Industry after industry has been upended by digital, from retail to entertainment, and it was not so long ago that analysts were predicting that the hospitality industry would follow suit. Customers would flock to online travel agents (OTAs) to book their hotel rooms, home-sharing companies would lead to lower demand for hotel rooms and hotel companies would lose their ability to form lasting customer relationships.

Yet upcoming EY research shows that, when you look at the data, you learn that traditional players are the ones thriving and evolving through digital, and that the status quo has not been dramatically upended.

Hoteliers are reasserting themselves over OTAs through efforts that accelerated in 2017. Since then, share prices for some of the largest hotel brands have increased at a higher rate than that of a dominant travel technology company. And by mid-2019, the year-over-year growth rate of bookings on hoteliers’ branded websites overtook the growth rate for OTA websites — putting them on a path to become the booking channel with the largest share of demand in the US. Hotel loyalty programs have steadily grown their memberships enabled by digital channels.

Those efforts included significant investment in digital channels, providing customers seamless functionality for searching for and booking rooms. The ability to track and redeem loyalty points has been enhanced. New functionality has been introduced, such as chat bots, online check-in and checkout, and folio access. Marketing campaigns have stimulated direct bookings and loyalty. Core IT capabilities have been strengthened through significant investment, and upgraded reservation, revenue management and property management systems have been introduced.