How to Appear in Guests' AI Searches
- Mar 12
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 13
Hotels, restaurants and private clinics are losing visibility due to a change most haven't noticed yet.
We haven't needed to know the exact web address of a website for a long time to end up exactly where we want to be. We type into Google whatever we remember about a hotel someone recommended, open 3–6 links, browse and compare — and that's the end of the story.
Now we're going a step further. We no longer need a friend who stayed there last year to tell us where they slept and ate well, because we all have Google on steroids in our pocket — one that knows the answer to everything from why a sea creature is part of history, to why we feel a pull in our back under the shoulder blade.
Although mentioning AI is almost passé given how often it comes up, ignoring it would be like closing your eyes to the industrial revolution. So, inspired by the themes that were central to this year's ITB Berlin, we'll write a little more about how to navigate this era — and not lose what we've spent years building in websites, SEO, and digital marketing — to those who are just slightly better at talking to machines.
WHAT IS AI READABILITY AND WHY DOES IT MATTER FOR HOSPITALITY?
AI readability unfortunately has nothing to do with that great video you put together two years ago to play on your homepage. Not even the copy is what will make the difference. It's about the system — and whether that system (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude) can extract accurate, specific information about your business and confidently recommend you when someone asks a relevant question.
Given that the use of AI for travel planning grew by 74% in 2025, this may no longer be a niche data point to pass along to the next marketing team.
WHY ISN'T MY HOTEL VISIBLE ON CHATGPT AND AI SEARCH ENGINES?
Hotels have spent years perfecting their online experience — beautiful photos, atmospheric copy, carefully crafted pages designed to turn a potential customer into a real one. AI doesn't read that.
Instead, AI scans metadata. It looks for schema markup — standardised code that tells it precisely what the hotel is, what types of rooms it has, what the policies are, what's included in the price. The moment an AI assistant starts comparing accommodations on a guest's behalf — which is already happening — hotels with machine-readable content make the shortlist.
A second factor proven to affect AI visibility is appearing across multiple, credible channels and sources. Cloudbeds' 2025 research is clear: 98% of those cited in AI recommendations had a presence on YouTube. 97% appeared in blog content. 95% were mentioned on Reddit.
Let's not fool ourselves about the staying power of this way of planning travel. Agentic AI is maturing — Perplexity, for example, already books hotels directly within the app across 140,000 properties. Accor launched a native ChatGPT integration in January 2026. Hyatt followed in February. Trip.com's AI assistant recorded a 400% year-on-year increase in AI-assisted bookings, with 60% of those interactions directly tied to booking decisions.
WHY RESTAURANTS AREN'T GETTING AI RECOMMENDATIONS — AND HOW TO CHANGE THAT
83% of restaurants don't exist on ChatGPT.
For context — that figure is 14% on Google. Among users aged 35–44, one in five Americans uses AI tools to discover local venues. That's an audience making dining decisions right now.
Restaurants that do appear in recommendations share a few traits: consistent, accurate information across all platforms; structured menus with clear descriptions and allergen labels; enough recent reviews for AI to form a clear picture; and websites that answer questions rather than just tell a story.
HOW AI SEARCH AFFECTS PRIVATE CLINICS AND PATIENT ACQUISITION
Healthcare is a special category. The risks of invisibility are high, and the criteria for being cited are stricter. More than 40 million people use ChatGPT daily for health-related queries — 5% of all messages on the platform. Patients research doctors, compare clinics and evaluate procedures through AI before contacting anyone. By the time they reach out, the shortlist has already been formed.
AI applies its most rigorous standards here. Google's E-E-A-T framework — experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness — is enforced most strictly in health contexts. Generic claims about an excellent team and commitment to quality don't earn citations. Specific, verifiable, structured information does: qualifications, specialisations, procedures, FAQs.
Conversion data is unambiguous: patients arriving via AI convert at a rate 4.4 times higher than standard organic visitors.
SO HOW DO YOU IMPROVE AI VISIBILITY FOR HOTELS, RESTAURANTS AND PRIVATE CLINICS?
AI readability is a systemic problem. It concerns structure, data and presence on every platform where your business exists.
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