Hotel Industry Grapples with AI Search Visibility Challenges

Have you often used AI to help choose a hotel? This emerging trend is forcing hotel operators to rethink their strategies. This is because they must ensure their hotels feature in AI recommendations for potential guests. However, AI platforms use different models from traditional search engines like Google.

‘We are in the midst of a major shift: last year, 35% of France’s population used AI to search for hotels, cafes, or restaurants,’ said Custplace founder Nicolas Marette, cited by AFP on Sunday (24 May 2026).

Custplace is a French company that helps other businesses optimise their digital presence.

According to a Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study, around 37% of travellers are already using AI-powered online platforms to plan and book trips.

‘What a hotel needs to do to rank well on a search engine differs from what is required to rank highly on AI,’ said Johanna Benesty of BCG.

Moreover, Benesty added that not all AI platforms operate in the same way.

French hotel group Accor is also grappling with these challenges. Accor’s Head of Data Science and AI, Nicolas Maynard, shared his experiences at a recent industry conference.

‘We’ve been trying for a year to understand how to become more relevant… and more visible,’ said Maynard.

The biggest challenge in AI search is the drastically reduced number of options. According to Maynard, when travellers search on Google, they receive around 50 results. However, asking ChatGPT yields only five recommendations. This makes competing for top positions critical, as hotels must be understood by AI to feature in such a shortlist.