How Hotels Can Optimize for ChatGPT and Google to Increase AI-Influenced Bookings

A traveler pulls up ChatGPT and types: “What’s a good boutique hotel near the French Quarter?” Your property is two blocks from Bourbon Street. You have great reviews, a killer rooftop bar, and rooms that book out most weekends. ChatGPT names three hotels. Yours isn’t one of them.

AI tools are now part of how travelers research and choose where to stay — and most hotels have no presence in those results at all. The guests are there. The question is whether you are.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• How AI Search Actually Works for Hotel Research
• Your Website Is Still the Foundation
• Write the Answers Before They Ask Them
• Google AI Overviews and What They Pull
• Reviews Are Now AI Content Too
• Are You Ready for AI Search?
• Key Takeaways

How AI Search Actually Works for Hotel Research

The way people plan trips has changed. A traveler might open ChatGPT and ask, “What’s a romantic hotel in Savannah with a good restaurant on-site?” They get a direct answer with specific recommendations — no list of blue links to sort through, no opening seven tabs. Just an answer.

Google works the same way now. AI Overviews appear at the top of results, giving travelers a synthesized recommendation before they ever scroll to a hotel’s website.

AI tools pull from whatever information is publicly available — your website, reviews, travel publications, local guides. Hotels that show up are the ones with clear, specific, detailed content across those sources. Hotels that don’t show up usually have thin websites, vague descriptions, or outdated information that gives AI nothing concrete to work with.

Your Website Is Still the Foundation

Before anything else, fix what’s on your own site. AI tools scan publicly available content, and your website is the first place they look. If your copy says things like “a premier destination for discerning travelers” and stops there, AI has nothing useful to pull from. Neither do your guests.

Specific language wins. “Three blocks from the Convention Center, with free parking and a 24-hour fitness center” tells AI (and travelers) something real. “Ideally situated for business and leisure” tells nobody anything.

The same goes for how your content is organized. Readable, bite-sized paragraphs work far better than walls of text or a single dense description buried on an About page. AI reads your site the way a person skims it. Short, clear, well-organized sections get absorbed. 

You don’t need a developer to fix this. You need someone to write your property’s story with enough detail that a machine — or a tired traveler at 11pm — can actually understand it.

Write the Answers Before They Ask Them

Think about what a traveler actually types into ChatGPT. Not “hotel Nashville” — something more like “What hotels in Nashville have a rooftop pool and are close to Broadway?” or “Is the [hotel name] a good option for a solo business trip?” Those are real questions, and AI tools are built to answer them. Your content either answers those questions or it doesn’t.

Most hotel websites don’t. They’re full of language that sounds polished but says nothing. Compare these two descriptions of the same fictional property:

Weak: “Our hotel offers a variety of amenities designed to meet the needs of every traveler.”

Stronger: “We have a rooftop pool with skyline views, a coffee bar that opens at 5am, and a business center with private meeting rooms available by the hour.”

The second version gets picked up. The first gets ignored.

Location language follows the same rule. “Centrally located” appears on roughly 40% of hotel websites — a generous estimate. “Two blocks from the Music City Center and a ten-minute walk to Lower Broadway” appears on yours. AI knows the difference, and so does someone trying to figure out whether your hotel actually works for their trip.

Write FAQ pages. Answer the specific questions your front desk hears every week. That content is exactly what AI tools are scanning for.

Google AI Overviews and What They Pull

Google’s AI Overviews are at the very top of search results, above everything else. When a traveler searches “best hotels near Wrigley Field,” they may never scroll past that AI-generated summary. 

Google pulls from a few key places. Your Google Business Profile is one of them — and if yours has outdated hours, a wrong phone number, or photos from 2019, that’s what Google has to work with. Keep it current, specific, and detailed.

Review signals feed into it too. Google reads your reviews and your responses to them. A hotel that responds to feedback with specific, thoughtful replies builds a content footprint that AI can actually use. “We’re glad you enjoyed your stay” does nothing. A response that mentions your newly renovated rooms, your parking situation, or your breakfast hours adds real information to the record.

On-page content depth rounds it out. Hotels that treat their website like a digital brochure — pretty pictures, thin copy — get skipped. Hotels that explain what they offer, where they are, and who they’re right for get cited.

Reviews Are Now AI Content Too

Your reviews are content whether you treat them that way or not. AI tools read them, summarize them, and pull themes from them. A hotel with hundreds of reviews mentioning “walkable to the waterfront,” “quiet rooms,” and “breakfast worth waking up for” will surface when travelers ask AI about exactly those things. A hotel with 40 generic reviews and no responses won’t.

Two things to act on: generate more reviews by asking guests directly, and respond to every review with language that adds real detail about your property. Your responses are indexed. Use them.

Are You Ready for AI Search?

AI search isn’t slowing down, and travelers aren’t going back to clicking through ten tabs. Hotels that build for this now will show up. The ones that don’t will keep losing bookings to competitors they’ve never heard of.

DOM’s Generative Engine Optimization services work with businesses across industries to build real visibility in AI search tools like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity. 

Schedule a free strategy call and find out where you stand.

Key Takeaways

• AI tools like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity are now part of how travelers choose hotels. Visibility in those results affects real bookings.
• Your website is the first place AI looks. Vague, generic copy gives it nothing to work with. Specific details about your location, amenities, and experience get picked up.
• Content organized in short, readable paragraphs performs better than dense blocks of text. AI reads your site the way a skimming human does.
• FAQ content and specific location language directly match the questions travelers type into AI tools. Write those answers on your site before anyone has to ask.
• Your Google Business Profile feeds into AI Overviews. Outdated photos, wrong hours, or a thin description all work against you.
• Review responses are indexed content. Specific, detailed replies add to your property’s AI footprint. Generic ones don’t.
• Hotels that build for AI visibility now will show up. The ones that wait will keep losing bookings to competitors who got there first.