2026 Is the Year of MCP: What Hoteliers Need to Know

Artificial intelligence is already reshaping hospitality, yet many hotels remain stuck between experimentation and real impact. Promises of automation, smarter revenue decisions, and seamless guest experiences often clash with uncertainty around integration and strategy. In 2026, Model Context Protocol (MCP) marks a turning point by connecting AI tools directly to live hotel systems and data.

In this article, you’ll learn how MCP works, why it matters in 2026, and how it unlocks visibility, bookings, and future growth for hotels.

Why MCP Is the Missing Link Between AI Potential and Real Hotel Results

AI is happening, but we need to bridge the gap between concept and reality to avoid the hospitality sector being fraught with indecision and a lack of clear vision. During the year ahead, Model Context Protocol (MCP) has the potential to transform hotel bookings and unlock new opportunities to Find, Book, and Grow audiences. Here’s why.

Hoteliers have been promised great things from AI.

The potential to automate the most time-intensive aspects of hotel operations, revenue management, and marketing. Seamless guest communications that happen without staff having to lift a finger. And ultimately, opportunities to drive growth and profitability thanks to next-level business intelligence.

But exactly when AI will make a big and profound difference to hotels still feels uncertain.

Which Way Should Hotels Turn?

Although 78% of hotel chains are already using AI, according to H2C’s global study, AI & Automation in Hospitality, this implementation often remains at a surface level, with solutions such as chatbots and partially automated marketing. Integration challenges are a barrier for 45% of hotels. An unclear strategy is an issue for 51%.

Hoteliers don’t know which way to turn to make AI work for them.

To thrive in an AI world, in a way that extends beyond the so-called surface level, more hotel data needs to be out there and widely searchable. This used to be focused solely on search engine optimization (SEO), where hotel websites and information can be discovered and surfaced by the likes of Google.

But this is rapidly expanding to incorporate generative engine optimization (GEO), where hotel information can be surfaced to AI search platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. Online travel agents (OTAs) are currently supplying a lot of this information to AI tools, although hotels that have websites populated with factual information and comprehensive FAQs are starting to fare much better.

GEO is the first step to enabling AI search platforms to suggest your hotel in answers to user questions. Yet there is even more potential to deliver accurate, real-time information to prospective hotel guests. MCP is the next layer in AI search to show guests real-time, up-to-the-minute information such as rates and available room types.

What is MCP?

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a way to let AI tools safely connect to a hotel’s systems and information. It’s a layer that sits between AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, and where essential hotel data is stored, such as the hotel PMS, booking engine, and other systems.

When built onto hotel systems, MCP enables AI tools to give real, accurate answers to people, rather than generic answers. It can include information such as policies, amenities, and available services. A hotel can choose what data to make available to AI tools via MCP, so this can also include live availability and rates.

How MCP Enables Accurate, Real-Time Hotel Information

Thanks to MCP, people can receive more detailed and accurate information through AI tools.

For example:

Without MCP, ChatGPT answers look like this:

• “Check-in is commonly around 3 pm for hotels like this.”
• “Hotels of this category often have standard, deluxe, and suite rooms.”

With MCP, ChatGPT answers look like this:

• “Check-in at Hotel Aurora is 3 pm; early check-in is available from 1 pm for €30.”
• “For 10–12 April, there are 4 Deluxe Rooms available from $410 per night.”

Before MCP was developed, hotels would need to create custom APIs to establish connections between different systems like this. Yet most hotels use dozens of systems, and the cost and complexity of developing multiple APIs is vast.

MCP means hotels can expose their data once, essentially bringing together API connections into a single MCP server. AI tools have been developed to use MCP, which is considered an open standard for AI to interact with external data sources. In turn, this makes relevant data available to AI tools at scale, without the need to build individual integrations.

Leveling Up Hotel Visibility in AI Tools

The ability to display live information about rates and availability in AI results is a key aspect of this new dawn of AI using MCP. It means results in AI tools progress from being generic and sometimes inaccurate, to using accurate, real, live information. And this is the kind of information that turns casual browsers into bookers.

Hotels need to start looking for a partner that can enable hotel direct booking rates to be visible in AI search results by pushing hotel Availability, Rates, and Inventory (ARI) directly into AI search platforms such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini through an MCP.

Before now, most of this information has been surfaced to AI tools from OTAs. By taking advantage of MCP solutions, more hotels can be seen at the exact moment travelers are making decisions. Complementing existing hotel digital strategies by reclaiming visibility on emerging channels, essential hotel information can now be made available to AI tools seamlessly.

Not only will MCP bring hotels greater visibility on AI tools, but it will also prime them for the next phase of AI rollout: agentic AI. When technology reaches the point that AI tools go a step further and complete actions on behalf of users, such as booking a hotel room, hotels that have adopted an MCP solution will be ready to benefit from these bookings.

Bringing AI Visibility to Hotels

If there’s one aspect of AI that hotels should take seriously this year, it’s being seen by the AI tools now used by hundreds of millions of users every week. This involves a combination of having a GEO strategy and actively engaging with an MCP solution.

With the rollout of solutions such as MCP, hoteliers can finally capitalize on the current maturity of AI. In fact, the future success of every hotel’s Find, Book and Grow strategy now depends on it.

Free Guide: Top Tactics to Drive Direct Bookings at Your Hotel

AI success in hospitality now depends on visibility, accuracy, and action. By adopting MCP early, hotels can surface real-time data in AI tools, strengthen direct booking strategies, and prepare for agent-driven bookings. In 2026, MCP is no longer optional; it is foundational.