In short: Stephanie Smith advises hospitality professionals to prioritize core digital foundations like website optimization and data hygiene before driving artificial intelligence initiatives to ensure effective technology integration and maximize operational benefits.
Stephanie Smith recently joined Revenue Hub’s AI Reality Check series to discuss how AI is impacting digital marketing for hotels and how hotels can leverage it effectively, especially if their digital performance is not yet up to snuff.
key insights
Hotels want to know if their hotel will show up in AI tools like ChatGPT, but it’s important to remember that assessing the presence of AI requires testing prompts and understanding the conversational and nuanced nature of LLM (Large Language Model) searches that are different from traditional keyword Google searches. AI results can vary widely for the same query, making measurement complex, but the queries are rarely the same.
Fundamentals of hotel digital marketing are key
Good website content, good schema, and reliable and accurate information are essential before taking any AI-specific efforts. That’s why we always emphasize that Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is not only built on traditional SEO, but also aligned with how AI interprets content. LLM prioritizes social content and citations differently than Google, which focuses on backlinks.
Four common gaps in hotels
Many hotels lack basic digital elements such as:
- High-quality website content: However, be careful not to create content for content’s sake. Make sure your content is relevant not only to your LLM, but also to your target buyers and segments.
- recent positive reviews: Reviews influence the AI’s “memory” of hotels, and old negative reviews still influence perception.
- Active involvement in social media: LLM ensures that social media, including influencers, is learned and indexed.
- Precise third party presence: AI amplifies inaccuracies with outdated information spread across multiple platforms.
Content focused on people
Persona-driven content aligns with AI’s expert recommendations, so hotels should create content that targets specific traveler personas (business travelers, families, pet owners) rather than broad segments. Additionally, evergreen content such as targeted press releases can help train AI tools on your hotel services.
backlinks and citations
Just creating content on your website is not enough. Just because you put more content on the site doesn’t mean LLM will cite that content. Backlinks and citations are still required to verify that a site is a reliable source of information.
AI visibility and distribution
At this point, hotel discoverability is more important than real-time distribution integration. Connecting ARI through apps on platforms like ChatGPT is currently nuanced and has limited impact on distribution, so a strong brand presence and fundamental marketing remain important.
The changing customer journey
Travelers research extensively through AI but still often return to Google for bookings, and with branded searches on the rise, the dynamics of search are changing as AI tools now handle much of the discovery and shortlisting. LLM still has a lot of zero clicks (like Google), so GA4 can’t capture all the data.
Tracking changes in GA4
Google Analytics recently changed the way it measures LLM traffic, but it now has revenue associated with it. Check out our complete GA4 blog on hotels.
Advice for hotel marketers
- Don’t expect immediate measurable ROI from your AI marketing efforts.
- Avoid over-reliance on metasearch ads due to ROAS misperceptions and consider testing ChatGPT ads.
- Don’t assume that AI connectivity tools through MCP will improve your visibility or discoverability.
Stephanie Smith is CEO and Digital Matriarch of Cogwheel Marketing & Analytics and a member of the HSMAI Marketing Advisory Board. Connect with Stephanie on LinkedIn.
sauce: The original article can be found at Cogwheel Marketing.
