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IHG Rebuilds Hotel Content So AI Assistants Can Read It
IHG is overhauling how it structures and manages hotel content so that AI travel assistants can understand individual properties, its chief commercial and marketing officer said ahead of a September industry forum appearance.
Heather Balsley, IHG's Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer, is leading the group's push to make its hotels legible to AI models, alongside her argument that those models will not take ownership of the guest relationship.
The effort rests on content. Balsley said AI tools can only be as useful as the material they draw from, and travelers are increasingly putting nuanced questions to assistants about where to stay based on specific needs, preferences and trip purpose.
Basic descriptions and amenity lists are no longer enough. In her account, hotel content must be rich, accurate and relevant so that a model can grasp what distinguishes a property and match it to the right guest.
IHG is making significant investments in that area. Later this year the company plans to introduce a new platform that will change how it structures and manages hotel content, making it easier for individual hotels to promote and showcase their properties.
The stakes are visibility. When a traveler asks an AI assistant where to stay, the properties it names are those whose content the model can actually read.
Balsley is set to appear at the Skift Global Forum on September 22–24, 2026, where she will discuss the content overhaul and her view that the assistant surfacing a hotel cannot own the relationship that keeps the guest.