AI is fast becoming the first layer of travel discoverability, and some AI tools even have direct booking capabilities. These platforms permeate multiple layers of the marketing funnel. Hotels that do not appear in their recommendations risk losing brand awareness, customers, and ultimately revenue.
With that in mind, here’s how to ensure your hotel stays visible to generative and agentic AI platforms and the guests who search there. This process is known as GEO (generative engine optimization) or AIO (artificial intelligence optimization).
Cohesive Online Presence
AI platforms draw information from multiple online channels, not just your website. Therefore, your data and brand personality must remain consistent across these channels, i.e., your website, social media, Google Business Profile, reviews, etc. Not only does this enhance visibility, it improves the experience for guests conducting deeper research after you’ve surfaced in their chosen AI.
Your online presence is not solely determined by the content you provide. Others may contribute information about your property in formats such as reviews. Implement a comprehensive review strategy to safeguard your AI reputation.
Guest Segmentation
AI platforms adapt recommendations to each visitor and their individual travel preferences. Therefore, it’s important to clearly understand your key guest segments and tailor content just for them, including consistently highlighting relevant amenities.
If AI platforms misunderstand your target customers and promote your hotel to the wrong type of guest (for instance, if they say you’re great for large corporate groups when really you’re a boutique bed and breakfast), those guests will be disappointed when they arrive. This affects your reviews and lowers your search visibility, creating a vicious cycle.
High-value Written Content
Prioritize content that delivers value to users, keeping a specific (human) audience in mind. Ironically, algorithms downgrade content that appears to have been written solely for them. If you use AI tools to generate copy, review and tweak the output yourself to confirm that it offers value and adheres to your brand voice.
Concise, conversational text organized with headings, FAQs, bulleted lists, tables, and so forth is preferred by both users and AI platforms. After all, AI was developed with the end user in mind.
Original information is the gold standard. What do you know about your destination and other relevant topics that no one else does?
High-quality Photos & Videos
A strong overlap exists between AI searchers and image searchers who use tools such as Google Lens for information on products and destinations. Invest in high-quality visual content to tell your property’s story and capture your share of this market. AI-generated images should be avoided as they erode trust. What’s pictured on your website should mirror what the guest finds on arrival.
Fresh Updates
The fresher your content, the better. Include publication and revision dates to indicate that it’s current.
Site Usability
AI discoverability depends on more than just content. Usability plays an important role. AI platforms prefer mobile-friendly, fast-loading sites with credible backlinks and metadata such as titles and alt text. The same functionality techniques used to enhance SEO remain relevant for GEO.
This includes schema markup that helps both search engines and AI understand what information your page covers. It’s embedded as tags in your HTML code and used to denote page titles and structure information such as location, room types, rates, and amenities.
Booking Engine
Your own direct online booking engine (OBE) also enhances (or detracts from) your visibility. The same usability standards as your website—mobile friendly, fast loading, etc.—apply to your OBE. Ensure it’s integrated with your property management system to allow AI to check live pricing and availability. In addition, it should integrate with third-party platforms, including Google Hotel Ads, because AI typically uses these platforms for information.
Experimentation
Regularly input your brand name and relevant search terms into AI platforms to see what appears—and if it’s accurate. Because these platforms take past searches into account when surfacing information, it’s best to use incognito mode to generate unbiased results.
To save time, you may choose to invest in specialized tracking tools that automatically monitor metrics such as answer share and citation frequency. Answer share means the percentage of AI-generated responses to specific queries that include your brand, while citation frequency counts the number of times your domain is referenced.
While AI has not yet made traditional SEO strategies obsolete, it has introduced significant new factors to consider. Adopt GEO or AIO practices now to stay ahead of your competition and make sure guests find your property wherever they look.
