For decades, hotel marketing has played catch-up with search engines. First it was directories, then organic search, then paid ads, then metasearch, then OTAs. Each wave pulled hotels further from owning the guest relationship. Today, another wave is crashing over the industry, and this one moves faster than any before.

Answer engines, powered by AI, are already rewriting how travellers discover, compare, and book hotels. By 2026, embracing Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) helps hotels stay ahead of the curve and visible where tomorrow’s travellers are searching.

AEO deserves its own line item in your 2026 budget, because what’s at stake is guest visibility, direct revenue, and the chance for forward-thinking hotels to get ahead with the right strategies and tools.

Search engines as we know them are shifting from “ten blue links” to AI-driven answers. Instead of scrolling through pages, travellers now ask tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews: “Where should I stay in Chicago with harbour views under $500 a night?”

The response isn’t a list of links. It’s a curated answer. Unless your hotel is optimised for answer engines, you risk being overlooked in these curated results.

According to Statista, AI-powered search assistants are projected to reach over 1.8 billion users globally by 2026. Combine that with Google already rolling out AI-generated answers to millions of searches each day, and it’s clear: AEO isn’t a “future thing.” It’s here now and accelerating.

Hotels are already squeezed by commissions, rising labour costs, and fluctuating demand. Marketing budgets are stretched thin. So why carve out resources for something “new”?

Because AEO isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a revenue safeguard.

1. Lost Direct Bookings: OTAs and large booking platforms have entire teams already optimising for answer engines. Hotels that act now have the chance to secure valuable visibility before OTAs dominate the space.
2. Cost of Playing Catch-Up: Waiting until 2027 or later means paying more to recover visibility you could have built earlier. By acting early, hotels can train AI systems to recognise them as trusted, relevant options, gains that grow over time.
3. Changing Guest Behaviour: Research from McKinsey shows that 70% of digital travellers want personalised recommendations from AI assistants by 2026. If your hotel is part of those answers, you’re connected to the guest journey from the very first moment of discovery.

This reads human and works for AI.

What AEO Actually Means for Hotels

• Conversational Queries: Optimising not just for keywords, but for natural questions— “pet-friendly boutique hotel in Auckland CBD with views” versus “Auckland hotel.”
• Content Depth: Providing meaningful, answer-worthy content that goes beyond your homepage tagline.
• Authority & Relevance: Building trust signals so answer engines see you as the right response to traveller queries.
• Structured Data & Schema: Feeding AI clear, machine-readable details about your hotel, rooms, amenities, dining, spa, packages.

In short: AEO makes your hotel findable in an age where search is increasingly about direct answers, not links.

Here’s the reality: including AEO in your 2026 plan sets your hotel up for sustainable, compounding gains in direct revenue.

1. Allocate for Strategy, Not Just Tools

Invest in expertise that understands how answer engines read, rank, and recommend hotels. AEO isn’t SEO with a fresh coat of paint. It requires technical precision and an understanding of how AI models “think.”

2. Prioritise Schema & Data Integrity

Ensure part of your budget covers implementation of robust schema markup and structured data. This isn’t one-off—it needs maintenance as engines evolve.

3. Content with Purpose

Ensure part of your budget covers implementation of robust schema markup and structured data. This isn’t one-off—it needs maintenance as engines evolve.

4. Technology Partners

Hotels don’t need another generic SaaS platform. They need tools purpose-built for hospitality. That’s where solutions like AI Source step in, designed specifically to optimise hotels for AEO at scale.

How Much to Allocate

When you map out your 2026 marketing budget, AEO deserves its own line, not as an afterthought, but as a smart, future-focused investment. Here’s the reality: most established hotels set aside 8–12% of their total revenue for marketing. Within that, dedicating around 10–15% to AEO works out to just 1–1.5% of overall revenue, a small slice with big long-term impact.

If you’re running a new, luxury, or rebranded property, your marketing spend often sits higher, in the 15–25% range. In those cases, putting 10–15% of that budget into AEO means you’re investing about 2–3% of total revenue directly into being the hotel that AI-driven searches recommend first.

The takeaway? AEO isn’t a cost to squeeze in, it’s one of the smartest places to invest if you want to lock in visibility and revenue growth for 2026 and beyond.

Budget conversations often hinge on ROI. Here’s the case for AEO, backed by numbers:

• Conversion Impact: Google found that AI-generated overviews increase user trust in results by 33% compared to traditional search listings. Visibility here = higher click-through rates.
• OTA vs Direct Margin: Every booking you win through AEO visibility instead of OTA saves you 15–25% in commission fees.
• Long-Term Payoff: Unlike ads that disappear when the budget dries up, AEO builds persistent visibility in AI ecosystems. It’s compounding value.

AEO is technical. It’s dynamic. It’s moving fast. Few in-house marketing teams have the bandwidth or expertise to keep pace. That’s why purpose-built solutions matter.

This is where tools like AI Source shine. Rather than forcing your marketing team to learn technical schema, monitor AI search behaviour, and re-optimise constantly, AI Source simplifies the process. It’s designed from the ground up to help hotels stay visible in AI-driven search environments.

The hotels that move first with specialist solutions won’t just keep up; they’ll lead.

When your leadership team sits down to map next year’s budget, AEO must have a seat at the table. Not as an afterthought, but as a strategic priority.

• The technology is here now.
• Guest behaviour is shifting now.
• Competitors are moving now.

Those who act early will own visibility in AI search. The hotel industry has always thrived on adaptation. Answer Engine Optimisation is the next leap.

By budgeting for AEO in 2026 and exploring solutions like AI Source, you’re not just protecting revenue. You’re future proofing your hotel’s ability to be discovered, chosen, and booked in the era of AI search.

When the next traveller asks an AI where to stay in your city, will it recommend your hotel or someone else’s?