Hotel visibility in AI search results: Where to start

February 10, 2026 by Alex Scharpf

Visibility in AI search results is a vital piece of your hotel’s success within the current marketing landscape. AI search results become more relevant every day, but it’s not always clear how to improve your hotel’s standings.

Overview

AI models assess a variety of factors when digesting data and generating responses, prioritizing information that satisfies their built-in content preferences. Though visibility in AI search results is never a guarantee, aligning with these preferences across various marketing channels is the most effective way to make an impact for your hotel.

Here are the main factors that AI models assess when generating search results. We’ll dive into more detail on each category in the rest of this article:

Website content

The content of your hotel’s website is arguably the most important factor behind AI search visibility. It’s vital that your website includes pages that are easily digestible for AI models, seamless to incorporate into AI search results, and applicable to the searches you want to rank for.

Relevance: Your content should match what users are actually searching for. Consider FAQs, guest reviews, and your own AI searches to see what your guests want to know.
Breadth/variety: A wide range of content provides your hotel with more opportunities to show up in AI search results. The more information you provide to an AI model, the more likely you are to appear.
Uniqueness: If your hotel’s website provides information that no one else does, AI search models have no choice but to incorporate your data. Unique content reduces competition, improving your AI search visibility.
Freshness: While certain AI models have a cutoff date for training data, all AI models prefer the content that is most recent within their database. Fresh, up-to-date information is most likely to show up in AI search results.
Tone: AI models strive to reduce the amount of friction required to generate a response. If your content already matches the more conversational tone used in AI search results, your hotel is more likely to appear.
Citations: Including quotes, sources, and citations improves your website’s credibility, which is an important factor considered by AI models.

Local business listings

Local business listings such as those on Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Tripadvisor are another significant source of information for AI models. Because this data is incorporated into AI search responses, accurate and in-depth listings across a variety of websites are likely to improve your hotel’s visibility in AI search. Also impactful are your hotel’s reviews within these listings, as social proof is another factor considered by AI models.

Quantity: A wide variety of local business listings across the internet can improve your hotel’s visibility in AI search due to the large volume of data thereby made available to AI models.
Accuracy: When business information is consistent across the web, including multiple local listings and even normal website content, this increases your hotel’s credibility and likelihood of appearing in AI search results.
Depth: The more information that’s included in your listings, the better. Fully fleshed out local listings provide more opportunities for AI models to incorporate your data, and proves your reliability as a source for AI responses.
Number of reviews: AI models tend to see popular businesses as having higher credibility, with high review counts often increasing visibility in AI search results.
Review rating: Judging a business based on real human feedback allows AI models to provide quality recommendations, and positive reviews are a powerful form of social proof.

Schema

The use of schema is another factor that can significantly impact visibility in AI search. Well-structured, neatly coded schema makes information about your hotel incredibly easy for AI models to digest, improving visibility in AI search.

Type of variables: Schema variables cover a wide variety of businesses and web content. Using the correct types of schema for your hotel and website ensure that AI models can easily find your hotel and correctly interpret your information.
Depth: Highly detailed schema with a large quantity of relevant data is more likely to be used by AI models when generating responses.
Tone: Similar to on-page content, using a conversational tone in applicable schema variables such as descriptions may increase the likelihood of your hotel’s information being incorporated into AI search results.
Relevance: Make sure that your hotel’s schema reflects the topics that you want to appear for. Where applicable, incorporate focus keywords and relevant topics into your schema to maximize your visibility in AI search.

Website structure

Though website structure isn’t a make-or-break factor behind visibility in AI search results, a clean and optimized website structure can improve your hotel’s visibility by making it easier for AI models to digest and interpret your content.

Bot-friendly documentation: llms.txt, sitemap.xml, and robots.txt documents all assist with webpage discoverability, making it easier for AI models to use your hotel’s content in AI search results.
Lack of technical errors: Excessive technical errors such as 404 pages, duplicate content, or outdated webpages can slow down AI models, decreasing their ability to find and digest your hotel’s information.
Well-optimized code: Intuitive sub-folder structure, neat and organized code layout, and quick load times streamline the AI training process, making your content easier to understand and potentially improving your hotel’s visibility in AI search.

