Ask a Chatbot for a Hotel and the Hotel Barely Gets Mentioned

A study by hotel software company Cloudbeds suggests that when travellers ask AI tools to recommend hotels, the answers lean heavily on third-party booking sites rather than on the hotels themselves. The research, discussed in an October 16 column by consultant Michael Goldrich of Vivander Advisors, examined AI responses covering 145 hotels in six destinations.

The headline numbers are lopsided. Online travel agencies accounted for 55.3 percent of the sources the AI responses cited, while hotels’ own websites made up just 13.6 percent. In other words, a traveller who relies on a chatbot’s summary is far more likely to be pointed toward an intermediary’s listing than toward the property’s own page.

That matters commercially. Hotels have spent years trying to shift guests toward direct bookings to avoid commission fees, and a growing share of trip research now begins in conversational tools rather than in search engines or on booking platforms. If chatbots keep favouring the big agencies, direct channels could lose visibility before travellers ever reach a hotel’s site.

The study covers a limited sample, and AI tools change quickly, so the percentages should be read as a snapshot rather than a fixed rule. For travellers, the practical takeaway is modest but useful: after getting a recommendation from a chatbot, check the hotel’s own website for rates and cancellation terms before booking elsewhere.

Sources: eTurboNews