How Can Hotels and Travel Brands Win Direct Bookings From AI Assistants Instead of OTAs?

How is AI changing travel?

How AI assistants are changing the travel planning and booking journey

Travellers increasingly start with a conversation rather than a search. They ask for ideas, such as "quiet beach towns in Portugal in October", then refine: "family hotels with connecting rooms under €250 a night". Assistants build short lists, compare options and increasingly complete bookings. OpenAI introduced apps in ChatGPT in October 2025, with Booking.com and Expedia among the first partners. Google began rolling out hotel booking inside AI Mode in the US in 2026, with Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, Priceline, Trip.com, Choice Hotels, Hilton, IHG, Marriott and Wyndham as partners. Travel is also one of the categories where assistants cite sources most. Similarweb found about 23% of travel prompts in ChatGPT produced a citation, the highest rate it tracked.

How the growth in AI travel referrals affects hotel marketing beyond Google rankings

AI referral traffic to travel sites is growing fast. Adobe reported that traffic from AI sources to US travel sites grew 194% year on year in May 2026. It is still a small share of visits, but it arrives at the point of choice. That changes what hotel marketing must cover. Ranking for "hotels in [town]" matters less if an assistant has already narrowed the list. What matters is whether the hotel is named for the specific needs travellers describe, whether it is described accurately, and whether the direct website is presented as a place to book. That depends on content, listings and reviews across many platforms, not only on Google rankings.

Do AI recommendations drive direct bookings and sales for hotels?

They can, but many AI-influenced bookings still go through OTAs and chain sites, because those are the booking options assistants show. Direct bookings come when the assistant names the hotel and the traveller then visits its site, often through a branded search or the homepage. The hotel needs an obvious reason to book there: a better rate, a perk or flexible terms. Track this through booking-form questions, branded search trends, homepage traffic and AI referrals in analytics.

Why do OTAs dominate AI answers?

Why do online travel agencies get mentioned so often in AI answers?

• Coverage. OTAs list almost every property in every destination, so they can answer any "where to stay" question.
• Reviews at scale. Large review volumes give assistants material to summarise.
• Structured facts. Prices, amenities and policies appear in the same format on every listing.
• Integration. Booking.com and Expedia run apps inside ChatGPT and are booking partners in Google's AI Mode.
• Search strength. OTA pages rank for most destination searches that assistants run.

Booking.com vs Expedia vs Tripadvisor for AI hotel discovery

In practice, all three run apps inside ChatGPT; Booking.com and Expedia drive bookings inside assistants, while Tripadvisor shapes reputation through reviews and rankings. Keep all three profiles complete and consistent, and respond to Tripadvisor reviews, which assistants often summarise.

How travel businesses can compete with TripAdvisor and Viator for AI share of voice

Tours, activities and attractions face the same pattern: marketplaces cover everything. Compete on specifics a marketplace listing cannot hold. Publish detailed itineraries with timings, what is included, group sizes, accessibility, meeting points, weather policies and the guides' expertise. Add seasonal advice and first-hand local knowledge. Keep your marketplace listings complete, since they remain a major source of reviews. Earn mentions in travel guides and articles that assistants cite for "best things to do in [city]".

Why does AI recommend airport car rental aggregators instead of direct bookings?

"Cheapest car rental at [airport]" is a comparison question, and aggregators compare many companies. A rental brand can win specific questions by publishing airport location pages with desk location, shuttle or in-terminal pickup, opening hours, typical prices, airport fees, young-driver rules, deposit and fuel policies. State these plainly, and make the direct-booking benefit clear, such as loyalty perks or free cancellation.

Airbnb listing versus direct booking website for AI vacation rental recommendations

Airbnb listings carry reviews and availability, and its robots.txt lets ChatGPT's search crawler read listing pages. A direct website can still be recommended when it is the clearer source. Describe the property in detail: sleeping arrangements, accessibility, parking, distance to key places, house rules, cancellation terms and total price with fees. Show reviews, and link your profiles on other platforms so assistants can connect them. Use the same property name everywhere.

How do you build direct-booking visibility?

How hotels can build lasting AI visibility through data platforms

Much of what assistants know about hotels comes from data platforms, not hotel websites:

• Google Hotel Center and free booking links, which let hotels show their official site and rates in Google's hotel results. In the EU and EEA, Google's September 2026 changes under the Digital Markets Act split hotel results into separate units for aggregators and hotels and extend to AI Overviews and AI Mode, so European hotels should check how they appear and rely more on their own site, Business Profile and reviews.
• Google Business Profile, with accurate categories, amenities, photos, hours and policies.
• OTA and metasearch listings, kept consistent through a channel manager.
• Review platforms, especially Tripadvisor and Google reviews.
• Tourism boards and destination guides, which assistants cite for regional questions.