Link network

Incoming links, outgoing links, and external brand mentions can improve your hotel’s visibility in AI search by boosting your hotel’s credibility and providing positive social proof. While this is another factor that won’t make or break your visibility, a strong and credible link network will only increase your hotel’s chances of appearing within AI search results.

Internal links: Linking to other pages within your website makes it easier for AI models to find new pages and understand the connections between your content.
External links: Linking to outside sources suggests that your content is well-researched and well-connected, improving credibility.
Incoming links and brand references: When outside sources link to or mention your hotel, that acts as a form of social proof which can improve both credibility and prestige, increasing your hotel’s likelihood of being shown within AI search results.

Social media

Posting on social media isn’t immediately linked to visibility in AI search, but your hotel’s presence on these channels can still have an impact. AI models often source from social media, particularly Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, to determine the overall impression of your hotel.

Sentiment: Just as business reviews can guide AI models towards quality recommendations, general sentiment from social media comments and customer posts can influence which businesses appear in AI search results.
Reach: Online buzz with a wide audience reach indicates business credibility and quality to AI models, increasing the likelihood of your hotel being recommended.
Engagement: When customers are highly engaged with your hotel, this suggests that your business is a quality recommendation that is likely to resonate with users, improving your hotel’s chances of appearing within AI search responses.

Takeaways

AI models use information from a variety of sources across multiple marketing channels when generating responses. However, there’s a common thread among most of these factors: to improve your hotel’s visibility in AI search, focus on the guest experience.

Develop relevant, thorough content that resonates with your guests.
Keep your information up-to-date across all channels.
Ensure your website is easy to navigate and understand, for both human and robot users.

For tips on getting started with AI search reach out to GCommerce for more information.

AI is redefining SEO for hotels and resorts: Here’s how

February 2, 2026 by Danielle Allen

Search has entered a new chapter. Generative AI is changing how travelers discover destinations, compare hotels and resorts, and make booking decisions. Traditional SEO still matters, but it no longer operates alone. AI-powered assistants now influence the answers travelers see before they ever click a link. For any property focused on hospitality marketing or on increasing direct bookings, this shift requires a new approach.

At GCommerce, we view this change as an opportunity. As a hospitality marketing agency and digital marketing agency built for hotels and resorts, we are helping brands adapt to what comes next in search.

From SEO to AEO: Where intent meets intelligence

For years, SEO optimized for rankings, traffic, and blue link visibility. Today, AI engines summarize, interpret, and synthesize information rather than simply listing it. This introduces AEO, or AI Engine Optimization.

AEO focuses on shaping how AI tools understand your brand and how often they reference your content within generated responses. Instead of optimizing only for clicks, AEO optimizes for citations, clarity, and semantic depth. It guides how AI describes your property and which details it elevates when travelers ask questions about hotel locations, amenities, or booking options.

Clicks are no longer the only metric. The mention is.

Why AEO matters for hospitality brands

AI-powered discovery impacts three essential areas for hotels and resorts.

Visibility: AI tools increasingly act as travel research assistants. You want them to surface your property when travelers explore options.
Accuracy: AI summaries must reflect your brand correctly, especially when describing amenities, pricing structure, or booking value.
Conversion: AI often guides the last step before travelers click into a site or begin comparing hotel metasearch channels such as Google hotel ads.
AEO complements SEO. SEO builds reach. AEO shapes perception and guides the right travelers to your content.

Content structured for AI, not just humans

Generative engines pull short, self-contained passages rather than full articles. AEO requires content that is modular, clear, and easily lifted into AI-generated answers.

For hotels and resorts, this includes concise descriptions of amenities, booking benefits, location advantages, or metasearch value. These passages serve as building blocks that help AI accurately reference your information when travelers ask questions such as “best property for families in [destination]” or “how do Google hotel ads work for booking direct.”

How AI changes your SEO strategy

This evolution shifts how hotels and resorts build their content portfolios.

Long-form content still adds value, but properties now benefit from creating more focused, question-based pieces that answer specific traveler needs. These smaller sections inform both SEO and AEO performance.

