When travelers ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity for hotel recommendations, they are not scrolling through pages of results. They are getting a single, synthesized answer.
Sometimes that answer includes your hotel. Often, it does not.
This shift is creating a new kind of visibility that directly affects where bookings go. As more travelers rely on AI to plan trips, the hotels surfaced in these answers have a better chance of winning the booking directly, while the rest risk being routed through OTAs. It is no longer just about rankings. It is about whether AI systems understand and trust your property enough to recommend it at all.
In this guide, we break down how AI powered travel discovery works, explain the difference between SEO, AEO, and GEO, and outline the practical steps hotels can take today to improve how they show up in AI driven answers.
Before getting tactical, it helps to clarify the language being used in this space.
SEO: Search Engine Optimization
SEO is about ranking pages in search engines like Google and Bing. The goal is to appear higher in a list of links when someone searches for terms like “hotels in Charleston” or “boutique hotel near downtown.”
SEO focuses on keywords, backlinks, technical site health, and content relevance. It is still important, but it is no longer the whole picture.
AEO: Answer Engine Optimization
AEO focuses on being selected as the answer to a question rather than just another link in a list.
A familiar example is a Google search where a short paragraph, list, or table appears at the top of the page answering a question directly, often before any organic results. That content is chosen because it is clearly structured, easy to understand, and directly addresses the question being asked.
For hotels, AEO shows up when:
AEO is about making your information easy for answer engines to pull, summarize, and trust.
GEO: Generative Engine Optimization
GEO is the newest layer. It focuses on how generative AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity understand, verify, and recommend hotels.
These systems do not rely on your website alone. They cross check information across Google, OTAs, reviews, blogs, forums, and video platforms. They look for consistency, credibility, and confirmation from multiple trusted sources.
For hotels today, SEO, AEO, and GEO work together as core discovery channels.
Across industry research and real world testing, hotels that appear most often in AI responses tend to share three characteristics:
Think of ChatGPT and Gemini as answer engines. Before they recommend a hotel, they need to understand what it is, verify that it exists, and confidently match it to a specific guest need.
Here is how hotels can do that in practice.
AI systems cross verify hotel information across many sources before recommending a property.
Start with the fundamentals:
Then focus on how you describe your hotel:
This level of clarity helps AI match your hotel to intent driven questions like “best hotels for digital nomads near the convention center.”
Your website is still one of the most important inputs for AI systems, but it needs to be structured in a way machines can easily understand.
Key steps include:
Clean HTML, fast load times, and mobile friendly layouts are not just good SEO practices. They directly affect how easily AI systems can parse and trust your content.
AI systems rely heavily on third party validation.
In one Cloudbeds analysis, nearly all AI recommended hotels appeared across platforms like YouTube, travel blogs, and Reddit.
To build a stronger footprint:
AI systems look for repetition across trusted sources. The goal is steady, consistent reinforcement, not one off exposure.
Hotels that perform well in AI recommendations often publish content that closely matches how travelers phrase questions.
Common examples include:
On your site, this means:
This structure aligns naturally with how generative models assemble and deliver answers.
Even strong content will not help if AI systems cannot easily access it.
Make sure that:
Some platforms are beginning to support llms.txt and similar machine readable guides that help AI systems interpret content more clearly. When available, these can add another layer of clarity and accessibility.
Understanding GEO and AEO only matters if you can see how your hotel is actually showing up today.
That is why we built a beta tool that allows hotels to enter their property name and see how they appear across large language models like ChatGPT and Gemini.
The tool gives you a clear snapshot of:
Use these insights to guide your next decisions, whether that means tightening up listings, strengthening review signals, expanding third party visibility, or creating content that better matches how guests are using AI to plan travel.
👉 You can try the tool and start auditing your AI visibility here.
How do I get my hotel recommended by ChatGPT or Gemini?
Start by making your hotel easy to understand and verify across the web. Keep your name, address, phone number, and website consistent everywhere, strengthen review signals, and make sure your site clearly lists amenities, room types, policies, and who the property is best for. AI tools cross check multiple trusted sources before recommending a hotel.
Why is my hotel not showing up in AI travel answers?
The most common reasons are inconsistent listings, weak or mixed reviews, or not enough third party mentions on trusted sites. If AI cannot confidently verify your property or match it to the guest request, it will usually recommend a different hotel.
How can I check how my hotel shows up in ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI tools?
The fastest way is to use an audit tool designed for this. Our beta tool lets you enter your property name and see whether you are being mentioned, how you are described, and which competitors show up instead.
What is the difference between SEO, AEO, and GEO for hotels?
SEO helps your site rank in search results. AEO helps your content get pulled into direct answers, like the short text that appears at the top of Google when someone searches a question. GEO focuses on whether AI systems like ChatGPT and Gemini can understand, verify, and recommend your hotel based on signals across your website, listings, reviews, and third party sources.
How do I optimize my hotel website for AI search?
Use hotel specific schema, structure pages with clear headings and bullet lists, add FAQ content that answers guest questions, and keep the site fast and mobile friendly. The goal is to make your information easy for AI systems to parse and trust.
What kind of content helps hotels show up in AI recommendations?
Content that mirrors how travelers ask questions. Examples include “best hotels near [landmark] for families” or “pet friendly hotel with parking in [city].” Q and A style blog posts and FAQs tend to work well because they map to conversational prompts.
Do reviews really affect whether AI recommends my hotel?
Yes. Reviews are one of the strongest trust signals AI systems use. More reviews, recent reviews, and consistent themes in guest language all help AI feel confident recommending your hotel for specific use cases.
Which sites matter most for getting found in AI travel results?
Google Business Profile and OTAs matter for verification and consistency. Beyond that, third party sources like travel blogs, YouTube, Tripadvisor, and Reddit often reinforce credibility and relevance. AI systems tend to favor hotels that show up across multiple trusted channels.
How often should I audit my hotel’s AI visibility?
Quarterly is a good baseline. If you are actively updating listings, improving content, or running new campaigns, monthly audits can help you connect changes to outcomes and spot gaps early.
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