01/10/2026
AI was a big topic at NoVacancy this year, and across several sessions the same themes kept coming through.
The biggest one: AI discovery is already changing how travellers find and evaluate hotels.
Key behaviour change: 1 in 5 Australians now choosing AI first when planning a trip.
The proof: One regional hotel shared that 25% of surveyed guests had used AI to find them.
That’s a massive shift in just 3 months.
It strongly reinforced what we are already seeing and talking to clients about as AI Visibility.
For us, AI Visibility is about whether your hotel can be found, understood, trusted and recommended when travellers use AI to research where to stay.
A few things reinforced that:
🎯 Be discoverable.
Test the questions real guests might ask ChatGPT, Gemini or other AI tools. Does your hotel appear? How is it described? Who gets recommended instead?
💡 Be understood.
Clear website structure, headings, FAQs, destination content and structured information all help AI understand what your property is, who it is for and why it is relevant.
🤝 Be trusted.
Your own website is only part of the picture. Reviews, OTAs and other third party sources all contribute to how your property is understood and whether it is recommended.
📅 Be bookable.
Rates, availability, policies and the path to booking still need to be clear once someone discovers you.
📊 Be measurable.
Website traffic alone may become a less complete measure as more research happens inside AI platforms. Organic traffic may fall, while the people who do reach your site could arrive further through the decision process and potentially convert at a higher rate.
There was also a good reminder not to lose sight of the basics:
You can’t “GEO your way out of a messy house”.
A technically strong website, clear positioning, useful content, strong trust signals and an easy booking experience are still the foundations. AI Visibility is not a separate marketing channel sitting off to the side. It builds on those fundamentals.
And perhaps my favourite broader point from the day:
Build a brand worth recommending.
Whether the recommendation comes from a friend, Google or an AI assistant, that still feels like the goal.
We’ve pulled a lot of what we’re seeing into our AI Visibility Guide for Hotels here:
https://go.dmhotelmarketing.com/download-ai-visibility-guide
Need some help auditing your hotel’s visibility? Drop me a message.