Measurement will also evolve. Beyond traffic, properties should evaluate:

How AI tools describe your brand
How accurately does AI represent your property’s benefits
How often does your content appears in AI generated response
How travelers convert after engaging with AI-influenced channels

These insights help refine both your organic strategy and your paid channels, including Google hotel ads and hotel metasearch programs.

The future of SEO for hotels and resorts

AI is reshaping how travelers discover information, evaluate choices, and take action. SEO and AEO now function together. SEO expands visibility. AEO shapes how AI interprets your content and whether it directs travelers to book with you.

At GCommerce, we see this as a powerful opportunity for any property wanting to increase direct bookings. The brands that thrive will be those that build structured, clear, evergreen content that speaks to travelers and machines with equal precision.

AI is not replacing SEO. It is redefining it. And for hotels and resorts ready to move toward a more intelligent search strategy, the path forward is already here.

Discover top ways your property can show up in GEN AI search results here.

How your hotel can get started with organic Reddit marketing

January 22, 2026 by Jaylene Van Lin

When most hotel brands think about social media, Reddit is not the first platform that comes to mind. But with more than 70 million daily active users spread across thousands of niche communities, it is one of the most influential spaces online. Unlike Instagram or Facebook, where polished visuals tend to dominate, Reddit thrives on honesty and conversation. That makes it powerful, but also very different from the channels you may already be using.

If you are considering adding Reddit to your hotel’s digital marketing strategy, the smartest first step is building an organic presence. Here is how your hotel can get started.

Understand the Reddit culture first

Reddit is built around communities called subreddits, which are essentially online forums for specific categories that can be extremely broad or very niche and narrow. Each one has its own tone, rules, and expectations. Before posting, spend time observing. Look at what earns upvotes, what gets ignored, and how people interact. The more you understand a community’s culture, the easier it will be to contribute in a way that feels natural for your hotel.

Lead with value, not promotion

This cannot be overstated: Redditors do not want ads disguised as posts. If you come in with heavy promotion of your hotel, it will not go well. Instead, share insights, answer questions, or contribute useful tips. A good test is to ask yourself, “Would this post still be interesting if my brand name was not attached?” If the answer is no, it probably will not land. Value first, brand second.

Start small and stay consistent

You do not need to post everywhere all at once. Begin with two or three subreddits that line up with your property’s audience and commit to posting once or twice per week. Just as important, leave thoughtful comments on other posts. A consistent presence matters more than a burst of activity followed by silence.

Use Reddit community features to spark conversation

Reddit has formats that make participation easy, such as AMAs (Ask Me Anything), polls, and photo threads. These work well because they invite dialogue rather than feel like announcements. When in doubt, choose the option that best creates a back and forth with the community.

Examples of subreddits to try:

Luxury Resorts: r/LuxuryTravel, r/TravelNoPics, r/solotravel
Boutique / Lifestyle Hotels: r/Travel, city-specific subs (r/Paris, r/Miami), r/onebag
Family-Friendly Resorts: r/FamilyTravel, r/TravelHacks, r/Disney
Adventure / Eco Resorts: r/Backpacking, r/EcoTravel, r/Hiking
City / Business Hotels: r/Travel, r/solotravel, r/DigitalNomad

Pay attention and adjust based on what works

As you start posting on Reddit for your hotel, track what resonates. Which conversations spark comments? Which posts get saved? Which topics earn thoughtful replies? Use those signals to refine your approach and guide future content for your property.

Best practices for organic Reddit hotel marketing

Do not self-promote. Share knowledge, not pitches. Posts that read like marketing will backfire.
Be transparent. If you represent a brand, be upfront, but keep the focus on the value you provide.
Educate and entertain. Aim to make people think, learn, or laugh. That is what drives trust.
Respect the rules. Each subreddit is protective of its culture. Read the rules before posting. Violating subreddit rules can lead to being banned from that group.
Comment more than you post. Contributing to existing conversations builds credibility faster than starting new threads alone.
Prioritize quality over volume. A few meaningful posts are worth more than daily filler.
Keep visuals authentic. Behind the scenes photos or snapshots work better than polished ad-style images.
Engage like a person. Thank users, respond thoughtfully, and join the dialogue instead of broadcasting.

