Tyler Morse worries AI assistants will resist the sales pitches that persuade human travelers to splurge. That's why the chairman and CEO of MCR wants to ban AI agents from booking his hotels. 

Hotel sales run on impulse, and software has none, Morse explained onstage at the Skift Commerce Summit in New York.

“Humans are susceptible to sales pitches,” said Morse, whose company calls itself the third-largest owner-operator of U.S. hotels. “You want to see the picture of the pretty beach and say, ‘You know what, honey, let’s go.’” 

An AI assistant, he said, is likelier to answer: “Listen honey, you can’t afford this.”

Nor will AI level the field, in his view. “Trust is purchased,” Morse said. Just as brands pay for page one of Google, he expects suppliers to “buy placement” from a few dominant AI companies.

Owners can ill afford another bill. Everyone from tech vendors to elevator makers is “chipping away” at them, Morse said. 

Construction is the worst. “It now costs $250,000 a key to build a Home2 Suites on a flat piece of dirt” in Nevada, he said. That requires $200 a night, a rate suburban Nevada can’t command.

Marriott and Hilton shed most of their real estate years ago. “They’re the smart ones,” Morse said. “I’m the dumb one.”

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