You might assume AI search doesn’t matter for your hotel yet. Maybe travelers still start on Google, and ChatGPT feels more useful for planning a trip to Mars than a weekend in your town.
That assumption is already out of date.
Generative AI use in trip planning grew from 8% of travelers in 2023 to 16% in 2024 and 24% in 2025, according to Deloitte’s Holiday Travel Survey. By last October, ChatGPT alone had crossed 800 million weekly active users, according to Horwath HTL.
Under a third of travelers overall, but growing fast and concentrated exactly where discovery happens first.
AI Is Becoming Part of Hotel Discovery
Here’s the second assumption worth checking, and it cuts the other way: if AI isn’t booking rooms directly, it doesn’t matter yet.
Trust in AI travel recommendations is genuinely mixed. One industry survey found that trust dropped from 82% to 54% in a single year, even as usage kept climbing. Hospitality Today reported on the shift, noting that consumers increasingly use AI recommendations as a starting point and then verify what they find elsewhere.
McKinsey’s research on AI and travel planning also found that travelers who use generative AI for trip planning still rely on it mostly for research and inspiration. Still, 84% said AI improved their experience, and travel sites receiving visitors from generative AI sources saw a 45% lower bounce rate.
Travelers aren’t handing AI their credit card. They’re handing it the shortlist.
Travelers Are Using AI to Build Their Shortlists
That’s the part that should worry you more than the trust numbers reassure you.
If a traveler asks ChatGPT or Perplexity where to stay and your hotel isn’t in the answer, it doesn’t matter how good your direct-booking page is. You were never on the list they compared.
Horwath HTL frames this as a third era of hotel discoverability, following SEO and paid search. In this “AEO/GEO” era, AI synthesizes an answer instead of ranking a page of links.
Tripadvisor’s own leadership has also pointed to this shift as a factor in its traffic declines.
So, how visible is your hotel to AI right now? You can get a pretty good idea in about ten minutes.
How to Check Your Hotel AI Visibility in 10 Minutes
1. Ask the question a guest would actually ask.
Open ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overview and type something like “best boutique hotel in [your city]” or “where should I stay in [your city] for a weekend anniversary trip.”
Do you show up? Does a competitor?
2. Read what it says about you, if anything.
AI answers pull from a mix of your own site, review platforms, and press, not just your homepage copy.
If the answer is generic or wrong, that’s a signal that your information may be thin or inconsistent somewhere in that mix.
3. Check whether your website actually answers the question in plain language.
Marketing copy about “unforgettable experiences” gives an AI model very little useful information.
Instead, tell travelers what’s nearby, which trips your hotel suits best, and what makes your property different. That gives AI something useful to cite.
4. Check for name, address, and description consistency.
Look at your Google Business Profile, OTA listings, and your own website.
AI models pull information from all of them. When those details conflict, they weaken your hotel’s signal instead of reinforcing it.
None of this requires new software. It requires ten minutes and an honest read of what the models already think about you.
Getting Found Is Only Step One
Showing up in that answer and pricing the room right once someone finds you are two different problems, but they rhyme.
Both are about doing, continuously, what one person checking in once a week can’t keep up with.
Ramsi handles the second one. The room stays priced against real demand every day, in the background, whether or not anyone is actively watching the dashboard.
Getting found is step one. What Ramsi does starts the moment after.