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AI Knows Your Hotel. But Will It Recommend It?
As AI reshapes luxury travel discovery, the real opportunity for hotels may lie in sharper storytelling, smarter content and the people who make their properties special.
Your hotel has a beautiful website, a polished Instagram feed and glowing reviews. But what happens when a potential guest asks ChatGPT or Claude where to stay and your property doesn't make the shortlist?
We've been following this question at hertelier for nearly a year. First came research from Spotlight Communications and Make Lemonade revealing how many luxury hotels were effectively invisible to AI search. Then a second study examined which travel publications AI was citing and why.
At TravMedia's inaugural IMM LUX UK in London, the conversation moved from identifying the problem to doing something about it.
Moderated by Jenni Holman of Mason Rose, the panel featured Kerry Smith, Consulting Content Director of British Airways High Life and editorial consultant at Make Lemonade; Tilly Gray, PR and AI Director at Mason Rose; and Abigail Malbon, Global Audience Development Manager at Condé Nast Traveller. Their advice was surprisingly practical, and much of it came down to something hoteliers already understand: knowing your guests, telling a good story and giving people a reason to choose you.
From Keywords to Conversations
Remember when planning a holiday meant sitting down with a travel agent and explaining what you wanted?
Smith recalled her father taking her and her sister to a travel agency in Hastings in the 1980s, armed with a budget, two daughters and two weeks off at Easter. The agent would suggest where they might go.
Then came the internet, reducing those conversations to searches like "cheap flights to Greece."
Now AI is bringing back something closer to that original exchange.
"We now describe the holiday, not the destination," Smith observed.
Instead of searching for hotels in Greece, travelers might ask where to take two teenagers in October for an adventure. AI returns a shortlist, often before they've visited a hotel website.
And here's the catch. As the world of possible destinations expands, the shortlist travelers see may actually shrink.
Luxury travelers still seek reassurance from trusted publications, travel advisors and other sources before booking. But if your hotel doesn't make the initial cut, you may never get the chance to impress them.
AI Knows You. So Why Aren't You on the List?
This was one of the most revealing distinctions of the discussion.
Ask ChatGPT about a romantic hotel in Paris by name and it may know everything about the property. Ask instead for the most romantic hotels in Paris and that same hotel might be nowhere to be found.
Smith, who contributed editorial expertise to the Spotlight/Make Lemonade research we've previously covered, illustrated the problem with a recent project involving an all-inclusive resort in Barbados.
The resort competed with Sandals and was appearing prominently in AI searches relating to LGBTQ+ travel. But when the team tested a question along the lines of "I've been going to Sandals for five years. Where could I go that's similar but somewhere new?" the resort didn't appear.
Thirty questions across four AI platforms revealed a gap between what the hotel offered and what AI was recommending.
The potential solution wasn't necessarily another website redesign or an expensive marketing campaign. It could be something as targeted as a well-written article positioning the resort as an alternative to Sandals.
That's a useful exercise for any hotel. You may think you're known for your spa, your romantic atmosphere or your family-friendly credentials. But does AI agree?
And more importantly, is it recommending you to the travelers you're trying to attract?
Reddit, LinkedIn and the People Behind the Property
Forget obsessing over keywords for a moment. What are travelers saying about your hotel on Reddit? Is your general manager sharing expertise on LinkedIn? And when was the last time anyone updated your hotel's YouTube channel?
"Reddit and LinkedIn are now the top two most cited sources by AI," Gray told the audience.
It's a striking claim, although the rankings can vary by AI platform and the underlying research wasn't identified during the discussion. Still, her broader point is worth considering: what people say about a hotel beyond its own website is increasingly relevant to digital discovery.
Reddit, with its candid traveler discussions, presents a challenge for luxury brands accustomed to controlling their messaging. You can't simply parachute into a subreddit and start promoting your property.
LinkedIn offers a more immediate opportunity. Gray recommended eight to ten substantive thought-leadership posts or articles a month, emphasizing original expertise rather than the endless resharing of corporate announcements.
Hotels are full of people with extraordinary knowledge, from GMs and chefs to spa directors and concierges. Yet much of that expertise remains behind the scenes. Giving them a platform can strengthen the hotel's reputation while raising the professional profiles of the people who make it special.