How organic Reddit presence supports paid media

Ironically, the best way to prepare for successful Reddit ads is to avoid looking like an advertiser in the first place. A strong organic presence builds familiarity and trust, and that trust carries over when users later see your brand in a paid placement.

Organic content is also a testing ground. The posts that perform best naturally can be promoted directly, while community conversations can shape ad copy that feels less like an ad and more like a contribution. In other words, organic lays the foundation and pay amplifies what is already working.

Final takeaway

Reddit rewards authenticity and punishes self-promotion. Brands that take the time to listen, contribute, and build trust will be far better positioned when they introduce paid campaigns later on. Start small, focus on value, and think long-term.

If you are interested in how Reddit can play a role in your marketing mix, our team at GCommerce Solutions can help you design an organic-first strategy that strengthens trust and drives results across both organic and paid media.

TLDR: How to start with organic Reddit

Do not self-promote. Value first, brand second.
Listen before posting. Every subreddit has its own rules and culture.
Start small. Pick two or three communities and post once or twice per week.
Engage like a person. Comment, reply, and join the dialogue.
Quality wins. A few strong posts beat constant low-effort ones.
Organic builds trust. Paid ads work better once the community already knows you.

Why the next generation of hotel marketing agencies won’t look like agencies

January 15, 2026 by Lindley Cotton

The hospitality marketing landscape is evolving fast. Traditional models built around long planning cycles, isolated channels, and post-campaign reporting cannot keep pace with how guests now discover, compare, and book stays.

For years, agencies followed a predictable rhythm: plan, buy, design, report. It worked when media channels were limited and performance was simple to measure. That era has passed.

Today, travelers move seamlessly between platforms. They browse social reels, compare rates on metasearch, scroll OTAs, read influencer reviews, and even consult AI travel planners before calling to confirm a reservation. Each touchpoint creates a trail of valuable data, but most hotels lack the infrastructure to connect it all.

That is why the next generation of hospitality marketing partners will not act like traditional agencies. They will function as platforms; blending technology, data, and strategy to unify media ecosystems into one adaptive system that learns, predicts, and performs.

From tactics to intelligence

In the past, success was defined by tactics: optimizing bids, tracking conversions, and hoping the data told a clear story. But the guest journey is now too fragmented for isolated insights.

A traveler may first see your property on TikTok, research rates on Google, check OTAs for reviews, and finally book direct through metasearch. If your marketing partner manages only one part of that journey, you are missing most of the picture.

Future-ready partners will manage ecosystems, not just channels. They will connect signals across every touchpoint, automate optimizations in real time, and transform reactive reporting into predictive intelligence. The question will shift from “How did this campaign perform?” to “What did this data teach us about guest intent, and how can we act on it?”

This evolution is where data becomes strategy. Intelligence replaces intuition.

Automation with a human touch

Automation is transforming what is possible, but it does not replace the human perspective. Algorithms can process millions of data points, but they cannot yet interpret emotion or context—the reasons a guest chooses one property over another.

The next generation of marketing partners will balance data automation with human insight. They will use analytics to surface opportunities and rely on experienced strategists and creators to turn those insights into compelling stories and experiences.

Imagine a platform that automatically adjusts your metasearch bids when pickup slows but relies on a strategist to interpret the cause and adapt the message. That collaboration between intelligence and empathy defines the future of hospitality marketing.

Agencies that thrive will automate routine work and invest human energy in strategy, creativity, and relationships, the work that technology cannot replicate.

The end of outsourcing

The traditional agency model was built around outsourcing. The new model is built around empowerment.

Hotels and resorts no longer need someone to “handle marketing.” They need partners who help them understand it—partners who unify PMS, CRS, and media data, visualize performance in real time, and highlight where demand and opportunity align.

In this environment, the agency becomes a co-pilot, not a vendor. Both sides share visibility into performance and make decisions collaboratively. Transparency becomes the foundation of trust.

When everyone sees the same data, decisions get faster and smarter. The agency’s role evolves from producing deliverables to providing intelligence and recommendations that move the business forward.

Redefining value in hospitality marketing

This transformation is not just about technology, it is about redefining value.

