Key Topics

Entering hotel room
News / Member Insight / Technology

Hotels risk losing visibility as search behaviour rapidly evolves with the rise of AI and social search

Access Hospitality

The rise of AI and social platforms is fundamentally transforming how people find and book hotels.

Whilst there are around 74,000 monthly Google searches for “hotels in London”, there are now 47,300 searches on TikTok and 28,100 on Perplexity for the same term. This highlights a big shift in how travellers research and discover hotels online, and one that is accelerating fast. 

In response to this evolving landscape, hospitality technology company Access Hospitality has published an overview to help hotel businesses increase their visibility across AI platforms, large language models (LLMs) and social channels.

Why modern research is reshaping hospitality marketing

AI-powered search has been evolving since 2021 and shows no sign of slowing down. ChatGPT alone received over 5.21 billion visits in December 2024, making it the 5th most-visited website globally. Meanwhile, Google has embedded AI into its results pages, shifting user behaviour away from the traditional ‘query-and-click’ model towards instant, answer-based responses.

Visitors arriving via AI search channels are 4.4 times more valuable than organic search which makes it an important channel to nurture. With AI search traffic predicted to overtake traditional organic search by 2028, the window to build a competitive advantage is wide open.

Now, a brand-new generation of travellers use platforms such as TikTok and Instagram as their primary search engines, seeking recommendations and inspiration before they even visit a hotel website or OTA.

Nicola Longfield, Chief Commercial Officer, Global Accommodation & Payments at Access Hospitality, says:

To stay competitive, hospitality brands need to ensure they are visible wherever travellers are searching for inspiration and recommendations. Search has the power to shape and create demand. Hotels need to create content that influences the way people frame their queries, whilst also responding to how travellers now search.

8 ways hotels can improve their AI and LLM visibility

Access Hospitality has outlined the following practical steps for hotel businesses looking to optimise for AI-driven search:

  1. 1

    Keep Google Business and Bing profiles 100% complete, as AI heavily scans these for local search queries. 

  2. 2

    Build distinct differentiators on your website as AI recommends the best options rather than simply listing them. Hoteliers need unique and clear selling points backed by accurate data. 

  3. 3

    Synchronise amenities, policies and descriptions consistently across all major OTAs. 

  4. 4

    Maintain official tourism listings on high-authority domains such as VisitBritain or your city’s tourism site, as LLMs treat these as trusted seed data. 

  5. 5

    Implement a thorough hotel schema on your website to provide AI and LLMs with a standardised, structured data format. 

  6. 6

    Ensure schema data matches what is stated in Google Business Profiles and other web sources.

  7. 7

    Include geo-coordinates and clear check-in and check-out times. The less AI needs to assume about your property, the more likely it is to recommend you.

  8. 8

    Encourage detailed guest reviews and always be quick to respond. Ask guests to review their experience to help AI match your property to a specific search query.

3 ways to strengthen social discoverability

  1. 1

    Launch a discovery-led content strategy by identifying what your audience is searching for on social platforms and creating content that directly answers those queries.

  2. 2

    Optimise content for platform-specific search through keywords, captions, file names, alt text, location tags and your profile name.

  3. 3

    Make content both personally and culturally relevant to your target guests, tailoring it to the intent and format of each platform. 

Join the Access Hospitality Masterclass on 14th May 2026

For hotel businesses looking to get ahead, Access Hospitality is hosting a free webinar on Thursday 14th May at 2pm: AI Masterclass — How hotels stay visible in the age of Intelligent Search. 

The session, led by Steve Collins, VP Digital at The Access Group, will cover the evolution from traditional search to ‘answer engines’, a deep dive into Google AI Overviews, how to capture high-value AI traffic that converts at 4.4x the rate of organic search, and a digital maturity roadmap to lower acquisition costs and increase profit margins.

With 2.5 billion AI prompts processed daily, it is the next step for the hotel industry. Register for the free webinar here. 

Find out more