostalgia.
Let's get started.
📰 I translate the news: platforms are already connecting hotels with ChatGPT
A relevant development for hotel distribution: several platforms in the industry have started connecting their properties with artificial intelligence assistants like ChatGPT and Claude, aiming to capture bookings directly from those conversational channels. And the data behind it is compelling: according to this year's traveler behavior reports, the vast majority already turn to artificial intelligence to plan and book their stays, with an even stronger incidence among the younger generations.
What does this mean for your hotel? That the guest's entry door is multiplying. For years the conversation was «Google or the OTAs»; now a channel is being added where the traveler asks in natural language and gets a direct recommendation, without scrolling through a list of results.
And here's the important part: when AI recommends, it doesn't consult an advertising catalog — it relies on the public information available about your hotel. That's why the consistency of your data, the quality of your online reputation and the clarity with which you describe what you offer stopped being a marketing task and became a condition for visibility.
It's not about chasing every new channel. It's about making sure that, when someone asks about a hotel like yours, the information out there about your hotel is the right one.
🏨 The craft: the details a guest remembers
A guest rarely remembers the rate they paid. They remember how you made them feel. And that almost never depends on how expensive or how big the hotel is, but on the details.
Think about the moments that truly mark a stay at your hotel: the welcome from someone who seemed to be expecting them, the spot-on recommendation about where to eat well away from the tourist circuits, the quick, frictionless solution when something went wrong, the gesture nobody asked for. None of that appears in your brochure, but it's exactly what your guests talk about when they get back home.
There are also the details that cost you dearly, almost always out of carelessness: an endless check-in after a long trip, the «that's not my department», the unanswered message, the feeling of being just another number. A single detail like that can overshadow an impeccable stay, and it will hardly ever show up in a satisfaction survey.
The good news is that most of these details don't require budget — they require attention. Pick one single moment of your guest's journey —the arrival, for example— and ask yourself whether your hotel leaves a mark there or simply gets the job done. That's where the recommendation and the return visit are earned, far more than on price.
📣 Hotel marketing: how to get more reviews without being pushy
Reviews are one of a hotel's most valuable assets: they sustain your reputation, influence the booking decision and, as we saw above, they also feed what AI knows about your hotel. And yet, many hotels avoid asking for them for fear of bothering the guest.
Working with hotels every day at WeSpeak, there are four things I see working:
- Choose the right moment. The best time is when the guest has just experienced something positive or at the end of their stay, not days later, when the memory has already faded.
- Ask for something specific, not a rating. Instead of «leave us a review», try «it would really help us if you shared what you enjoyed the most». You get richer comments, in your guests' real language.
- Reduce friction to the minimum. A direct, one-click link makes a huge difference compared to asking them to search for your hotel on a platform.
- Reply to all of them, especially the negative ones. Every reply speaks to the future guests who will read them before deciding.
Asking for reviews doesn't bother anyone when it's done naturally and at the right moment. What does cost you dearly is never asking at all.
🎙 New episode of Mates & Management: Javier Castellanos, co-founder of El Rincón del Vago
In episode 2 of the podcast I talked with Javier Castellanos, co-founder of El Rincón del Vago, the website that marked two generations of students in Spain and Latin America. He founded it in 1998, while still a student in Salamanca and before Google even existed, and it came to receive millions of visits a day.
We talked about how you build a project from scratch without investors, the decision to sell the company at 26, what to really look for when hiring someone, and the parallel between the dot-com fever and the moment we're living today with artificial intelligence. His reflection on why tools change but the ability to solve problems remains the decisive skill is, for me, one of the great takeaways of the conversation.
It's a conversation packed with value for anyone running a business or a team. I recommend listening to it in full.
Listen on YouTube or on Spotify
What did you think of this edition?
If you think it could help someone else, share it with them. And if you have doubts, suggestions or a question for me, I'd love to hear from you.
See you in the next edition!
Gonzalo.
