Travelers increasingly start trip planning by asking so-called Answer Engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity for hotel recommendations, not by paging through search results. These systems synthesize hotel websites, OTA listings, and—critically—public guest reviews to return a short list of options tailored to a traveler’s exact preferences. For hotels, that means fewer chances to be seen and higher rewards for those that are. This paper explains how answer engines select hotels and what to do about it: align hard facts everywhere Answer Engines look, deliberately cultivate “soft facts” in reviews (e.g., quiet rooms, vegan breakfast), and structure your site content for conversational queries. Do this well and you’ll increase inclusion in AI answers and capture more direct bookings while reducing OTA dependency.

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