Key points
- The rules of the game are changing, and the hospitality industry must adapt quickly or risk becoming invisible to a new generation of digitally savvy travelers.
- Over two-thirds of hotels recommended by AI were branded or part of a large hotel group, leaving independent hotels at a major disadvantage.
- One of the clearest patterns to emerge from the study is the role of trust and reputation in shaping AI recommendations.
Bangkok Hotel Technology News: Global Shift in Travel Discovery Disrupts Hotel Visibility Norms
As travelers increasingly rely on artificial intelligence (AI) platforms over traditional search engines like Google, hotels around the world are finding themselves at a crossroads. Visibility in the travel discovery process, once dominated by search engine optimization (SEO) and online travel agencies (OTAs), is now being reshaped by large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. The rules of the game are changing, and the hospitality industry must adapt quickly or risk becoming invisible to a new generation of digitally savvy travelers.
Travelers are now using AI platforms for hotel recommendations.
Image Credit: AI-Generated
In response to this growing disruption, Hotel Based PR company – Hotel PRExpress, has released a groundbreaking research report titled: How Hotels Need to Integrate into AI Based PR and Marketing Strategies. This Bangkok Hotel Technology News report explores how AI search engines are choosing which hotels to recommend—and why many properties are being left out of the conversation altogether.
Branded Hotels and OTAs Dominate AI Search Results
Hotel PR-Express’s study analyzed 145 upscale hotels across six global destinations including Bangkok, London, and Barcelona. Each selected property already enjoyed strong visibility on Google and presence on popular platforms like Tripadvisor, Expedia, and Booking.com. Yet when the same destinations were queried through AI platforms, the results told a new and revealing story.
Over two-thirds of hotels recommended by AI were branded or part of a large hotel group, leaving independent hotels at a major disadvantage. OTAs, meanwhile, accounted for a staggering 62.4% of the sources cited by the AI tools. Unsurprisingly, platforms already partnered with OpenAI and similar AI engines—Tripadvisor, Expedia, and Booking.com—were most frequently referenced.
The conclusion? The AI algorithms seem to lean heavily on existing digital ecosystems, prioritizing trust signals and consistent branding. “What we found to be the most consistent…is hotels that often appear regularly have the strongest reviews, the strongest brand consistency and the broadest trust system around their digital presence,” said Jakkapong Watcharachaijunta, CEO of Hotel-PRExpress.
Digital Reputation and Broad Visibility Now Make or Break a Hotel’s Discovery Potential
One of the clearest patterns to emerge from the study is the role of trust and reputation in shaping AI recommendations. Every hotel that appeared in AI search results boasted “excellent guest ratings” and a high volume of online reviews. But digital visibility beyond the usual travel booking sites also mattered. For instance, 71% of the hotels recommended were featured on YouTube, 98% were discussed in travel blogs, and 99% were mentioned on key news websites.
This means that AI platforms are looking beyond booking engines and into broader public discourse. In other words, if people are talking about your hotel online—especially in trusted, review-heavy spaces—AI platforms take notice.
There’s little variation among the different AI platforms in terms of how they prioritize hotel listings. Jakkapong notes that this is because they are “engineered the same way and reason the same way.” However, he also warns that this doesn’t make the system predictable. “Small tweaks to these agents reveal tweaks to the outcomes,” he said. “We’re still in this dark period of unknown.”
Beyond SEO: The Rise of GEO and Content That Speaks AI
For years, hotels have invested heavily in SEO. Now, the next evolution has arrived—Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). According to Hotels-PREXpress, the most important shift is for hotels to start communicating in ways that AI understands. That means content must go beyond property descriptions to include storytelling, user-generated reviews, and local experiences.
Jakkapong emphasized that creating this type of content may sound overwhelming, but it is quickly becoming essential. “You can never go wrong by leaning into what makes you special—your stories, your reviews, your local experiences,” he said. GEO, much like SEO in the past, rewards authenticity and rich, varied content.
To assist hotels in this transformation, Hotels-PRExpress has begun testing prompts that can help LLMs better understand a hotel’s attributes. The long-term goal is to offer these tools as “freemium” content enablers that allow hoteliers to take control of their digital narrative, rather than letting third-party platforms do it for them.
New Tools Aim to Bridge the AI Gap for Hoteliers
The hospitality tech and marketing sector is starting to respond to this new visibility challenge. One notable development is Hotel-PREXPress’s launch of its Hotel Link-AI solution. This platform is designed to help hotels integrate directly into AI-powered travel planning ecosystems, offering LLMs real-time data on pricing, availability, and services. It also allows for direct bookings, giving hoteliers a way to reduce OTA dependency.
Meanwhile, Hotel-PREXpress has outlined several key strategies for hotels to improve their AI visibility:
–Create a Strategic OTA Mix – Include niche and regional platforms to diversify sources.
–Revamp Hotel Websites – Make them rich in information and tailored to conversational queries.
–Reputation Management – Actively respond to and encourage reviews across multiple platforms.
–Widen Digital Presence – Prioritize social media storytelling, especially through platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and Reddit.
Hotels that implement these tactics now stand a much better chance of staying visible in a discovery process increasingly dominated by AI.
Urgent Need for a Strategic Mindset Shift in the Hospitality Sector
While the research findings are clear, Jakkapong believes the hospitality industry has yet to fully grasp the urgency of the situation. “This should rank number one on every hotel’s priority list,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s even made the list yet.”
He argues that customer acquisition is one of the biggest operational expenses for any hotel. Anything that can make that process more efficient, especially using AI as an infrastructure layer, should be embraced. Not only does AI have the potential to match travelers with hotels more accurately, but it can also help improve operational efficiency and guest satisfaction through better personalization.
Importantly, Jakkapong views this transition not as a threat but as an unprecedented opportunity. “For me, this is the biggest opportunity in 8 years of being in this industry,” he said. “AI is not just a search engine—it’s a foundational shift in how hotels will interact with and attract guests.”
Hotels that fail to adapt may find themselves gradually fading from the travel consciousness of modern consumers. On the flip side, those that lean in early, adopt GEO practices, and take control of their digital storytelling could become the new leaders in a landscape defined not by clicks, but by conversational intelligence.
As the travel industry rapidly embraces AI-powered discovery, hotels must rethink their entire approach to online visibility. This is no longer a conversation about rankings and keywords—it’s about trust, reputation, digital presence, and intelligent content. Those who act now will be best positioned to thrive in this next era of guest engagement and discovery.
Hotel-PRExpress is part of Digital Emeralds, the owner of Bangkok Hotel News. Hotels interested in our PR and Tech services can contact us directly via drnikhil@thailandmedical.news.
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