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IHM’s Lily Peace explores how AI is transforming hotel discovery, marketing and guest engagement, and what hotels must do to stay visible.
Just a few years ago, planning a trip usually meant opening Google, comparing dozens of hotel websites, scrolling through online travel agencies, and reading what felt like hundreds of reviews before finally making a booking.
Today, that journey is starting to look very different.
Instead of searching for “best hotels in Paris,” “hotels in Rome,” or “where to stay in London,” travellers are asking AI platforms questions like: What’s the best boutique hotel in Barcelona with a rooftop bar? Or find me a family-friendly hotel in London within walking distance of the British Museum. In mere seconds, AI can suggest hotels, compare prices, create travel plans, and even complete bookings..
For hotels, this shift is about much more than keeping up with the latest technology. It’s transforming their discovery, their marketing, and their competition for guests in an AI-driven world.
Traditional search engine optimisation is now not the only focus. Hotels are starting to consider something completely new. They need to think about how they can be seen and, more importantly, recommended by artificial intelligence.
AI is also transforming the way that hospitality businesses work behind the scenes. From improving guest communication and personalising marketing campaigns to supporting direct bookings and streamlining everyday operations, AI is becoming part of almost every stage of the guest journey.
As travellers continue to embrace AI as a planning tool, the hospitality industry faces a new challenge: adapting to a world where the first impression of a hotel may no longer come from a website or an online travel agency, but from an AI-generated recommendation.
The shift is already beginning to affect hotel marketing. Research from Access Hospitality found that AI search traffic has a 14.2 per cent conversion rate, compared with 2.8 per cent for traditional organic search. Website visitors arriving through AI are also 4.4 times more valuable than those coming from traditional search, highlighting why hotels are increasingly focusing on how they appear in AI-generated recommendations rather than only Google’s search results.
The new rules of hotel discovery
For years, hotels have focused on climbing Google’s search rankings in hopes of attracting more bookings. But as more travellers turn to AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to plan their trips, simply ranking well on Google is no longer enough.
Hotels are moving into a new age of online discovery, says Carlo del Mistro, founder of hospitality AI firm Stiplo. Del Mistro recently led a study of 659 hotels in Barcelona, analysing around 27,000 AI-generated answers across four leading AI platforms to understand which hotels were recommended and more importantly, why.
The thing that has changed the most, he says, is the way travellers are starting their search.
“Around four in 10 travellers in Europe now start planning their trip with an AI agent,” he says. “In America, it’s close to 60 per cent. It’s no longer optional for a travel brand to make sure that it’s present on these AI engines because that’s the new way users discover hotels.”
While Google can give you a page of results, AI platforms generally provide just a few hotel recommendations.
“ChatGPT shows an average of about seven names. If you’re not part of those seven names, you’re more likely to be invisible,” del Mistro explains.
One of the most surprising aspects of the study was what didn’t matter. Despite the importance of SEO and website authority as significant factors in driving visibility, certain technical fixes recommended by marketers proved to be ineffective.
“Metadata, LLMs.txt, hotel schema et cetera, have extremely weak correlation to visibility or no correlation at all,” del Mistro says. “Originally, because Microsoft was a big backer of OpenAI and ChatGPT, people were saying Bing and Microsoft’s search engine were very relevant. It doesn’t appear that’s the case.”
Del Mistro also identified how hotels can make quick changes that work.
One of the easiest is to answer common questions guests may have directly on the hotel’s own website as opposed to linking back to another page.
“Historically, hotels may have simply put a Google Map or a link that says, ‘How to get to our hotel? Click here.’ That is extremely negative because when a user asks ChatGPT for a hotel near the train station, your hotel won’t appear in those answers. So making sure you deliver this answer is important,” del Mistro advises.
One of the study’s more practical findings centred on guest reviews. Rather than simply collecting reviews wherever guests leave them, del Mistro says hotels should pay closer attention to where those reviews are being posted.
“What matters are reviews on Google. We recommend making sure guests leave reviews on Google rather than TripAdvisor or other review sites because that’s what we can see drives real visibility.”
