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How hotels, B&Bs and holiday lets get recommended by AI assistants

Updated · 9 min read · By the SearchCrow team

AI assistants recommend places to stay when they can read the specifics guests filter on: how many it sleeps, pets, parking, accessibility, what's within walking distance, price and what previous guests said. Write those facts in plain text on your own website, keep your Google listing and any Booking.com or Airbnb profiles consistent with it, and collect reviews from every guest. Independent properties can compete here because the questions are so specific.

Key takeaways

  • Guests ask AI about a trip, not a property type: "dog-friendly cottage with a hot tub near Whitby for four".
  • Your own website should state every filterable fact in text, so you are not relying only on online travel agency (OTA) listings.
  • Booking.com and Airbnb only take reviews linked to real bookings, and that's what makes them credible.
  • Google offers free booking links that send guests to your own booking page, often set up through your channel manager.
  • In Scotland your short-term let licence number must appear on listings. England's registration scheme is expected from March 2027.

What do guests ask AI when they're looking for somewhere to stay?

They describe the trip: who's coming, what they need and where they want to be. The prompts below are illustrative examples of the kinds of questions guests ask, not measured search volumes.

IntentExample prompts (illustrative)
Urgent"B&B with a room free tonight near Inverness", "hotel near Birmingham Airport with late check-in"
Comparison"Small boutique hotel or self-catering cottage for a family of five in the Lake District?"
Local"Dog-friendly cottage with an enclosed garden near Whitby", "B&B with parking walking distance to York Minster"
Price"Holiday let in Cornwall under £150 a night that sleeps six", "cheapest family room in Edinburgh during the Fringe"
Trust"Is [property name] as good as its photos?", "accessible hotel with a roll-in shower in Bath"

Where does AI get its answers about places to stay?

From the pages travellers can see: your website, your Google listing, OTAs, review sites, tourism quality schemes and travel writing. Google says its AI Overviews and AI Mode use pages that are indexed and eligible for a snippet, with no extra requirements (Google Search Central, 2025).

SourceWhat it isWhy it matters for accommodation
Your websiteRooms, rates, policies, locationThe only place you control every word, and the page free booking links can send guests to.
Google Business Profile and Google HotelsListing on Search and Maps, plus hotel pricesGoogle says complete, accurate information and more reviews help local ranking (Google Business Profile Help, n.d.). Free booking links cost nothing (Google Hotel Center Help, n.d.).
Booking.comOTA for hotels, B&Bs and rentals"The only way to leave a review is to first make a booking" (Booking.com, n.d.).
AirbnbHoliday let and room platformGuests and hosts review each other within 14 days of checkout. Reservations cancelled before check-in can't be reviewed (Airbnb, n.d.).
TripadvisorReview site for hotels, B&Bs and rentalsLets owners invite reviews but bans offering incentives for them; read its review guidelines before running a campaign.
VisitEngland / AA quality schemesIndependent quality assessmentB&Bs can hold a 3 to 5 star rating (overnight mystery-guest visit), "Quality Assessed" (day visit) or entry-level "Visitor Ready" (VisitEngland Assessment Services, n.d.). The AA and VisitEngland introduced these joint standards in 2024 (The Caterer, 2024).
Local tourism sites and travel pressDestination guides and roundupsIndependent mentions of your property alongside a place name.

  1. Write a "facts" section for every room or unit, in text. Sleeps, bed configuration, bathroom type, floor level and stairs, step-free access, parking (on site, permit, distance), pets (which rooms, any charge), check-in and check-out times, minimum stay, Wi-Fi, EV charging, breakfast. These are the filters guests type into AI. Put them on your own site first.

  2. Describe the location in walking minutes. "Eight minutes' walk to York Minster, 15 to the station" answers location prompts better than "in the heart of the city". Name the landmarks, trails, beaches or venues guests come for.

  3. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile. Use your real property name with no added keywords or places, choose the most specific category, and keep photos current (Google Business Profile Help, n.d.).

  4. Turn on Google's free booking links. Google says hotel partners pay no fee for free booking links. If you use a reservation system, your provider may already be connected to Google and "can set up your booking links for you". Otherwise start with Hotel Center (Google Hotel Center Help, n.d.). Holiday lets have a separate Google integration route.

  5. Make every OTA listing match your website. Same room names, same occupancy, same pet and parking rules, same photos. Conflicting facts across Booking.com, Airbnb and your site make you harder to describe accurately.

  6. Show your credentials and your compliance. If you hold a VisitEngland or AA rating, say which and when. If you use "hotel" in your name, VisitEngland's scheme says you must be assessed as a hotel (VisitEngland Assessment Services, n.d.). In Scotland, once you hold a short-term let licence, "you must include your licence number in adverts for the accommodation" (mygov.scot, n.d.). In England, a mandatory national registration scheme for short-term lets is expected to begin in March 2027, and holiday lets must follow the relevant fire safety guidance (GOV.UK, 2026).

