Investors who’ve chased the AI build-out—from chips to data centers—may need to recalibrate. As the rally widens, the next set of winners could be operators that deploy AI to cut costs and lift productivity rather than the infrastructure suppliers that powered the first leg.
Travel is an early test case. Since mid-May, Airbnb, Booking Holdings, and Expedia have outpaced hotels, with the booking platforms up roughly 35%–40% while hotel shares are largely flat. Under the hood, AI is beginning to register in operating metrics. Airbnb says nearly 45% of customer issues that start with its AI assistant resolve without human intervention, helping reduce customer support cost per booking about 16% year over year. Booking reports double-digit declines in customer service cost per booking and says AI projects are already earning a positive return, even as chatbot-driven referrals remain a small slice of room nights.
Traditional hotel operators are beginning to post tangible benefits, too. Choice Hotels cites a 360-basis-point lift in group-request conversion from an AI-enabled sales tool and about a 40% reduction in operational help requests in a support pilot. Wyndham says its AI Concierge increased direct contribution by more than 500 basis points at participating properties, and autonomous reservations are yielding roughly 15% higher average daily rates than phone bookings.
Yet market pricing hasn’t caught up. Choice and Wyndham trade near 15 times forward earnings with operating margins above 25%, even as analysts have trimmed earnings estimates about 7% over the past three months. For investors, the opportunity may lie in AI-enabled operators where measurable efficiency gains precede broad multiple expansion.
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