Consistency across these sources is what makes a hotel's facts reliable to assistants. A mismatch in room types, amenities or policies undermines them all.

How hotels use LodgingBusiness and AmenityFeature schema for AI discovery

Schema.org's LodgingBusiness type and its subtypes, such as Hotel, Resort and BedAndBreakfast, describe a property. Properties include address, check-in and check-out times, star rating, number of rooms, pet policy and amenityFeature, which lists amenities as LocationFeatureSpecification entries, such as "pool" or "EV charging". Markup helps systems read facts consistently, but it must match the visible page. Its effect on AI citations appears modest. Google's vacation rental markup is tied to its Hotel Center programme. The visible text matters most: amenities, room details and policies in plain HTML.

Which pages should an all-inclusive resort create to be cited by AI assistants?

• What's included: restaurants, drinks and brands, room service, activities, kids' clubs, and what costs extra.
• Room categories: size, views, bed options, occupancy and differences between tiers.
• Who it suits: families, couples, adults-only areas, accessibility.
• Prices and seasons: typical nightly or package prices and what changes by season.
• Getting there: transfers, airport distance and times.
• Weddings and groups, if offered.
• Policies: cancellation, deposits, children's ages, dress codes.

Each page should answer the questions travellers ask assistants, such as "all-inclusive with premium drinks and a kids' club in [destination]".

How can travel brands make cancellation and change rules agent-readable?

• Publish policies in HTML text, not only in booking-engine pop-ups or PDFs.
• State each rule per rate type: refundable or non-refundable, deadlines with time zone, fees and how to cancel.
• Give examples, such as "Cancel by 3pm local time two days before arrival for a full refund."
• Keep policies consistent across your site, OTAs and Hotel Center rate data.
• Link the policy from every room and rate page, and date any changes.

Assistants and booking agents increasingly check these terms on travellers' behalf. Clear, consistent rules make the direct option safer to recommend.

What gives travellers a reason to book direct?

An assistant that names your hotel will usually show OTA booking options too. The traveller then compares. Give them a reason to choose your site, and state it where assistants and travellers can read it:

• Member or direct rates, clearly shown.
• Perks: breakfast, late checkout, parking, room choice or upgrades on availability.
• Flexible terms, such as free cancellation until a later deadline than OTA rates.
• Direct contact for special requests, accessibility needs or celebrations.

Contract terms with OTAs may limit what you can advertise, so check them. In the EU, Booking.com's designation as a gatekeeper under the Digital Markets Act in 2024 means it can no longer stop hotels offering better prices on their own websites.

How should a hotel website be structured for AI?

• One page per room type, with size, beds, occupancy, views, accessibility features and a typical price range.
• A location page with distances and travel times to airports, stations, beaches, venues and attractions.
• Dining, facilities and spa pages with hours, prices and what is included.
• A policies page covering check-in, cancellation, children, pets, parking and payment.
• Questions guests ask, taken from emails and front-desk logs, answered briefly.

Many hotels keep rates and room details only inside a booking engine on another domain, often loaded by scripts or in frames. Assistants cannot read that reliably, so repeat the key facts on the main website. How booking on another domain affects recommendations is covered in whether AI assistants recommend a business when checkout opens on a different domain.

What might an illustrative case look like?

Consider an illustrative 40-room independent hotel in a coastal town. Assistants name it occasionally, but the booking options shown are always OTAs, and one assistant says it has no parking. The hotel's own site has a single "Rooms" page and its policies sit inside the booking engine. The owners add a page for each room type and a location page with walking times. They publish a policies page stating free parking for 20 cars and a direct-booking perk of free breakfast. They correct the parking detail in their Business Profile and OTA listings, and connect to Google's free booking links. Over the next season, assistants describe the parking correctly and some answers mention the free breakfast for direct bookings. The share of bookings made direct rises.

How do you measure progress?

Track a set of traveller questions for your destination and property type each month across ChatGPT, Google's AI features, Perplexity and Copilot. Record whether you are named, how you are described and which booking options are shown. Watch branded searches, homepage visits, AI referrals and direct booking share, and ask guests how they found you. Compare direct bookings from AI-influenced visitors with OTA bookings over several months.

What do people ask about hotels and AI assistants?

Can independent hotels book directly inside ChatGPT or AI Mode?

Not usually yet. Integrations launched with OTAs and large chains, so independent hotels should focus on being named and linked.

Should hotels stop using OTAs?

No. OTAs supply visibility and reviews that feed AI answers. The aim is to win more direct bookings alongside them.

Does offering a better direct rate help with AI?

It helps travellers choose direct once they visit, and assistants may repeat it if your site states it clearly.