For years, hotel marketing has focused heavily on being found on Google, ranking well on booking platforms and building a strong reputation through reviews.
Those things still matter.
But the way guests discover where to stay is beginning to change.
Increasingly, a potential guest can open ChatGPT, Copilot or another Generative AI tool and ask something like:
“Find me a family-friendly hotel in Lytham St Annes near the beach, with parking, a pool and somewhere I can walk into town.”
Within seconds, they may receive a shortlist.
The question for hotels is becoming:
Will your hotel make that shortlist?
AI is becoming part of the travel discovery journey
Mintel’s Travel and AI – UK – 2026 report suggests that AI is already gaining traction within the search and discovery stage of travel planning, although full AI-led trip planning remains relatively niche. Around 20% of UK consumers said they had used AI specifically to plan a holiday, while broader AI use around information search and product research overlaps strongly with travel inspiration and recommendations.
Mintel also found that AI use for travel inspiration is currently concentrated among digitally confident consumers, with 13% overall using AI chatbots for travel inspiration and substantially higher usage among younger groups.
For hotels, that matters because the discovery journey may begin before a guest has even decided where they want to stay.
A traveller may first ask AI:
- where to go;
- which destinations suit their needs;
- which areas are best for families, couples or older travellers;
- which hotels are close to attractions;
- where they can park;
- which properties have particular facilities.
By the time they reach Google or an OTA, AI may already have influenced which hotels they are considering.
AI is supplementing search, not replacing it
One of the most important findings in the Mintel report is that AI is not simply replacing Google, review sites or booking platforms.
Consumers using AI for travel inspiration tend to use more sources, suggesting that AI is often used to compare and validate options alongside other discovery channels.
That means a guest journey could increasingly look like:
AI recommendation → Google → hotel website → Tripadvisor → Booking.com → social media → back to AI → decision
For hotels, this creates both an opportunity and a challenge.
You may be discovered through AI first, but the guest can still check everything else afterwards.
If your website, reviews, social content and Google presence all tell a consistent story, that can reinforce confidence.
If they contradict each other, confidence can disappear very quickly.
Your digital footprint now has to make sense to machines as well as people
Traditional SEO has largely been about helping search engines understand and rank website content.
Generative AI adds another layer.
AI tools need enough reliable, consistent digital information to understand:
- what type of hotel you are;
- where you are;
- who you are best suited to;
- which facilities you offer;
- what makes you different;
- what guests regularly praise;
- what attractions are nearby;
- whether information about you appears current and trustworthy.
Mintel specifically highlights the growing importance of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) as conversational AI becomes more influential within travel discovery.
For an independent hotel, that could mean the difference between being understood as:
“a hotel in St Annes”
and being understood as:
“a family-friendly seaside hotel within walking distance of the beach and town centre, with leisure facilities, parking and facilities suitable for short breaks.”
The second gives an AI system far more context when responding to a detailed traveller query.
Reviews could become even more important
AI systems do not operate in a vacuum.
A hotel’s wider digital footprint — including reviews, travel platforms, social content and third-party information — contributes to the online picture surrounding the business.
That means review quantity alone may become less important than consistency of reputation.
If guests repeatedly mention:
“great for families”
“five minutes from the beach”
“friendly staff”
“easy parking”
“excellent breakfast”
those attributes create a much clearer picture of the experience.
The commercial implication is simple:
your reviews are not only persuading future guests — they may also help shape how your business is understood within AI-mediated discovery.
Trust remains the biggest issue
AI can provide convenient recommendations, but convenience does not automatically mean trust.
Mintel found that 43% of British consumers who had used AI for travel planning were satisfied with the recommendations provided. However, consumers were still more likely to view AI chatbots as inaccurate or unrealistic than human-led recommendation sources.
And 41% of British consumers said they preferred travel brands that guaranteed access to human customer service rather than relying purely on AI.
This is particularly important for independent hotels.
Smaller properties often cannot compete with large chains on technology budgets.
But they can compete on:
trust, personality, local expertise and human service.
AI may help bring the guest to your door.
The human experience can still be the reason they book — and return.
The biggest risk may be being invisible
Hotels are used to worrying about rankings.
Page one of Google.
OTA position.
Google Maps visibility.
Review scores.
But AI introduces a slightly different problem.
A hotel might have a perfectly good product but still fail to appear in an AI-generated recommendation if its online presence does not clearly communicate what it offers.
That is particularly relevant for independent properties.
Large hotel brands often have extensive websites, thousands of reviews, structured listings, national press coverage and enormous digital footprints.
Smaller hotels may have just as strong a product but far less information available online.
And if AI cannot confidently understand your proposition, it may recommend the property down the road instead.
Five questions every hotel should now be asking
For hotel owners, I would start with these:
- If somebody asked AI to recommend a hotel like mine, would it understand what makes us different?
- Does our website clearly explain who we are best suited to?
- Are our facilities, location and benefits described consistently across Google, OTAs and our own website?
- Do our reviews reinforce the positioning we want guests to associate with us?
- Is our digital presence strong enough that AI can confidently recommend us?
None of this means abandoning traditional SEO.
Quite the opposite.
Google visibility, reviews, social media, high-quality website content and accurate listings may become even more important because AI increasingly sits on top of that digital information.
The next stage of hotel marketing
The traditional marketing question has been:
“Can guests find us?”
The next one may be:
“Can AI understand us well enough to recommend us?”
Independent hotels have a real opportunity here.
They often have stronger stories, more distinctive personalities and deeper local knowledge than large chains.
The challenge is making sure those strengths exist clearly and consistently online.
Because if AI increasingly influences which hotels enter the traveller’s shortlist, visibility will no longer be just about ranking.
It will be about relevance, clarity and trust.
And hotels that start preparing for that now are likely to be in a much stronger position as AI becomes a more normal part of the travel-planning journey.
Need to know how visible your hotel really is?
At Sea Glass Marketing, we help hospitality businesses understand how they appear across the full digital customer journey — from Google and social media to reviews, websites and emerging AI-led discovery.
If you are unsure whether your hotel is positioned clearly enough for both guests and AI to understand what makes it worth choosing, a digital gap analysis is a good place to start.