The best marketing partners will not measure success by impressions or clicks but by revenue contribution, efficiency, and growth. Hoteliers will no longer ask for monthly reports. They will ask, “What is our data telling us about next quarter?” or “Where should we shift spend to drive the most profitable demand?”

That is the future of marketing intelligence: proactive, predictive, and performance-aligned.

The beginning of a new era

Hospitality marketing is entering a reinvention. Automation, AI, and data convergence are reshaping how hotels attract guests and how marketing partners deliver value.

Those who cling to legacy models will struggle. Those who adapt will redefine what it means to be a marketing partner. They will connect the dots between platforms and people, between data and creativity, between performance and purpose.

Because the next generation of hospitality marketing is not about managing campaigns. It is about building intelligence.

Ready to move beyond traditional hotel marketing? Partner with GCommerce to unify your data, media, and strategy into one intelligent platform that drives direct bookings and long-term growth. Contact us today to start building a smarter hospitality marketing ecosystem.

Top ways your property can show up in GEN AI search results

January 13, 2026 by Lisa McGivney

GEN AI search, built using LLMs or large language models, is quickly becoming the new front door for travel discovery. Instead of scrolling through ten pages of links, guests are now asking GEN AI-powered search engines for personal recommendations, trip plans, and the best properties for specific needs. That shift creates both opportunity and risk for hotels and resorts. Visibility depends on clear signals, structured data, and a strong foundation that AI tools can understand.

Here is how properties can strengthen their presence across GEN AI ecosystems and increase direct bookings in a landscape where AI is becoming a primary travel advisor.

1. Start with a healthy and accessible website

Your website is the foundation of your visibility. If AI agents cannot crawl or interpret it, they cannot recommend your property.

A strong foundation includes:

Removing no follow directives that block AI crawlers.
Fixing broken links and improving internal linking so content forms a clear hierarchy.
Improving load speed, especially on mobile.

A clean, crawlable site gives LLM bots the clarity they need to understand what your property offers. This is the starting point for any hospitality marketing strategy and is still one of the most effective ways to increase direct bookings.

2. Use schema to structure your content

LLMs rely heavily on structured data markup to interpret information. Schema informs LLMs about details such as rooms, amenities, dining, FAQs, and more.

Key steps include:

Adding schema markup to high-intent pages, including rooms, dining, amenities, FAQs, and local experiences.
Ensure your hospitality marketing agency audits and maintains all structured data.

Schema markup isn’t new; it's been used to provide search engines with structured information. Schema markup’s importance is increased with LLMs and is often the single most impactful technical improvement for hotel metasearch visibility and LLM recommendations. It gives AI confidence in your content and increases the likelihood of appearing in results for hotels and resorts in your destination.

3. Local SEO (still) matters, and reviews carry more weight than ever

Because LLMs summarize information, they rarely list ten properties. They often recommend only one or two. Local SEO and reputation signals influence those recommendations. Our studies have found that Google gives preference to its own product information, notably Google Business Profile, but all GEN AI platforms we’ve studied surface information from these top listing sites.

Focus on:

Keeping NAP details consistent across every platform.
Investing in review generation and consistent review management.
Responding to reviews with clarity and care.

Reviews act as trust signals in LLM ecosystems. Properties with strong sentiment, detailed feedback, and active engagement are more likely to be recommended organically.

4. Build FAQ content that mirrors LLM query patterns

LLMs are designed to answer questions. Your content should mirror that structure.

Ways to support AI understanding:

Create a dedicated FAQ page.
Add page-specific FAQs to rooms, amenities, dining, and attractions pages.
Answer questions with simple, conversational phrasing.

Clear questions and clear answers allow AI systems to confidently incorporate your property in responses. This content also supports SEO and Google hotel ads placements.

5. Write in natural, conversational language

LLMs favor clarity and human wording over heavy marketing language. Content that sounds like a local guide performs better than content that reads like a brochure.

Enhance your content by:

Using approachable phrasing.
Incorporating question-based structures that align with real user queries.
Adding semantic clarity, such as walking distances, landmarks, and context.