With the increasing reliance on AI in hotel searches, many independent businesses might feel they are facing a tough competition against global brands with higher marketing budgets and online presence. However, del Mistro’s research suggests that’s not necessarily the case.
The research challenged the idea that large hotel brands are the only ones who can have a chance at AI search. Chains typically are more visible, but del Mistro discovered that independent hotels can be competitive.
“If you’re a smaller brand, you can’t compete with Hilton or Marriott on everything,” he says. “The way to win is by focusing on a particular category of guest. Even if you can’t compete broadly, you can become the hotel AI recommends for that specific audience.”
The results indicate that AI might value relevance more than size, providing a chance for smaller hotels to compete by emphasising their unique qualities.
As AI search continues to change rapidly, del Mistro says that this is just the start of a change in the industry. ”Everything is moving very fast. If we run the same study again in six months time, something will change.”
Del Mistro’s Barcelona study reveals more insights into AI hotel discovery, hotel recommendations, and tips for hotel owners aiming to increase discoverability. The full report is available at no cost here.
What does this mean for hotel marketing?
For years, hotel marketing has been all about search engine optimisation (SEO) with the primary focus of showing up at the top of Google’s search results. But according to Tilly Gray, director of PR and AI at Mason Rose, that approach alone is no longer enough.
“A hotel can rank number one on Google and still be invisible to AI, because these are two different selection systems entirely,” she explains.
Instead, hotels need to think beyond traditional SEO and focus on becoming visible to AI platforms. This is where public relations is becoming increasingly valuable.
Gray describes this shift with a simple phrase: “PR is the new SEO.”
Traditional SEO is about getting a website ranked on Google. AI platforms work differently; they don’t just use keywords and search results to make recommendations, they analyse trusted information from the web like news articles, reviews, business listings and more. For this reason, hotels are investing more in PR as it helps them create the type of content that AI is more inclined to use.
“The data now demonstrates the power of PR and how it is not just influencing bookings anymore, but shaping exactly what AI tells a guest to choose,” Gray says.
That shift is also changing how hotels think about their own websites and digital experiences. Anant Sharma, CEO of Matter Of Form, explains that hotel websites are not just for people anymore, but it is important for them to clearly communicate with AI.
“The biggest shift is that your site is no longer read by humans. AI assistants and answer engines are increasingly the first touchpoint,” Sharma says.
Rather than thinking of a website as an online brochure, Sharma encourages hotels to view it as a living knowledge base. This includes giving detailed, factual, and well-structured information on rooms, experiences, and locations that are easily understood by guests and AI tools.
While AI is changing how content is discovered, Sharma believes hotels shouldn’t try to write for machines at the expense of people. “’AI-readable’ and ‘human-worthy’ aren’t in conflict,” he states.
Rather than using jargon and superlatives in marketing efforts, hotels need to take the time to understand what sets them apart. He believes independent hotels may even have an advantage in this new landscape. “Distinctiveness is always easier when you have less to convey,” Sharma explains. “We push the founder’s voice. We push the neighbourhood. We push the details no chain can claim.”
Larger hotel groups face a different challenge. They can take advantage of scale, but also want to make sure that each property presents a unique identity rather than a blended brand message.
But for smaller or independent hotels, which may have limited budgets, Gray says improving AI visibility doesn’t need to be costly. Rather, she suggests that it’s best to develop a solid and cohesive online brand.
“A hotel with a distinctive point of view, extensive guest reviews, and a consistent digital footprint can become more visible than a larger competitor with a bigger budget but a weaker identity,” she explained.
Gray says that her advice to clients has changed significantly over the past 18 months. Where before, it was all about website traffic, editorial coverage and SEO, now she begins by carrying out an AI visibility audit, measuring how often a hotel appears in AI-generated answers compared with its competitors before developing a tailored marketing strategy.
Looking ahead, Gray believes this shift is only just beginning. “AI will increasingly become a priority audience and a new persona that hotels need to convince,” she says.
