This insight summarises The Bouncers Have Arrived: Hotels Start Choosing Which Machines Get In, by Terence Ronson, Founder and Managing Director of Pertlink Limited, published on Hospitality Net on 12 November 2026.
The trigger. At the Skift Commerce Summit on 11 November, MCR's Tyler Morse said he wants to ban AI agents from booking his hotels. Agents "make more rational decisions" and don't buy on impulse, so they are bad for upsell. United Airlines announced its own ban on AI bots the same day.
Right diagnosis, wrong prescription. Ronson agrees with the problem but says no hotel can ban its way out of distribution. In Singapore and Japan, Agoda is already bookable through Meta's Muse. "If Meta then takes a cut on top of the OTA's, you could pay twice for the same room."
A guest list, not a wall. "A ban is not a strategy. A guest list is." Skift checked 50 hotel brand websites and found only 10 that address AI crawlers in their robots.txt files. Citi has proposed that liability for an agent's mistake should fall on "the company that is actually coming with the agent," not on the hotel. Duffel and Katanox are building direct PMS/CRS connections in which the hotel stays merchant of record.
The queue in Asia. Agoda's 2027 Asia Travel Pulse surveyed 3,395 travellers across 11 markets. "53% now plan trips with AI, but only 7% would let it book and just 6% fully trust an agent to book on its own." The agent "is already deciding whether you make the shortlist." Ronson's advice: "Treat the 7% as a deadline, not as permission to wait."
Four actions for this week.
- Write an agent access policy, not a ban. Set out which agents you serve and through which connectors, and update robots.txt and your terms of use to match.
- Put agent liability in writing. Turn Citi's principle into a contract clause covering refunds and no-shows.
- Model double commission per booking in your 2027 budget.
- Rebuild upsell for a rational buyer. Make offers structured and rule-based so an agent can accept them for the guest.
Hotels that set the rules now, Ronson concludes, "will decide who comes through the door, and the rest will find out from their OTA statement."
AIHA practical takeaway. Check your robots.txt, bot-protection settings and terms of use against your distribution strategy, and get revenue, marketing and IT to agree on which agents may book. Ask OTA and connectivity partners how agent-originated bookings are commissioned and who is liable when an agent books the wrong room. Turn your best upsells into clearly priced options with simple rules.
Related AIHA insight: Are Hotels Closing Their Doors to AI Agents?