At London’s newest hospitality trade show, No Vacancy, held at Excel this week, one message cut through the noise: online search is no longer about being found, it is about being recommended.
In a recent article published by SKIFT, the sentiment was the same: the influence mix and the way people search for travel information and inspiration have changed. Generative AI searches are leading the way, and as one person aptly summarised: “AI doesn’t read your ads. It reads your reputation.”
Generative AI is now responsible for up to half of travel discovery, shifting the game away from brands’ own websites and direct advertising. The large language models hold actual conversations. They scour reviews, editorial, social content and listicles as well as brand messaging to deliver curated answers to specific demands. In essence, your hotel is no longer just what your website says it is. You now increasingly need to make sure the whole ecosystem agrees.
Tackling the ‘Sea of Sameness’
Newton Fernandes of Multi Hospitality made a bold statement: Hospitality is drowning in homogenised language. In a short poll, the word ‘authentic’ won by a landslide as the most overused word in hotel marketing in 2026. Closely followed by ‘unique’, ‘curated’, ‘luxury’, ‘elevated’ and ‘hidden gem’.
There are over 1200 hotel brands now operating globally. Yet scroll through the messaging of many websites, and the language used makes them blur into one.
Cost pressures have pushed marketing towards risk aversion, with GMs and owners focusing on ROI and short term KPIs at the expense of differentiation. Standardised messaging feels safer, and product-led selling is easier to justify than storytelling.
AI and large language models don’t work well with standardised language. If your content sounds like everyone else’s, AI will categorise you like everyone else. Good service, great rooms and mouthwatering food are just not enough as a proposition.
Fernandes’ solution: The Golden Thread! The hotels that win the searches will no longer be the loudest or those with the biggest ad spend. They’ll be the clearest, the ones who have found a distinctive truth, their ‘why’, that runs through marketing, operations and experience.
Or as he put it: If your hotel were an animal, what would it be? If your brand truth can’t be expressed in a sentence, AI certainly won’t articulate it for you.
GEO is the new SEO
Marketing professionals on another panel discussed the move from SEO to GEO as a strategy to win the generative search game. Sam Weston, Head of AI and Marketing at 80 Days, reiterated that GEO is not guaranteed; it is earned. “Strategic PR is growing in importance. Credibility is key – and all activity needs to reinforce your brand message.”
Generative engines reward clarity, structure and credibility. Ensure the content on your website is optimised with FAQ-rich pages – one panellist mentioned they were introducing FAQs on every page to ensure they really answered every question possible.
Consistent review responses, strong third-party PR and user generated content can all help tell your story. A distinctive proposition tied to real experiences and real stories ensures your hotel is the best answer to a specific question.
The real takeaway is that PR is back – with purpose. It’s not about column inches, but about shaping narrative so that AI can draw from credible sources that tell the same story as your website and marketing materials. It is all about positioning.
Earned media, reviews and influencer content directly influence discoverability for a continuous, aligned and real story. And PR works best when it promotes specific, bookable reasons to stay. Seasonal hooks, event led stories and neighbourhood angles create awareness with immediate, tangible rewards, selling experiences, not just rooms. If your messaging aligns with niche interests, be that sustainability, design or sports fans during the World Cup, your hotel becomes the obvious answer to specific prompts.
PR shouldn’t just say ‘this hotel exists’ — it should say ‘this is why you should book directly, right now.’
The next move
It is a fact that AI is changing how we approach communication – and how we are influenced. So, what can hotels do right now to be a player in this new playpen?
- Map your brand from a GEO perspective – ensure your website is GEO optimised, not just SEO optimised
- Keep content current – including websites, social media, listings
- Audit your FAQs and add them to relevant pages
- Ensure photo and video galleries are descriptive and aligned with positioning
- Train teams to respond to reviews with keyword-rich clarity
- Invest in positioning and PR that shapes narrative, not just awareness
- Collaborate with influencers, content creators and media to generate credible third-party storytelling
- Test prompts and evaluate how AI describes you
- Most importantly: Define your Golden Thread!
In the age of generative AI, discoverability is based on narrative, and clarity is key. You need to be clear about who you are, why you exist, and who your audiences are, and invest in what makes you distinctive. You are competing with an algorithm – and if you play the game, it may just recommend you.
Or as Fernandes put it: “We need to be exactly like nothing else.”
