5 simple principles that help your hotel appear in AI recommendations

Adapting your online content to AI search optimization: from SEO to AEO | Ira Vouk

The age of AI search is here and it’s already reshaping how travelers discover and book hotels.
Instead of scrolling through endless links, guests now expect AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity to
“do the Googling for them” and deliver one trusted answer.
As a hotel operator, your job is to make sure your property is part of that answer.
That ensures that you stay visible, capture more direct bookings, and stay ahead of competitors in this new distribution landscape.

Now, AI might be evolving faster than traffic builds up in San Diego on a rainy day, and yes, every platform has its own quirks.
But the good news is you don’t need a PhD (or even deep SEO experience) to adapt.
There are clear, pretty simple, common-sense practices you can start implementing today to optimize your discoverability in AI search results.
Not rocket science.

AI has officially entered the booking funnel

First, let’s be crystal clear: search and booking are not the same thing.

Search is discovery. It’s the process of an AI finding, interpreting, and recommending hotels. That’s what this course focuses on.
Booking is a transaction. It’s when the AI actually books the hotel, handling payments, confirmations, and all the messy details.

Here’s what platforms can currently see ARI and book:

But before you’re booked – you first need to be discovered. How do you accomplish that?

Well, guess what?..

Large Language Models (LLM) visibility isn’t random. It’s engineered.

Yes, there’s a method to the AI madness.

So let’s talk about how LLMs actually pull and synthesize information – and whether they all play by the same rules. Spoiler: they don’t.

As you know, things change super fast in the AI world but as noted earlier there are some fundamental things that can be derived that won’t do a 180 in the near future. And they aren’t rocket science. They’re common-sense practices you can start using today.

Take this: Airops looked at 6,700 high-intent pages from 50 of the biggest SaaS brands to see who’s actually getting cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and their AI buddies – and why. And the results? Top performers earned 4-5x more citations by doing some not super sexy but consistent things:

Updating content regularly
Structuring pages for machine readability
Being cited external sources
Formatting for snippets
Staying consistent with brand voice

Most brands don’t do these things. And that’s why they don’t show up in those results.

Think of your hotel content like a living, breathing organism – it can’t just sit there gathering dust. It needs to be dynamic, structured, fueled by reviews, and anchored in trust. That’s how you maximize visibility when AI agents are out there acting like picky travel agents, filtering and ranking options for guests.

And here’s the kicker: it’s not just about what you offer, it’s about the why. Why do guests choose your hotel? Is it the rooftop bar, the family-friendly vibe, or the fact that you allow dogs the size of small horses? Understanding that “why” is the secret sauce to a content strategy that actually works in an AI-driven world.

What should you do now (fast)?

1. Optimize content

Technical optimization, on-site content optimization, off-site presence.

2.Ensure Google Presence

Make sure your hotel is present in Google’s hotel ecosystem.

3. OTA Coverage

Be listed on all major OTAs (despite commission costs) to prepare for all scenarios.

4. AI-Friendly Direct Booking

Ensure your direct booking process can be navigated by AI agents.

5. Continued Education (Are you looking for step-by-step guidance?)

HSMAI have developed two Online courses on this topic specifically for hoteliers (Learn how to get hotel into AI Search results) where you’ll learn exactly how to implement AI search optimization, step by step, with practical hotel-focused examples, checklists, and action items you can apply immediately.

By the end of the course, you’ll not only understand how AI search works — you’ll have a concrete roadmap to ensure your hotel is always part of the answer.

Author — Ira Vouk

Ira Vouk is a hospitality technology consultant, educator and author who specialises in turning complex topics into practical hotel action. She has over two decades of hospitality experience and is the author of Revenue Management Made Easy, Hotel Tech 101 and Hospitality 2.0.