How to Win the Full AI Guest Journey

A traveler asks ChatGPT where to stay in Lisbon with their family in August. A handful of hotels come back, each with a short explanation of why it fits. Your property is either in that answer or it isn’t, and half of the hoteliers in the live poll during our recent webinar weren’t sure which applied to their own properties. When it is mentioned, the traveler lands on your website with a clear picture of what they want and very little patience for a generic homepage.

That two-part challenge, getting recommended and then converting the visit, was the starting point for our webinar, “From ChatGPT to direct bookings: optimizing the full AI guest journey.” Our Market Manager for the UK and Ireland, Ellie Claessens, sat down with Nicolas Sitter (Head of AI Labs) and Michaela Kopna (Solutions Engineer) to unpack what the data says about AI discovery, what Lighthouse is doing about it and what hoteliers can do right now to turn AI traffic into direct bookings.

Key takeaways

• AI shows travelers just three to five hotels per prompt, and AI traffic to hotel websites grew more than 100% in three months.

• Travelers who prompt ChatGPT about your hotel are more than twice as likely to visit your website within seven days.

• In our live poll, 50.4% of hoteliers weren’t sure whether AI recommends their hotel and only 7.1% actively track it.

• Only about 30% of AI recommendations overlap with Google’s top ten, so a strong Google ranking doesn’t guarantee a place in AI answers.

AI search is a discovery battleground

For two decades, travelers searched, filtered and compared. Online travel agencies (OTAs) owned much of that journey through paid search, search engine optimization (SEO) and listings. AI search now runs alongside it, and it works differently in three ways.

• Fewer options, chosen for the traveler: AI gives a short list instead of a page of links

• Conversational prompts, personalized answers: people talk to AI the way they would to a well-traveled friend, so every answer is tailored

• A different set of winners: Nicolas shared that only about 30% of AI recommendations overlap with Google’s top ten for a destination, so strong SEO alone doesn’t guarantee a place in the answer

Here is the part that matters most for marketing teams. AI draws on OTA content for information, but it massively redirects travelers to hotel websites. The click goes to your website, and the opportunity to own it is open.

“AI chooses for you and shows you on average three to five hotels that fit your prompt.”Nicolas Sitter, Head of AI LabsThe numbers behind AI search

Nearly one billion people prompt ChatGPT weekly and Gemini monthly, and nearly half of travelers used AI tools to plan trips over the last year. Lighthouse monitors thousands of hotels daily, and across that network AI traffic grew by more than 100% in the three months leading up to the webinar. ChatGPT drives roughly 60% of it, with Gemini and Claude closing in.

Two findings stood out for anyone measuring marketing impact:

• The snowball effect: travelers who prompt ChatGPT about your hotel are more than twice as likely to visit your website within seven days, and Similarweb research shows 56% of AI-influenced traffic arrives through search, where travelers type your hotel name, check reviews, compare prices and look at OTAs before booking on your site

• AI visitors arrive with intent: they have already asked questions and narrowed their choices, so they are more engaged than visitors from organic search

The takeaway: a mention in an AI chat that doesn’t produce an immediate click can still produce a booking. Your branded search presence and your direct rate both carry that influence home.

Step one: get discovered and linked

When Michaela polled attendees live on whether they know if AI platforms recommend their hotel, 50.4% said they were not really sure or had no idea, and only 7.1% actively track it. That matches what we see across the market: most hotels are not yet measuring their AI visibility. Research shows up to 84% of hotels don’t appear in AI recommendations at all, which leaves a clear opening for the hotels that act. If the SEO era taught hoteliers anything, it’s that the gap widens between the hotels that act early and those that wait.

Michaela outlined three steps:

1. Optimize for AI discovery: schema markup and structured content let AI assistants understand your hotel rather than guess at room counts, amenities and star rating

2. Make sure AI can link to your website: keep your information current and consistent everywhere and expose live rates and booking links, so AI treats your website as the primary source instead of an OTA

3. Monitor and benchmark: track your ranking, mention rate and position against competitors across AI platforms, because models recrawl constantly and this is a living process rather than a one-time audit

Connect AI covers all three, including premium placement in The Hotels Network app, the direct booking app in ChatGPT, with live rates and a direct booking link. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) setup handles the content and technical work so AI agents describe your hotel accurately. AI Visibility Insights tracks your mention rate in organic AI conversations and benchmarks you against competitors. Hotels using Connect AI see 21% more AI traffic than those without it.

Inside AI Visibility InsightsVisibility

Two headline metrics: mention rate (how often you are recommended) and average position (where you rank when you appear). If you are mentioned but sit low, that is usually a GEO and schema issue. AI models prioritize data they can verify instantly, so room counts, star ratings and availability should leave no room for ambiguity.

You can also break mention rate down by location, persona and unique selling point (USP) to see which traveler types and attributes AI associates with your property. To strengthen a USP, add structured, brand-verified copy to your website and build FAQ sections written for conversational queries. AI platforms pull directly from those question-and-answer formats.

Competition

This view shows which competitors AI recommends alongside or ahead of you across ChatGPT, Gemini and combined. If one consistently outranks you, study how their website is structured, which pages they have and which questions they answer. Then make sure your content and schema reflect your own advantages, including the perks that come with booking direct.

