In this special HITEC edition of The Modern Hotelier, hosts David Millili and Steve Carran sit down with Tim Major, CEO of Operto, to explore how AI is transforming hotel marketing, direct bookings, and operational efficiency. Tim shares how Operto One&#x27;s autonomous AI agents help hotels combat predatory OTAs, improve direct booking performance, and optimize visibility across both traditional search engines and emerging AI-powered search experiences. The conversation dives into the role of agentic AI in hospitality, the balance between automation and authentic guest service, and how hotels can leverage AI without adding complexity to their existing technology stack. Key topics include: How AI agents protect hotel brands from predatory OTA practices Increasing direct bookings through automated search and GEO optimization The future of agentic AI in hospitality operations Real-world success stories from hotels using AI-driven solutions Preparing hotel websites and content for AI-powered search platforms Watch the FULL EPISODE on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zGLo-TaAMyk Links: Tim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/majortm/ Operto: https://operto.com/ For full show notes head to: https://themodernhotelier.com/episode/289 Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-.. Join the conversation on today&#x27;s episode on The Modern Hotelier LinkedIn page Connect with Steve and David: Steve: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E... David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-mil.

#289: Helping Hotels Fight Predatory OTA's | with Tim Major

The Modern Hotelier

I mean, direct bookings has been the age-old holy grail for independent hoteliers and all hoteliers. And so, AI really changes the way you tackle this. Welcome to a special high-tech modern hotelier, the most engaged podcast in hospitality. Please make sure to follow, like, subscribe, and let us know in the comments what you think about today's episode. Steve, who do we have on the program?

Yeah, David. Excited about today, we have on Tim Major, CEO of Operto. Welcome to the show, Tim. How are we doing? Yeah, thanks guys. Good morning. So, Tim, to start off, for those that are unfamiliar with Operto One, what problems are you solving for hotels? And why is now the right time for our AI-powered operations platform?

Yeah, thanks for, that's a good question. Operto One really was born out of the idea that we really saw an opportunity with AI to tackle direct bookings in a different way. I mean, direct bookings has been the age-old, you know, holy grail for independent hoteliers and all hoteliers. And so, AI really changes the way you tackle this. I mean, in particular, we focus on what we're really launching here right now was tackling something called predatory OTAs.

And I'm not sure if you're familiar with this, but the category is basically, you have your normal OTAs, which is like booking.com and Expedia. And then you have this other group of OTAs, like reservation.com, guest reservations. Yeah, it's funny, everyone smiles once they start saying the names, because everyone has a personal experience of seeing how they book on that by accident. And so, our technology is really able to remove them from the direct booking experience for hotels in ways that you couldn't do before.

#289: Helping Hotels Fight Predatory OTA's | with Tim Major

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

#289: Helping Hotels Fight Predatory OTA's | with Tim Major

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.