As AI becomes a more integral part of travellers’ search and travel planning, hotels will no longer be developing content for prospective guests, but they’ll be developing content for the AI platforms making the decisions.
From strategy to reality
Many hotel brands are already employing AI behind the scenes to boost marketing, enhance the guest experience and work more efficiently.
“We see AI as a tool that enhances human creativity rather than replaces it,” says Victoria Murden, global marketing director at Red Carnation Hotels. The luxury hotel brand has integrated AI into its marketing efforts – from content creation to audience segmentation, booking optimisation, guest communication, CRM personalisation, and social listening. It is also testing out AI-powered tools to better understand guest behaviour and predict what it might be that guests are looking for before booking.
Murden says that the decision to introduce AI was driven by two goals: delivering more personalised experiences for guests, while giving marketing teams more time to focus on creativity and storytelling.
That change has also impacted the day-to-day marketing team. Murden explains: “As with any new technology, there was a period of learning and experimentation. While some team members embraced it immediately, others wanted to understand its capabilities and limitations before fully integrating it into their workflows. The key was encouraging responsible use and demonstrating practical applications that genuinely added value.”
In the early stages of AI adoption, Murden thinks that the biggest mistake for hotel brands is just using new technology due to its popularity. Instead, she suggests beginning by setting a business goal, thinking about where AI can help address a real problem, and then moving forward. Successful AI adoption is not about the number of AI tools; it’s about using the right tools to build a strong brand and create a better customer experience.
She also believes the biggest benefit isn’t something guests necessarily notice. It’s this strategy that has helped the company grow more personalised guest communications at Red Carnation Hotels without losing the human-centred service the brand is known for.
“The most successful implementations combine technology with strong brand positioning, high-quality data and human creativity,” Murden says. “The brands that will succeed are those that use AI to become more personal, not less.”
Matter Of Form’s creative processes for its clients have also been transformed by the power of AI. Previously, teams would take weeks to visualise concepts, which can now be tested within hours, Sharma says, allowing them to try more ideas before developing a campaign.
Despite this, he thinks creativity cannot be replaced by AI. “AI has raised the bar on quality rather than lowered the effort,” Sharma says. “Our teams spend less time on production mechanics and more on the things AI can’t do: taste, judgement, cultural instinct, and knowing a client’s brand deeply enough to recognise when something is right rather than just plausible.”
The same human element comes into play as AI transforms the way travellers find a hotel, believes Gray. While AI can process huge amounts of information, it still relies on trusted stories, credible sources, and distinctive brands to decide which hotels to recommend. For marketers, that means investing in authentic storytelling and strong public relations, whereby a consistent digital presence is becoming just as important as adopting new technology.
Looking ahead, Sharma believes the hospitality brands that stand out won’t necessarily be the ones using the most AI, but the ones using it to support stronger storytelling. “Creativity doesn’t shrink in this era; it becomes even more of a differentiator,” he says.
As a whole, experts suggest AI is not changing what makes hospitality marketing successful but changing how marketers spend their time. By allowing technology to handle repetitive tasks, hotel teams can focus on the areas where people continue to have the greatest impact: creativity, brand identity, storytelling, and creating memorable guest experiences.
Where hospitality goes from here
There is no doubt that AI is changing the hospitality industry. AI has already become an integral part of the hotel experience, from the way travellers find hotels to how marketing teams generate content, personalise guest communications, and optimise bookings.
But the biggest takeaway isn’t the technology itself, it’s how hotels choose to use it. For hotel brands just beginning to explore AI, the advice is to start with a clear business objective: focus on where AI can solve a genuine challenge and test small projects.
The emphasis should be on the basics: creating clear website content that answers guest questions, building a consistent digital presence, encouraging Google reviews, investing in authentic storytelling, and using AI to support creativity rather than replace it.
Yet even as AI becomes more capable, the brands that stand out will still be the ones with the strongest stories, the clearest identity, and the most meaningful human connections.
AI may help travellers find those hotels, but it will always be the people behind them who give guests a reason to come back.