For an industry built on people, it's curious how often the people disappear from the marketing.
And don't forget YouTube. Smith described many luxury hotel channels as parking lots for old advertising films, when they could be offering hotel tours, neighborhood guides and insights from the people who know the destination best.
The common thread? Less generic promotion, more useful information.
£100,000 on Content. Not a Thought About AI.
One of the more surprising anecdotes involved a major hotel group planning to spend £100,000 on content over the following year.
An impressive budget. But according to Smith, the brief contained no consideration of AI discovery or what would happen to that content after its initial publication.
The lesson wasn't to abandon beautiful photography, magazines or editorial storytelling. It was to think more strategically about what happens to that investment after publication. Who is the audience? What authority is the hotel trying to establish? What questions should the content answer? And how will it continue to be discovered?
Smith's point was that AI discoverability now belongs in the commissioning brief alongside the traditional objectives of brand positioning, storytelling and audience engagement.
A £100,000 content investment should work for the hotel long after the magazine has been put down.
Please, Not Another "Authentic, Unforgettable Experience"
At a panel about artificial intelligence, some of the strongest advice was to invest in human creativity.
Malbon warned about the homogenization of travel content, where every hotel begins to sound suspiciously like every other hotel. The panelists even joked about the endless appearance of words like "quiet" and "authentic" in marketing copy.
You know the sort of thing. An authentic escape, a curated journey, quiet luxury, an unforgettable experience. Filler words, and what do they actually tell us?
Smith made the case for commissioning talented writers who have experienced the places they're describing. She recalled discovering a beautifully evocative Financial Times account by William Dalrymple of a small hotel in Puglia she'd recently visited herself. The writing brought the atmosphere and sensory experience of the place to life in a way generic marketing copy never could.
Beautiful prose alone won't necessarily secure an AI recommendation. But compelling storytelling, combined with accurate, specific information, can serve both human readers and digital discovery.
There's also an opportunity for hotels to commission journalists who've already experienced their properties to create additional content for their own websites. That work should, of course, be distinguished from independent editorial coverage, but it makes sense to draw on genuine first hand expertise.
"Commission someone who's actually been there, who's a human being rather than ChatGPT," Smith urged.
Meanwhile, Condé Nast Traveller has launched an AI-assisted trip planner that draws on the publication's own editorial recommendations to create personalized itineraries. It's a compelling example of using AI to make trusted journalism more useful, rather than replacing the reporting itself.
Five Things Hotels Can Do Now
So what should hoteliers actually do? Five practical priorities emerged:
Find out where you stand. Test your hotel across several AI platforms using the kinds of questions prospective guests ask, not just searches for your property's name.
Identify what you're missing. Compare what you want to be known for with what AI currently associates with your property. Look for gaps that better storytelling and positioning could address.
Make your people visible. Give your GMs, chefs, spa directors and other specialists opportunities to share their expertise. LinkedIn is an obvious starting point. And if you're looking for a platform that loves showcasing the expertise of women in hospitality, well, you know where to find us. 😉
Commission smarter content. Make discoverability part of the brief, but don't sacrifice originality, useful information or great writing. Think beyond a single publication or social post.
Keep your story consistent. Review outdated information, clarify what makes your hotel distinctive and revisit your AI visibility over time. Gray suggested quarterly or twice-yearly reviews following a comprehensive initial audit.
These are starting points, not guaranteed ways to influence an AI recommendation. Different platforms can return different results, and no single piece of content determines whether a hotel makes the shortlist.
The Opportunity Is to Be More Human, Not Less
What stayed with me from the discussion was how much of the advice came back to the fundamentals of hospitality. Know your guests. Understand what makes you different. Tell interesting stories. Share your expertise. And give people experiences worth recommending.
AI is changing how travelers discover hotels, but the qualities that make a hotel compelling haven't suddenly changed.
The biggest opportunity is to stop hiding those qualities behind generic luxury language and start making them visible.
Because AI knowing your hotel exists is one thing. Giving it a compelling reason to recommend you is quite another.
