AI Will Drive Hotels to Follow Amazon's Loyalty Playbook

Hotel groups won't be content to just run hotels anymore, says Mit Shah, a hotel real estate investor. Soon they may offer student housing, adult active communities, and other "branded living" services thanks to the data-crunching potential unlocked by AI.

Major hotel chains will feel compelled to expand into more non-hotel services to create more touch points with customers as artificial intelligence becomes more effective at helping them analyze and monetize customer data.

A mission shift to "branded living" will mirror how Amazon transformed from an online bookstore into a company that touches "essentially every part of one's life," according to Mit Shah, CEO of Noble Investment Group, which manages $5 billion in hospitality real estate investments.

"It shouldn't be surprising that Marriott is now in the multifamily business," Shah said, referring to how the company in 2022 debuted serviced apartments in U.S. multifamily residential complexes. "They're in the homes and villas business. They're the cruise business [with Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection]."