Sources

Sources covers your entire competitive set, so you can see who shapes AI’s view of hotels in your market. You can filter by source type (OTAs, hotel websites, travel media, blogs) and drill into exact domains and pages. If AI leans heavily on OTA pages or review sites, that is where your profiles need to be accurate and complete. It is also where digital PR earns its keep, getting your website and brand into the mix.

“Without this data, you are blind on what to optimize and where to start.”Michaela Kopna, Solutions EngineerStep two: convert AI traffic with Lighthouse Direct

AI chats personalize their answers based on what the traveler says, and travelers carry that expectation to your website. A one-size-fits-all website wastes the moment you worked to earn.

Ellie showed how personalization narrows with each signal. You start with a generic visitor. Then the search shows two adults and two children, with search dates in August. Within moments you know you have a family planning a summer vacation, and the imagery, offer, message and room type you highlight should all reflect that.

A personalized welcome message that echoes what the traveler asked in ChatGPT, whether that’s a family stay or a couples’ getaway, connects the AI conversation to your website. From there, Ellie framed the journey around the three questions every guest asks.

Is this the right hotel for me?

You have a few seconds to confirm it. Reviews Summary pulls scores from the OTAs, shows where you rank in your location and surfaces full-text reviews. Segment it by traveler type, so families see why families love your property and couples see why couples do.

Is this the best offer for me?

In the booking engine, Inliners sit natively in your content and show the offer that fits the search, such as a package for two adults and no children. This is also where guests compare prices. AI chats often surface price comparisons unprompted, even noting when an OTA is cheaper, which sends travelers off to check.

Price matching closes that gap automatically. It monitors your rates against OTAs and metasearch platforms in real time, and the moment it detects a disparity, the guest in your booking engine receives the discount that closes it. You choose which OTAs to match, the discount level for each disparity threshold and how to monitor the impact on conversion. No intervention or guest communication is required.

What else can I do here?

After the booking comes ancillary revenue. Ellie shared a client with a spa that highlights treatments as the guest completes the booking, with a “View treatments menu” call to action that opens in a new tab so guests can start looking forward to their stay.

“A family-friendly offer shown to a business traveler is completely wasted.”Ellie Claessens, Market ManagerShow the right offer to the right visitor

Not every visitor needs a discount. Some have decided and only want reassurance. Blanket discounts give margin away to those guests.

Lighthouse Direct’s predictive AI targeting segments traffic by intent to book. In the example Ellie shared, a 10% discount appears only to low-intent visitors, the 15% of traffic that needs an incentive. The other 85% never sees it, so you protect margin and focus on upselling high-intent guests to suites, higher room categories and the spa. The result is higher conversion from low-intent traffic and higher revenue from high-intent traffic, without the guesswork.

Speed matters too. Travelers who plan with AI are used to asking a question and getting an answer immediately. Most guests leave a hotel website if they can’t find the information they need, and a contact email address isn’t fast enough. An AI-powered web chat answers granular questions in real time at the point of decision, which helps secure the direct booking.

The hotels that start now take the lead

AI is already part of how travelers plan, and your hotel already has a rank. Most hotels still aren’t tracking theirs, so the ones that start now build a lead that others will have to work to close. Find out where your hotel stands, give AI accurate and structured information, and make sure the traffic it sends lands on a website built to convert it.

Watch the full webinar.

Winning the full AI guest journey – FAQHow do hotels get recommended by ChatGPT and other AI assistants?

By giving AI accurate, structured information it can verify instantly. That means schema markup, consistent information everywhere and live rates and booking links AI can point to. Ongoing monitoring keeps it current.

How can I find out if my hotel appears in AI recommendations?

AI Visibility Insights shows how often ChatGPT and Gemini recommend your hotel (mention rate) and where you rank (average position). It also benchmarks you against competitors and shows which sources AI relies on in your market.

Why is my AI ranking different from my Google ranking?

Only about 30% of AI recommendations overlap with Google’s top ten for a destination. AI answers conversational prompts with a short list of hotels, so strong search engine optimization helps but doesn’t guarantee a place in the answer.

How do I turn AI traffic into direct bookings?

Personalize the website experience at every stage of the journey. Reviews Summary builds confidence, Inliners and Price Match show the best offer and predictive AI targeting limits discounts to visitors who need one.

Paige Lopez

Paige is a content marketer with a passion for storytelling and helping hotel brands grow their direct channel. With a background in hospitality marketing, she explores how personalized messaging, guest-centric content, and AI-driven tools can boost direct bookings by optimizing every stage of the user journey.

About Lighthouse

Lighthouse (formerly OTA Insight) is the leading commercial platform for the travel & hospitality industry. We transform complexity into confidence by providing actionable market insights, business intelligence, and pricing tools that maximize revenue growth. We continually innovate to deliver the best platform for hospitality professionals to price more effectively, measure performance more efficiently, and understand the market in new ways.

Trusted by over 65,000 hotels in 185 countries, Lighthouse is the only solution that provides real-time hotel and short-term rental data in a single platform. We strive to deliver the best possible experience with unmatched customer service. We consider our clients as true partners – their success is our success.

Source: View the original article at Lighthouse.