By Tony Loeb, cofounder of 10 minutes hotels
Fifteen years ago, hoteliers didn’t see OTAs coming. Not because they were naive, but because the shift was gradual. By the time the warning signs were obvious, a big chunk of control was already gone.
Something similar is unfolding right now. But this time, it’s not about distribution. It’s about how your hotel is described, understood and recommended by artificial intelligence.
To dig into this, I recently sat down on the 10 minutes hotels podcast with Nicki Graham, Chief Marketing Officer at Cendyn, and Apollos Gause, the company’s Senior Manager of Content and SEO. What they shared should give pause to any hotelier who still sees AI as tomorrow’s problem
The question most hoteliers are asking is the wrong one
The first thing most hoteliers want to know about AI is simple: does my hotel show up? That’s understandable, but it misses the point.
As Nicki frames it, the real issue isn’t losing bookings. It’s losing control of your brand identity. What is AI actually saying about your hotel to thousands of travelers, every single day, without you ever knowing?
When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude for the best boutique hotel in Barcelona, they don’t get a list of links. They get an answer. AI pulls from your website, your OTA profiles, your reviews, articles that mention you. It looks for patterns: what keeps coming up? What’s consistent? What seems credible? From all of that, it pieces together an identity for your property, and that’s the identity it recommends.
As Apollos puts it: hotels don’t control what AI says about them. They control the data AI learns from. That’s an entirely different ballgame.
“Luxury” means nothing to a machine
The most widespread problem on hotel websites is one that’s easy to overlook: the language is too vague.
Words like “luxury,” “boutique,” or “unique” connect with human readers. They evoke something. But to an AI system, they’re unverifiable: there’s nothing to cross-reference or confirm. AI looks for specific, concrete, repeatable information across multiple sources. A “waterfront hotel with a private marina” gives AI something to work with. A “unique hotel by the sea” gives it nothing. As Apollos puts it: generic language produces a generic brand in the eyes of AI.
Nicki identifies another gap she sees consistently on hotel websites: the absence of proof. It’s easy to claim “our gardens are stunning” or “our pool is one of a kind.” Proving it is another matter. Guest reviews, press coverage, third-party mentions, real stay experiences: that’s exactly what AI is scanning for when it builds its picture of your property.
This goes beyond SEO. It’s about GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), the discipline of making sure AI correctly understands and recommends your hotel. And at its core, it’s really just a return to solid brand marketing.
What hotels that are pulling ahead are doing differently
The hotels that are getting ahead of this shift share a common approach: they’re taking back ownership of their brand narrative, everywhere it appears online.
That starts with honest self-reflection. Who are you, really? Who are you trying to attract? What genuinely sets you apart? These aren’t questions for an internal strategy doc. They need to be answered consistently across every place your hotel exists on the internet.
Which brings up consistency. Your website, OTA listings, review responses, press releases, FAQ pages, and your structured data (the Schema markup, the technical layer that’s invisible to visitors but that AI reads closely to understand and categorize your property). All of it needs to tell the same story. AI cross-checks sources constantly. Any inconsistency creates ambiguity, and ambiguity works against you. As Nicki puts it: get the story right once, then hold the line across every platform.
One more thing worth flagging: Nicki has noticed PR making a real comeback. Coverage in third-party media, articles that flesh out your property’s story. This kind of external validation carries real weight with AI.
What you can do starting today
Apollos offers a first step that requires no tools and no budget:
- Open ChatGPT or Gemini
- Search your hotel by name, then try queries like “best hotels in [your city]”
- See how you’re described, or whether you show up at all
If the picture is wrong, incomplete or missing, you have your starting point. Work through your homepage, your rooms page, your FAQ. Replace claims with proof. Make sure your schema markup lines up with what’s actually on your pages. Then check again in a month. Like SEO, this is a long game, but it starts with knowing where you stand.
The bottom line
The risk isn’t disappearing from search results. The risk is that AI builds a version of your hotel that doesn’t reflect reality, and that travelers make decisions based on it.
In the full episode, Nicki and Apollos break down what owning your brand narrative actually looks like in practice, how SEO and GEO work together, and why consistency has become the single most critical factor in how AI sees your property. They also get into the specific actions you can take right now to regain control of your hotel’s AI presence, and avoid repeating the mistake so many made when OTAs came along.
If you still think this is something to deal with later, this episode might change your mind.
Watch the podcast on 10 minutes hotels
