Travel companies’ ability to gain visibility in the travel discovery process has become more challenging as users across the globe move from traditional search tools like Google to artificial intelligence (AI)-powered search.
Hospitality software platform Cloudbeds is seeking to bring transparency to the process through research revealing how hotels show up on large language models (LLMs).
Adam Harris, co-founder and CEO of Cloudbeds, likened the situation to the early days of the internet when companies were trying to figure out search engine optimization (SEO).
In “The Signals Behind Hotel AI Recommendations” report, the company chose 145 upscale hotels in different markets around the world and used variable searches and phrases to uncover patterns around why they appear in AI search.
Cloudbeds chose properties that were already showing up in traditional Google results and maintaining a strong presence on online travel platforms such as Tripadvisor, Expedia and Booking.com.
“We had to think through what are consumers doing and try to get the machine to start talking to the machine in a format that would reveal maybe some consistency,” Harris said. “If there’s one thing we all need to be very clear on, it’s that even the researchers at OpenAI don’t understand why one specific answer is coming back.”