This approach supports organic visibility, metasearch clarity, and the guest experience.

6. Prioritize on-page SEO and content depth

Content remains a core signal for both search engines and AI tools. Depth matters more than volume.

Strengthen your foundation with:

Clear titles and headers.
Organized page structure and scannable formatting.
Regular blog content that explains experiences, itineraries, or local insights.

Even if guests never read your blog, it fuels LLMs with the context they need to understand your property. This supports direct booking growth and enhances your digital marketing footprint.

7. Create unique destination itineraries

LLMs often generate complete trip plans. Properties that supply detailed itineraries are more likely to be included in those recommendations as cited sources.

Build 3, 5, and 7-day itineraries that cover themes such as culinary experiences, culture, outdoors, family travel, or romance. Include your property naturally within the flow of the trip. These pages do not need to drive organic traffic. They exist to train AI models on your destination expertise.

8. Use video to strengthen multimodal signals

Modern LLMs process both text and visual content. Video offers rich context that AI tools use to understand what makes your property unique.

Support AI visibility by:

Uploading and optimizing videos on YouTube. (YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine and a favorite training source for LLMs)
Including clear titles, strong descriptions, and schema markup.
Repurposing video clips within blogs and FAQs.

Video is a high-value signal source for hotel metasearch, AI recommendations, and overall hospitality marketing.

9. Participate in Reddit and social channels with purpose

Organic website content is not enough. AI tools pull signals from social channels, forums, and structured conversations across the web.

Contribute thoughtful content such as:

Q&A-style posts that answer common traveler questions.
Carousel-style explainers with practical tips.
Long form posts that link to structured, schema-rich pages.

Social engagement becomes another data source that validates your expertise.

10. Prepare for GEN AI platform advertising

GEN AI native platform advertising will rapidly reshape how guests discover hotels and resorts. Google is already commercializing AI results, and ChatGPT is expected to introduce paid placements in the next two years.

Properties with strong structured content, consistent signals, and clear data will be positioned to benefit from early adoption. This shift parallels the early days of hotel metasearch, when proactive brands gained an advantage that compounds over time.

11. Protect against OTA disintermediation

As LLMs begin offering direct booking experiences, they prefer real-time structured feeds, notably MCPs. If a hotel does not provide one, the system defaults to OTA inventory.

OTAs are already integrating with major AI platforms, and that means third parties may receive the booking opportunity before the property does. This dynamic mirrors early metasearch displacement, where a lack of structured data gave OTAs an advantage.

12. Use direct MCP feeds to reclaim visibility

Hotels can now surface their own inventory directly in LLM search results. This returns power to the property and restores opportunities to increase direct bookings.

GCommerce’s emerging MCP connectivity provides:

Real-time rates and availability.
Direct booking links.
Structured data that positions properties ahead of OTAs in AI-generated results.

If you are ready to strengthen your presence in LLM search results and position your property for the next era of discovery, our team can help. GCommerce builds the data foundation, structured content, and API connectivity that hotels and resorts need to increase direct bookings and stay visible in an AI-driven landscape.

Contact GCommerce to start the conversation and learn how your property can lead in the new world of LLM-powered travel.

How AI is changing the way guests discover and book hotels

January 5, 2026 by Scott van Hartesvelt

Navigating the new customer journey in the age of AI

A turning point for hospitality marketing

The hospitality industry has always been defined by human connection. It is a business built on relationships, experience, and trust. Yet the landscape around that human core continues to shift at a pace we have never seen before. Economic anxiety, dramatic changes in consumer behavior, and rapid advances in artificial intelligence are converging to reshape how travelers find, evaluate, and book a stay.

GCommerce founder Scott van Hartesvelt reflects on a career shaped by several eras of digital disruption and the resilience required to navigate change. Today, hoteliers face another moment of uncertainty but also another moment of opportunity.

The question is no longer whether AI will reshape the booking journey for hotels and resorts. The question is how fast it will happen and how hotels can establish an advantage while this transformation is underway.

This guide outlines what has changed, what is at stake, and what actions hotels can take today to increase direct bookings, strengthen visibility, and stay relevant as AI-powered discovery becomes the norm.