  7. Add lodging structured data. Google recommends the most specific LocalBusiness type, with name, address, telephone, url and priceRange (Google Search Central, n.d.). Schema.org's LodgingBusiness types include Hotel, BedAndBreakfast, Hostel, Resort and VacationRental, with properties such as checkinTime, checkoutTime, petsAllowed, amenityFeature, numberOfRooms and starRating (an official rating, with the rating body as author) (Schema.org, n.d.). Google's separate vacation rental markup is only for sites already working with a Google Technical Account Manager (Google Search Central, n.d.), so most small owners should not use it. Google says its AI features need no special markup, and markup must match the page.

  8. Ask every guest for a review, the same way, with no incentive. Google prohibits incentives for reviews (Google Business Profile Help, n.d.) and bans asking only happy guests (Google, n.d.). Since April 2025, UK law bans fake reviews and reviews that conceal an incentive (CMA, 2025). A checkout email to every guest is fine. "10% off your next stay for a five-star review" is not. Reply to reviews, especially critical ones, with specifics.

Also ask your web developer to check that robots.txt and any firewall allow OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search (OpenAI, n.d.), PerplexityBot (Perplexity, n.d.) and Claude-SearchBot (Anthropic, n.d.).

Mistakes that keep hotels and B&Bs out of AI answers

  • Room details only inside the booking engine. If occupancy and amenities appear only after a guest picks dates, there's little on your own pages to quote.
  • "Pet friendly" with no detail. Guests ask which rooms, how many dogs and whether there's a charge. Say so.
  • Accessibility described as "accessible". Give step counts, door widths if you know them, and shower type.
  • OTA listings that drift from your site. One renovated room renamed on Booking.com but not on your site is enough to cause confusion.
  • A star rating claimed but not current. Only show a rating you hold now.
  • Missing Scottish licence numbers. That's a compliance problem as well as a missing trust signal.
  • Review incentives. A discount for a review is a legal risk in the UK and against Google's and other platforms' rules.

How do you check whether AI recommends your property?

Ask the assistants what your guests ask, and record the results monthly.

  1. Choose 10 prompts from the table, using your town, nearby landmarks and your best features (dogs, hot tub, parking, accessibility).
  2. Run each in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google (AI Overviews and AI Mode), Gemini, Claude and Copilot, in a logged-out or private window where possible.
  3. Note whether you're named, which properties are named instead, and whether answers send guests to your site or an OTA.
  4. Correct wrong facts at the source, starting with your own site and Google listing.
  5. In Google Search Console, AI feature traffic is included in the Performance report under the "Web" search type (Google Search Central, 2025).

SearchCrow runs these checks for you. It asks the main AI assistants the questions guests ask about places to stay in your area, shows whether your property is mentioned and which sources they rely on, and suggests what to fix first. It's built for independent hotels, B&Bs and holiday let owners.

FAQ

Why doesn't ChatGPT recommend my B&B or holiday cottage? Usually because the details guests ask about aren't stated anywhere it can read. Guests ask for "dog-friendly cottage with a log burner near the Peak District" or "B&B with parking walking distance to the Minster". If your own site doesn't say how many it sleeps, the pet policy, parking, accessibility and what's nearby in text, and your listings disagree with each other, a property that spells it out is easier to recommend.

Do I need to be on Booking.com or Airbnb to appear in AI answers? Nobody has documented that AI assistants favour any booking site. Online travel agencies are useful because they publish your property details and reviews from guests who booked, which makes those reviews harder to fake. Keep any listing you have consistent with your own website, and send guests to your own site where you can.

Does a VisitEngland or AA star rating help? No AI platform has said star ratings are a ranking factor. A rating is an independent, checkable fact about your quality, assessed by an overnight mystery-guest visit for star ratings. If you hold one, state it on your site and in your structured data using schema.org's starRating with the rating body as the author. Note that a property using "hotel" in its name must be assessed as a hotel.

Can I get free booking links on Google for a small hotel? Yes, possibly. Google says hotel partners pay no fee for free booking links, which can send travellers straight to your own booking page. If you use a reservation system or channel manager, it may already be connected to Google and can set the links up for you. Otherwise Google's Hotel Center has a starter guide.

Do I need to show a licence or registration number on listings? In Scotland, yes: once a short-term let is licensed, the licence number must be included in adverts and listings. In England, a mandatory national registration scheme for short-term lets is expected to begin in March 2027, according to GOV.UK guidance updated in October 2026. Check your local council for current rules wherever you operate.

Sources

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