In this episode of Hotel Moment, host Karen Stephens, Chief Marketing Officer of Revinate, sits down with Aaron Miller, Senior Vice President of Digital Marketing and CRM at Highgate, to unpack what genuine AI adoption looks like inside one of the world's largest hospitality companies. With more than 20 years of digital, CRM, and loyalty experience across brands like The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, Sidell Group, Trump Hotels, and Turning Stone Enterprises, Aaron brings a buyer's discipline to a conversation flooded with vendor hype, while keeping a sharp eye on guest behavior, content ownership, and live demand challenges.

● Cutting through "AI-powered" marketing: How to evaluate vendor claims case by case when every deck now references AI, and why saturation is now the baseline expectation rather than a differentiator.
● The three AI futures from McKinsey: Why the OTA-dominant, agent-to-agent, and direct booking renaissance scenarios each carry different implications, and why hotel-owned content sits at the heart of the most favorable outcome.
● The new version of search: How prompts and content optimization are reshaping how hotels get found, and why getting off the bot and onto a beautifully curated website still drives the actual booking.
● Why guests still want curated websites: How travelers treat booking as a high-stakes decision because, in Aaron's words, "you can't return your hotel stay" the way you can return a pair of shoes.
● AI as a marketer's tool, not a replacement: Where AI accelerates copywriting and analytics, where it creates ethical risk in imagery, and how Highgate's teams treat it like a calculator that speeds up arithmetic but cannot do the math for you.
● Pivoting FIFA World Cup demand: How Highgate's hotels are layering staycation packages, free parking offers, and segmented database campaigns to capture local market demand as international pickup softens.
● Reading the HITEC 2026 floor: What Aaron looks for in technology vendors that lead a new category rather than join a crowded one, and how the independent portfolio acts as a testbed for early adoption.
● From experience to AI, same conversation: Why "experience, experience, experience" was the buzzword two years ago and AI is today, and how both ultimately serve the same goal of getting guests to a real place where they can finally unplug.

Together, Karen and Aaron also discuss the role of clean data foundations, the budgeting decisions facing non-branded hotels, and what the back half of 2026 looks like for marketers planning for a world where bots, agents, and humans all share the booking journey.

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[02:24] Cutting through the "AI-powered" marketing glitz - Aaron describes the saturation point hotel technology buyers have reached, where every vendor deck references AI as a matter of course. "It's everywhere, but there's very little question on whether it should be or should not be. We're no longer surprised. I mean, I guess you could say that it's saturated, but it needs to be." His point reframes the buyer's job: differentiation has moved from whether a vendor uses AI to how it actually performs and integrates.

[04:18] The direct booking renaissance - Reflecting on McKinsey's three plausible AI futures for hospitality, Aaron lands on the scenario he finds most exciting for hoteliers. "How do we get our hotels to show up when somebody's looking to book a hotel in New York City? It's the new version of search in so many different ways." The Renaissance, he notes, depends on hoteliers owning their content and treating prompts the way they once treated SEO.

[07:35] Why you can't return your hotel stay - Aaron shares an insight from Revinate’s NAVIGATE conference that has stayed with him on the trust gap travelers still feel with AI. "You can't return your hotel stay. If you don't like them, you can't send them back in 30 days. You spent time, you left your home, you went somewhere, and you spent time there. You want to get it right on the outset." It's a reminder that high-stakes booking decisions still belong on a hotel's own curated website.

[12:29] AI as the marketer's calculator - On where AI fits inside Highgate's marketing teams, Aaron lands on an analogy that captures the right level of dependence. "This arithmetic used to take us some time. Now we have a calculator. It's going to speed things up, but you can't expect the calculator to do everything for you." The tool compresses reporting work that once took days into minutes, but human judgment still decides which equation matters.

[16:34] Pivoting FIFA demand to local markets - With FIFA World Cup matches weeks away, Aaron explains how Highgate's New York properties are layering offers to hedge against softer-than-expected international pickup. "This isn't necessarily pick one or the other. It's just making sure that you have that relevant offer to the relevant market where it makes sense." Staycation packages, free parking, and breakfast inclusions are being deployed to capture drive-to travelers without shutting out long-distance bookings.

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
02:24 - Cutting through the AI marketing glitz 
04:18 - The direct booking renaissance scenario 
07:35 - Why you can't return your hotel stay 
09:51 - AI's real impact on marketing teams 
15:52 - Preparing for the FIFA World Cup 
18:48 - HITEC 2026 and what comes next