How your property can show up in GEN AI search results

GEN AI search, built using LLMs or large language models, are quickly becoming the new front door for travel discovery. Instead of scrolling through ten pages of links, guests are now asking GEN AI-powered search engines for personal recommendations, trip plans, and the best properties for specific needs. That shift creates both opportunity and risk for hotels and resorts. Visibility depends on clear signals, structured data, and a strong foundation that AI tools can understand.

Here is how properties can strengthen their presence across GEN AI ecosystems and increase direct bookings in a landscape where AI is becoming a primary travel advisor.

1. Start with a healthy and accessible website

Your website is the foundation of your visibility. If AI agents cannot crawl or interpret it, they cannot recommend your property.

A strong foundation includes:

• Removing no follow directives that block AI crawlers.
  
• Fixing broken links and improving internal linking so content forms a clear hierarchy.
  
• Improving load speed, especially on mobile.
  

A clean, crawlable site gives LLM bots the clarity they need to understand what your property offers. This is the starting point for any hospitality marketing strategy and is still one of the most effective ways to increase direct bookings.

2. Use schema to structure your content

LLMs rely heavily on structured data markup to interpret information. Schema informs LLMs about details such as rooms, amenities, dining, FAQs, and more.

Key steps include:

• Adding schema markup to high-intent pages, including rooms, dining, amenities, FAQs, and local experiences.
  
• Ensure your hospitality marketing agency audits and maintains all structured data.
  

Schema markup isn’t new; it's been used to provide search engines with structured information. Schema markup’s importance is increased with LLMs and is often the single most impactful technical improvement for hotel metasearch visibility and LLM recommendations. It gives AI confidence in your content and increases the likelihood of appearing in results for hotels and resorts in your destination.

3. Local SEO (still) matters, and reviews carry more weight than ever

Because LLMs summarize information, they rarely list ten properties. They often recommend only one or two. Local SEO and reputation signals influence those recommendations. Our studies have found that Google gives preference to its own product information, notably Google Business Profile, but all GEN AI platforms we’ve studied surface information from these top listing sites.

Focus on:

• Keeping NAP details consistent across every platform.
  
• Investing in review generation and consistent review management.
  
• Responding to reviews with clarity and care.
  

Reviews act as trust signals in LLM ecosystems. Properties with strong sentiment, detailed feedback, and active engagement are more likely to be recommended organically.

4. Build FAQ content that mirrors LLM query patterns

LLMs are designed to answer questions. Your content should mirror that structure.

Ways to support AI understanding:

• Create a dedicated FAQ page.
  
• Add page-specific FAQs to rooms, amenities, dining, and attractions pages.
  
• Answer questions with simple, conversational phrasing.
  

Clear questions and clear answers allow AI systems to confidently incorporate your property in responses. This content also supports SEO and Google hotel ads placements.

5. Write in natural, conversational language

LLMs favor clarity and human wording over heavy marketing language. Content that sounds like a local guide performs better than content that reads like a brochure.

Enhance your content by:

• Using approachable phrasing.
  
• Incorporating question-based structures that align with real user queries.
  
• Adding semantic clarity, such as walking distances, landmarks, and context.
  

This approach supports organic visibility, metasearch clarity, and the guest experience.

6. Prioritize on-page SEO and content depth

Content remains a core signal for both search engines and AI tools. Depth matters more than volume.

Strengthen your foundation with:

• Clear titles and headers.
  
• Organized page structure and scannable formatting.
  
• Regular blog content that explains experiences, itineraries, or local insights.
  

Even if guests never read your blog, it fuels LLMs with the context they need to understand your property. This supports direct booking growth and enhances your digital marketing footprint.

7. Create unique destination itineraries

LLMs often generate complete trip plans. Properties that supply detailed itineraries are more likely to be included in those recommendations as cited sources.

Build 3, 5, and 7-day itineraries that cover themes such as culinary experiences, culture, outdoors, family travel, or romance. Include your property naturally within the flow of the trip. These pages do not need to drive organic traffic. They exist to train AI models on your destination expertise.

8. Use video to strengthen multimodal signals

Modern LLMs process both text and visual content. Video offers rich context that AI tools use to understand what makes your property unique.

Support AI visibility by:

• Uploading and optimizing videos on YouTube. (YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine and a favorite training source for LLMs)
  
• Including clear titles, strong descriptions, and schema markup.
  
• Repurposing video clips within blogs and FAQs.
  

Video is a high-value signal source for hotel metasearch, AI recommendations, and overall hospitality marketing.

9. Participate in Reddit and social channels with purpose

Organic website content is not enough. AI tools pull signals from social channels, forums, and structured conversations across the web.

Contribute thoughtful content such as:

• Q&A-style posts that answer common traveler questions.
  
• Carousel-style explainers with practical tips.
  
• Long form posts that link to structured, schema-rich pages.
  

Social engagement becomes another data source that validates your expertise.

10. Prepare for GEN AI platform advertising

GEN AI native platform advertising will rapidly reshape how guests discover hotels and resorts. Google is already commercializing AI results, and ChatGPT is expected to introduce paid placements in the next two years.

Properties with strong structured content, consistent signals, and clear data will be positioned to benefit from early adoption. This shift parallels the early days of hotel metasearch, when proactive brands gained an advantage that compounds over time.

11. Protect against OTA disintermediation

As LLMs begin offering direct booking experiences, they prefer real-time structured feeds, notably MCPs. If a hotel does not provide one, the system defaults to OTA inventory.

OTAs are already integrating with major AI platforms, and that means third parties may receive the booking opportunity before the property does. This dynamic mirrors early metasearch displacement, where a lack of structured data gave OTAs an advantage.

12. Use direct MCP feeds to reclaim visibility

Hotels can now surface their own inventory directly in LLM search results. This returns power to the property and restores opportunities to increase direct bookings.

GCommerce’s emerging MCP connectivity provides:

• Real-time rates and availability.
  
• Direct booking links.
  
• Structured data that positions properties ahead of OTAs in AI-generated results.
  

If you are ready to strengthen your presence in LLM search results and position your property for the next era of discovery, our team can help. GCommerce builds the data foundation, structured content, and API connectivity that hotels and resorts need to increase direct bookings and stay visible in an AI-driven landscape.

Contact GCommerce to start the conversation and learn how your property can lead in the new world of LLM-powered travel.