The travel industry is standing on the edge of its biggest digital shift since online booking became the norm. For years, Google has been the gateway between a traveller’s dream and a hotel’s front desk. People aren’t just searching anymore. They’re asking, deciding, and even booking through AI engines like ChatGPT.

This isn’t some far-off trend. It’s already here. If hotels don’t adapt, they risk being invisible in the very place’s travellers are making decisions.

For decades, search engines followed the same formula: type a query, scroll results, click a link, and hopefully land where you need to be. That worked because information lived in silos, Google was the middleman.

AI engines break that cycle. Travellers now ask:

• “What’s the best boutique hotel in Dublin under $200 a night, close to the city centre, and within walking distance of good restaurants?”
• “Where should I stay in Sydney with kids if I want to be close to a ferry terminal, have family-friendly amenities, and easy access to attractions like Taronga Zoo?”
• “Book me a spa hotel in Bali for next weekend that has an ocean view, includes breakfast, and offers late check-out?”

Notice the difference? These aren’t just search queries. They’re decisions wrapped in questions. AI engines don’t send people to a list of ten blue links. They give an answer.

That’s why this shift matters: if your hotel isn’t part of that answer, you’re out of the running before a traveller ever hits your website.

Let’s look at numbers for a moment.

• ChatGPT has already crossed 100 million weekly active users.
• 48% of travellers would trust AI tools to help them research and plan trips.
• ChatGPT’s visits have nearly doubled, from 3.5 billion to 6.8 billion.
• Nearly 1 in 5 are open to letting AI complete a booking on their behalf.

That’s extraordinary. In less than two years, a tool once seen as experimental has become a trusted advisor for millions.

Google still dominates search. But ChatGPT is gaining traction fast because it’s frictionless: no endless tabs, no pop-ups, no juggling OTAs. Just a straight answer, when set up right, a completed booking.

Here’s where it gets interesting. ChatGPT isn’t just another traffic channel—it’s a conversion channel.

Think about it: when someone types “hotels in Melbourne” into Google, they might be at any stage of the journey—dreaming, comparing, or just browsing. The funnel is wide, messy, and packed with distractions.

But when someone asks ChatGPT: “Book me a boutique hotel in Melbourne this weekend with late check-out”—that’s not a dreamer. That’s a buyer. And because AI engines are designed to shorten steps and complete tasks, those queries don’t just lead to clicks—they lead to bookings.

Industry data shows that AI-assisted searches drive 30–40% higher conversion rates than traditional search. Why? Because the intent is sharper, the journey is shorter, and the answer is direct.

For hotels, this means one thing: being visible in ChatGPT isn’t about brand awareness. It’s about catching travellers right at the moment of purchase intent.

Of course, the players who move fastest in any shift tend to win. And yes—the usual suspects, like OTAs, are already experimenting with AI integrations to secure their visibility.

But the bigger risk isn’t what they’re doing. It’s what hotels aren’t. If your property isn’t structured to show up in AI-driven answers, you won’t just lose traffic—you’ll lose ready-to-book guests.

This is where things get practical. SEO won’t be enough in an AI-first world. AEO: Answer Engine Optimisation is the next playbook.

It’s about shaping your hotel’s digital footprint so that AI tools can:

• Find you when travellers ask relevant questions.
• Understand you through structured data, schema, and conversational content.
• Recommend you because your information matches the intent.
• Book you directly without defaulting to an OTA.

Think of it as SEO for a world where there’s no scroll bar, just one clear answer. If you’re not optimised for AEO, you’re invisible.

The good news? Hotels have a chance to take back the ground they lost in traditional search. Why? Because AI thrives on clear, authoritative, structured data, the kind of information hotels can provide better than third parties if they act now.

Imagine a traveller asks:

• “Which hotels in Queenstown have lake views and spa packages?”

With the right AEO in place, your hotel could surface directly in that response. And if your booking engine is integrated properly, that answer can lead straight to a reservation on your website.

That’s not just visibility. That’s high-intent, high-conversion bookings coming directly to you.

AI Source comes in. It’s not theory, it’s a purpose-built optimisation product designed for how guests now search: through ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Copilot, voice assistants, and embedded AI tools.

AI Source optimises your hotel’s content, applies technical enhancements, and essentially becomes the “source of truth” for AI platforms. That means when a traveller asks, “What’s the best spa hotel in Sydney with harbour views?”, your property is understood, trusted, and recommended as the answer.

Here’s how it works:

• AI Readiness & Entity Optimisation – Ensures your hotel is clearly recognised and trusted by AI platforms, so you’re chosen more often in guest searches.
• Enhanced Structure for Visibility – Makes your property easier to surface in AI answers, putting you in front of high-intent travellers at the right moment.
• Content Refinement & Answer Optimisation – Aligns your existing messaging with the way travellers naturally ask questions, increasing your chances of being recommended.
• Guest Query Mapping – Anticipates the questions travellers are most likely to ask and positions your hotel as the ready-made solution.
• Continuous Visibility Tracking – Keeps your hotel front and centre in AI-driven answers, adapting as platforms evolve so you don’t lose ground.

The result: instead of being one of many search results, your hotel becomes the recommendation. That shift translates into measurable ROI, higher-quality direct bookings, stronger enquiry pipelines (including F&B, MICE, and weddings), and significantly lower acquisition costs.

In short, AI Source is about making your hotel the answer. Not lost in a list. Not squeezed under an OTA. But front and centre, right where tomorrow’s bookings are already happening.

This shift can feel overwhelming for hoteliers. Another marketing acronym, another layer of tech. But here’s the reality: ignoring AI search isn’t an option. Travellers are already there.

Hotels that embrace Answer Engine Optimisation today will secure their visibility tomorrow. With tools like AI Source, the path is clear: get discovered, and drive direct bookings in the AI era.

Your guests are already asking AI where to stay. The only question left is whether your hotel will be the answer.