We have been here before

Every major shift in hospitality marketing has been met with uncertainty. Each one also delivered meaningful advantages for hotels and resorts that acted early.

The early 2000s

Paid search reshaped the marketing landscape. Google Ads allowed hotels to place targeted messages in front of travelers actively searching for a destination or type of stay. This was the beginning of behavioral targeting. The earliest adopters gained a performance advantage and lower acquisition costs while late adopters hesitated in the face of unfamiliar technology.

Late 2000s and early 2010s

The financial crisis created intense pressure on hotel budgets; at the same time, social platforms introduced psychographic targeting. These tools opened a new path for audience segmentation based on interests, affinities, and social patterns rather than search intent alone. Early adopters again benefited from lower costs and increased visibility.

Early 2020s

COVID created another existential shock. In parallel, significant advances in data, OTT, CTV, and micro targeting emerged. Adoption again varied. Some hotels leaned in while others pulled back.

Across each era, the adoption curve followed the same pattern: early movers gained sustained advantage while late adopters fell behind. This history matters because AI represents a disruption at a greater speed and scale than any that came before.

The new disruption facing hotels and resorts

The current environment combines two forces that make decision-making difficult for hotel leaders.

Declining confidence in financial performance

Tariffs, changes in international travel patterns, recession fears, negative RevPAR projections, and unpredictable spending behavior are creating real uncertainty for properties across the country.

A major shift in consumer behavior

Travelers are using new tools, planning differently, and engaging less with the traditional funnel. As a result, many hotels are reducing their investment in marketing. According to Gartner, hotels now allocate 8.4% of room revenue to marketing, down from 11% before the pandemic.

This is the environment in which AI adoption is accelerating.

AI adoption is moving at an unprecedented speed

Technology adoption has never moved this quickly. AI has reached ubiquity in record time.

52% of US adults now use tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Copilot.
ChatGPT has hundreds of millions of weekly active users.
All Fortune 500 companies have integrated AI into their operations.
ChatGPT reached 50 million users in 2 months, surpassing the adoption rates of television and the internet. The chart on slide 19 highlights this dramatic acceleration.

Large language model capability is doubling every four to six months, far outpacing the original innovation curve predicted by Moore’s Law. This acceleration is often referred to as Hinton’s Law, a model that reflects the compounding impact of data, algorithms, and computing power.

Travelers are not only adopting these tools; they are also using them. They are weaving them into their travel planning.

The traditional customer journey is collapsing

For more than two decades, the inspiration to booking journey has remained largely unchanged. Travelers move from inspiration to consideration, then preference, intent, and finally booking. Slide 22 illustrates this funnel.

Yet travelers no longer move through these phases in the same way.

The current state of travel planning

Travelers view an average of 141 pages of content over 45 days before booking.This should be a marketer’s dream because each page represents an opportunity for intervention. Yet customers do not enjoy the process:

56% say they feel overwhelmed by too many choices
80% say price comparisons take too long
71% worry they did not get the best deal
60% percent are dissatisfied with current planning options

This disconnect creates an opening for AI to simplify the journey.

How AI collapses the funnel

When asked directly, ChatGPT confirmed that AI assistants are already collapsing the inspiration to booking journey by helping travelers discover options, compare choices, and move toward a decision in a single conversation.

Search is moving from lists of links to direct answers
Discovery and decision now happen within one chat thread
Travelers want all-in-one planning, with ninety percent saying they prefer a single super-app that handles the full journey
Book from anywhere capabilities allow reservations to occur on platforms like Instagram or AI-powered interfaces without visiting a booking site directly

Microsoft Copilot has already integrated with major OTAs, enabling travelers to complete bookings from within a chat interface. This is no longer hypothetical. It is already in market and growing.

The real risk for hotels: disintermediation

The rise of AI-driven planning introduces an urgent risk. If travelers rely on AI systems that pull inventory from large marketplaces, OTAs once again become the default access point for customers.

ChatGPT will not process payments or operate as an OTA. Instead, it will surface deep links or API driven booking paths from partners. If hotels do not supply a direct booking endpoint, the assistant defaults to OTA inventory.

