If you’re still treating AI Search as “something we’ll look at later,” you’re already behind.

Not because AI is trendy.

Not because ChatGPT is cool.

But because marketing leaders have already started reallocating real budget away from traditional channels and into AI Search visibility.

The budget shift is now visible.

A recent Conductor and Search Engine Journal webinar, The State of AEO & GEO in 2026, shared survey insights from around 200 business leaders. What stood out wasn’t the buzzwords, it was the spending behaviour.

Because spending tells the truth.

AI Search is no longer experimental. It’s becoming a core marketing investment category.

One of the most important stats in the entire webinar was this:

12% of overall marketing spend was allocated to AI Search (AEO/GEO) in 2025.

That is not a small number.

For perspective, most businesses don’t casually allocate 12% of their budget to anything unless they believe it impacts growth.

If you’re a hotelier reading this, you should pause here.

Because hotels have traditionally split budgets between:

• Paid media.
• OTAs and distribution costs.
• SEO (if they’re mature).
• Social media content (if someone has time).
• The occasional “brand campaign” that looks good but doesn’t always convert.

Now we’re seeing something new: AI Search is taking a measurable slice of marketing budgets.

Not next year.

Not “soon”.

In 2025, it was already happening.

Which means by 2026, this isn’t early adopter territory. This is mainstream.

If the first stat is the budget proof, this one is the acceleration proof:

94% of marketing leaders plan to increase AI Search investment in 2026.

That means nearly everyone.

When 94% of a market moves in one direction, what happens to the remaining 6%?

They don’t “wait and see.”

They get outpaced.

Because AI Search is not a platform you can catch up on easily. It’s a compounding advantage game. Brands that build visibility, citations, and topical authority now will benefit longer-term, because AI search engines don’t reward last-minute effort. They reward credibility.

Consistency.

Authority.

And yes, relevance.

For hotels, this is the difference between being a trusted recommendation in an AI answer engine versus being invisible while Booking.com, Expedia, and TripAdvisor absorb the demand.

 

The top AI Search priorities for 2026 were:

1.Visibility Tracking (Brand Mentions + Domain Citations)

Businesses want to know:

Are we being referenced? Are we being quoted? Are we being recommended?

Because in AI Search, ranking #1 in Google is no longer the only game.

Your brand can show up in an AI response even if you aren’t “ranking” traditionally.

Or worse: your competitors can show up even if you are.

 

2.Comprehensive Coverage Across AI Platforms

Not just Google.

Not just ChatGPT.

But also Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, AI Mode and others.

In other words: brands want multi-platform search visibility monitoring.

Hotels should be paying attention because travel discovery is already happening inside AI tools.

AI discovery is not “searching for a hotel” anymore.

It’s searching for:

• Best honeymoon hotels in Bali with private pool.
• Family-friendly resorts near Sydney with kid’s activities.
• Spa hotels in Ireland for a winter weekend escape.
• Best boutique hotels in Melbourne for food lovers.

The AI will recommend someone.

The question is whether it recommends you.

3. Content Optimisation Recommendations

Businesses want AI-driven insight into what content they should publish next.

Not random blogging.

Not generic SEO checklists.

But strategic content based on what will increase AI visibility and citation frequency.

4. Competitive Benchmarking

This is the killer.

Marketers want to track who is winning in AI results.

Because AI Search is becoming a competitive battleground the same way SEO became one.
If you’re a hotel brand, your competitors aren’t just other hotels.

It’s OTAs.

It’s travel publishers.

It’s influencer platforms.

It’s even Google itself.

5. AI Referral Traffic Tracking

Marketers want to measure what AI visibility actually produces.

Not “impressions.”

Not “mentions.”

But traffic and commercial outcomes.

32% of CMOs ranked AEO/GEO as their #1 marketing priority for 2026

Let’s be clear: CMOs do not rank something as a top priority unless they believe it impacts revenue.

So, if you’re running hotel marketing and your focus is still only:

• Instagram posts.
• Seasonal campaigns.
• OTA optimisation.
• “SEO someday”.
• Last-minute promotions.

Then you’re operating in the old playbook.

Meanwhile, enterprise brands are shifting strategy into AI visibility, answer engines, and GEO optimisation.
That gap matters.

Because hotels are one of the most search-driven industries in the world.

If you lose search visibility, you lose demand.

If you lose demand, you lose pricing power.

This is where things get even clearer.

The top goals for AEO/GEO in 2026 were:

1. Increase AI Search Visibility

Simple. Brands want to show up more often.

2. Integrate AI Search into Content Strategy

This is huge.

It means AI Search is no longer a separate channel.

It’s becoming part of content planning.

Hotels that still treat content as “a blog for SEO” are missing the shift.

Content is becoming an AI asset.

3. Drive Measurable ROI

This tells us leaders are no longer satisfied with vague “brand awareness” goals.

They want attribution.

They want measurable growth.

4. Gain Competitive Advantage Through Benchmarking

Brands want to know who’s winning, where they’re losing, and what to do about it.

5. Become the “Source of Truth”

This is the most important one for hotels.

Because hotels should be the source of truth about:

• Their property.
• Their venues.
• Their spa.
• Their packages.
• Their local area.
• Their events.
• Their dining.
• Their experiences.

But right now, many hotels don’t have enough structured, authoritative content to compete with:

• OTAs.
• Travel review sites.
• Publishers.
• Tourism bodies.

The AI will pull from the best sources available.

If your website is thin, outdated, or unstructured, you won’t be chosen.

The top AI Search metric for 2026 is:

Conversions/leads

Not traffic.
Not rankings.
Not impressions.
Conversions.
That is exactly where the hotel industry is heading too, whether it realises it or not.
Hotels don’t need “more visibility.”

They need:

• More direct bookings.
• More gift voucher purchases.
• More restaurant bookings.
• More spa bookings
• More enquiries for weddings and events.

AI Search isn’t about vanity marketing.
It’s about becoming the answer at the exact moment of intent.

If you’re a hotelier or hospitality group, here’s the takeaway:

AI Search is becoming a budget category because it’s becoming a revenue driver.

So, the question isn’t “Should we care about AEO/GEO?”

The question is:

How quickly can we become visible where AI is sending demand?

Because in AI Search, visibility isn’t just only about being found.

It’s about being recommended.

AI Search is becoming a budget line item because it’s becoming a revenue driver.

The hotels that move now will own the recommendations later.

If you want to know whether your hotel is currently showing up in AI results, and what to fix first, we’ll show you.

With 20+ years in hospitality of all facets, including F&B, hotels, to a refined focus on hospitality digital marketing.