At WiT Singapore, hotels and OTAs found common ground in a new battleground: trust, experience and emotion
Twenty years on, the old debate between direct versus indirect bookings still echoes through hotel conference halls. But at WiT Singapore 2025, the message was clear: The future of hospitality isn’t about channels, it’s about the guest.
Moderated by Kerry Healy, CCO for Accor’s premium, midscale and economy brands across the Middle East, Africa, Turkey and Asia Pacific, the panel brought together four heavyweights with distinct perspectives:
- Puneet Mahindroo, group director of revenue management and distribution, COMO Hotels and Resort
- Boon Sian Chai, managing director and VP of international markets, Trip.com Group
- Laura Houldsworth, managing director of Asia Pacific, Booking.com
Together, they unpacked a central truth: Guests don’t care where they book; they care how they feel when they arrive.
The great reframe: From channels to experience
Healy set the tone early: “When was the last time a guest checked out and told you what channel they booked on?” she asked. “They don’t. They just want it to be easy, seamless and to feel valued.”
Her provocation reframed the conversation from ownership to orchestration: how hotels and platforms can co-create a journey that begins with inspiration and ends with loyalty.
“Today, it’s not about direct or indirect,” Healy said. “It’s about what happens when the guest shows up—and how we make them feel.”
Trip.com: Empowerment, not ownership
Boon Sian Chai of Trip.com Group was quick to reject the notion that online travel agencies (OTA) are trying to own customers.
“It’s not about ownership—it’s about empowerment,” he said. “Our role is to give customers the tools, information and content they need to make the best decisions.”
He pointed to Trip Genie, Trip.com’s AI assistant, and Trip Moments, a social feature where travelers share itineraries and experiences. Both aim to make travel discovery more personalized and interactive.
But the company’s biggest differentiator, he said, lies in service. “We answer any call globally within 20 seconds. No robots, no press-one-for-this menus,” he said. “Customer service is number one.”
Even more revealing: Over 50% of customer messages on Trip.com’s platform happen before booking, not after. “That means travelers are using us to verify, ask and imagine,” he said. “That’s empowerment.”
Booking.com: The human behind the tech
For Houldsworth, the biggest misconception about OTAs is that they’re all algorithms and no empathy.
“Yes, we’re tech-first, but we’re solving a human problem and that human is never going away,” she said.
She noted that technology, when applied well, enhances rather than replaces human connection. “We’ve moved from fixing parts of the funnel to rethinking the whole journey,” she said.
OTAs, she added, are no longer just about transactions, they’re about inspiration. “We’re now at the top of the funnel,” she said. “We’re helping travelers dream. And that means we must be trusted at every stage, not just at checkout.”
For Booking.com, that trust comes from 350 million reviews—peer-to-peer validation that keeps the platform human, even in an AI-driven world.
“People don’t post that they booked on Booking.com,” she said. “They post about the amazing experience they had, and that’s exactly how it should be.”
COMO: The art of experience orchestration
As a hotelier, Mahindroo brought the conversation back to basics: trust and data.
“We’ve largely solved distribution,” he said. “What we haven’t solved is trust.”
He painted an all-too-familiar picture: a returning guest still being asked to fill in their email and address upon check-in or a spa package booked online that doesn’t align with on-site availability.
“The problem isn’t distribution; it’s data disconnection,” he said. “Our technologies interact in silos. Our customers don’t.”
COMO, he explained, focuses on “experience orchestration”—aligning every touchpoint, from booking to spa to food and beverage, into one cohesive flow. “It’s harder than building a booking funnel,” he said, “but it’s where loyalty is truly won.”
He cited examples like COMO’s collaborations with Rafa Nadal Academy, NASA and National Geographic photographers to create immersive, multigenerational experiences.
“Those aren’t promotions,” he said. “They’re emotional investments. We need to start measuring return on emotional investment, not just RevPAR.”
Trust, friction, and the luxury paradox
The panel circled back to one universal pain point—friction.
Trip’s Chai shared a personal story of arriving at a European hotel at midnight after completing pre-check-in online, only to spend an hour at reception.
“Technology should remove friction, not reinforce it,” he said. “It’s not about speed. It’s about doing the right thing for the customer.”
Trust, he added, is built “through experience, through word of mouth and through doing the right thing over and over.”
Houldsworth agreed: “We all want to own the customer until something goes wrong,” she said dryly. “That’s when everyone should own the customer.”
The remark drew laughter and knowing nods from both hoteliers and OTAs in the room.
A shared future: Competing for retention
When Healy asked if the industry had truly moved on from channel obsession, Mahindroo was philosophical.
“It’s a paradigm shift,” he said. “For decades, we’ve obsessed over cost of acquisition. It’s time to compete for retention instead.”
He challenged hoteliers to act during the stay, not after. “We still wait for a TripAdvisor review to say, ‘We’re sorry you had a bad experience.’ What were we doing when the guest was right there?”
Houldsworth acknowledged the honesty. “The conversation is changing, but it hasn’t gone away,” she said. “We’ll still talk about cost, channels and ownership. But the shift toward experience and technology as the differentiators is undeniable.”
Chai closed on a note of unity. “If we walk the journey together with our customers—OTAs, brand.com, hotels—the customer wins, we win and the world wins,” he said.
“World peace,” Laura quipped.
Owning the feeling, not the channel
Healy wrapped the session with a sentiment that summed up the new era: “The guest will choose where they want to book. They won’t care about the channel. What they’ll remember is how we made them feel,” she said.
“Whoever makes the journey simple, personal and memorable—that’s who they’ll choose again.”
This story originally appeared in WiT.