Most of the current integrations run through OTAs, not through individual property CRS systems. This recreates the same disintermediation challenge hotels faced in the early 2000s.

Properties that do nothing risk losing visibility at the earliest stage of inspiration and losing direct bookings at the point of conversion.

What hotels can do right now

The good news is that hotels can take action today. These steps strengthen visibility within AI-powered search and improve the likelihood that a property appears as an authoritative answer.

These tactics also support broader SEO performance, improve guest experience, and reinforce the property’s digital foundation.

1. Strengthen website technical health

Ensure AI bots are not blocked
Use structured, machine-readable content formats
Improve mobile friendliness and site speed
Fix 404 pages and broken links
Maintain a clear, logical site structure with internal links and updated sitemaps.

A healthy site gives AI systems confidence in the information being returned.

2. Implement schema and structured data

Schema is one of the strongest signals for answer engine optimization and large language model visibility. It helps AI interpret property attributes, room types, amenities, policies, dining, and experiences with clarity.

3. Elevate local SEO and review quality

Reviews play a critical role. AI tools use third-party sentiment to validate recommendations. Ensure listings are consistent and complete across Google Business Profile, Bing Places, and other platforms. Manage reviews with care.

4. Build robust FAQ content

LLMs respond well to question and answer structures. Add a dedicated FAQ page and embed Q&A sections on room, dining, amenity, and area pages. Mark up with FAQ schema.

5. Shift to conversational, human-centered content

Content now needs natural language, clarity, and empathy. This aligns with how travelers ask questions inside AI systems and helps the model surface the hotel as a relevant answer.

6. Strengthen on-page SEO and expand content depth

GCommerce recommends optimizing page elements, adding multi-modal formats, publishing local area content, and building itineraries. Itineraries are particularly powerful because AI uses them to support end-to-end trip planning.

7. Participate in forums and community channels

Reddit and YouTube provide rich contextual signals to AI models. Properties that participate authentically in destination-relevant conversations build authority.

8. Publish structured, answer-oriented social content

Use carousel posts, highlight local knowledge, and link back to schema-rich pages. Social content now plays a dual role: engaging consumers and supplying structured signals to AI models.

9. Strengthen PR and link building

High-quality links and mentions remain essential signals. Build presence across local organizations, publications, and affinity audiences.

10. Prepare for AI-driven advertising

Google has already announced AI Mode placements for select campaign types. The industry is moving toward commercialized AI surfaces, and hotel metasearch will likely play a larger role.

GCommerce direct inventory integration for AI systems

GCommerce has developed a breakthrough: GCommerce is now feeding direct hotel inventory into ChatGPT and other LLMs through API connected deep links via our beta.

This matters because:

It prevents defaulting to OTA inventory
It preserves control over the guest relationship
It supports direct bookings and transparency
It provides reporting on both traffic and booking behavior coming from AI channels
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This integration represents an essential step in reclaiming visibility as AI systems become the primary path for many booking journeys. It also reinforces why hotel metasearch and Google hotel ads play an increasingly strategic role for properties and digital marketing agencies working to protect direct revenue.

AI is reshaping hospitality, but hotels still shape the guest experience

AI is not replacing the human connection that defines hospitality. It is reshaping how travelers reach you, how they evaluate choices, and where they choose to engage. For hotels and resorts, this moment requires clarity, adaptation, and the willingness to lean in while the landscape continues to shift.

The hotels that act now will strengthen their position, increase direct bookings, improve discoverability, and build resilience into their marketing ecosystem. Those that wait risk losing visibility across the earliest and most influential stage of the traveler journey.

The future of hospitality marketing is still grounded in authenticity, human experience, and thoughtful strategy. AI simply changes how we reach that moment of connection.

Join the GCommerce closed beta for direct inventory in AI systems

GCommerce is leading an industry-first initiative to connect property-level inventory directly to AI assistants like ChatGPT. This protects direct booking paths, reduces reliance on OTAs, and provides real-time insights into how AI is driving traveler behavior.

If you want your property to gain an early advantage and help shape how AI influences travel planning, join the closed beta.

Your property will be among the first in the industry to secure visibility inside AI-powered planning and booking experiences. Sign up for our beta now.