Google changes the way it displays hotels in Europe, Expedia accelerates on AEO, and more and more planners are using artificial intelligence to choose facilities and venues. For hospitality, digital competition changes: it's no longer enough to rank on search engines, you have to be able to get into the responses and recommendations of AI platforms.
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Google, Expedia, and hotels are entering a new phase of digital tourism distribution.On one hand, the way search engines present hotel offerings is changing; on the other, the influence of artificial intelligence is rapidly growing in the discovery, comparison, and selection phase of hotels and destinations. For hospitality establishments, the issue is no longer only about ranking on Google: the new goal is to be found, understood, and especially recommended by AI systems as well.
Signals from the hospitality sector converge in the same direction. Expedia now considersAnswer Engine Optimization, AEO, its fastest-growing channel, while in the meetings and events segment an increasing share of planners use tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to identify venues for their shortlists. At the same time, data emerges showing how limited hotel presence still is in AI-generated responses.
Summary
Google changes hotel search in Europe
The change is not only due to artificial intelligence. The traditional model of hotel search on Google is also undergoing a transformation phase in Europe, where adjustments related to the Digital Markets Act are modifying some features dedicated to hotel search and comparison.
For hotels, this means operating in an environment where the journey from search to booking becomes increasingly non-linear. Search engines, OTAs, metasearch, conversational platforms, and new AI-based planning tools are starting to coexist within the same decision-making process.
Expedia: AEO is the fastest growing channel
One of the most significant indications comes from Expedia Group. During the Goldman Sachs Communacopia and Technology Conference 2026, CEO Ariane Gorin reaffirmed that AEO, Answer Engine Optimization, represents the group’s fastest-growing channel. Expedia continues to invest in artificial intelligence both in traveler-facing products and internal processes.
This data is significant because it comes from one of the world’s leading players in online travel distribution. This is not a marginal experiment: AI is beginning to directly enter the mechanisms by which platforms understand traveler intent and build the search experience.
Queries formulated in natural language allow users to express much more complex needs compared to traditional search. No longer just “hotel Rome”, but requests that may include location, budget, services, type of trip, accessibility, sustainability, proximity to transportation, or specific hotel characteristics.
Travel search becomes conversational
It is precisely this shift that profoundly changes the visibility logic. In traditional search engines, the user types some keywords, opens multiple results, visits sites and OTAs, and progressively builds their choice. With an AI assistant, however, they can describe directly what they are looking for and receive a pre-filtered selection.
For a hospitality establishment, the difference is substantial. If the hotel is not included in the AI’s response, it might not even reach the comparison phase. The issue is therefore not just losing a click: it means risking not entering the potential client’s shortlist.
94% of hotels do not appear in the analyzed AI searches
This phenomenon is particularly evident in the meetings and events segment. According to data cited by Cvent, 75% of event planners already use artificial intelligence during the sourcing process, and one of the main uses concerns venue identification and selection. In the same analysis, 94% of hotels do not appear in the considered AI searches.
The change is particularly relevant for MICE. A planner is no longer obliged to start from a venue name they already know. They can ask, for example, for a sustainable hotel in London with a room for 500 people, good metro connections, audiovisual equipment, and a certain price range.
If the necessary information is not available clearly and in detail, even a perfectly suitable venue may not be selected.
Details become strategic for hotels
The result is that generic descriptions progressively lose effectiveness. Phrases like “flexible event spaces” communicate little both to people and to systems that must interpret the offer.
Cvent instead indicates the need to make much more precise information available: room sizes, capacity, floorplans, number of rooms, connections to stations and airports, catering, audiovisual equipment, accessibility, and sustainability practices. Operational features that simplify organizers’ work can also become important elements to be selected in AI responses.
This principle also applies beyond the MICE segment. A traveler may want to know how far the hotel is from the airport, if a station is walkable, if late check-in is available, if parking is provided, or if the hotel offers certain services. The more specific and easily retrievable these details are, the higher the chance they are understood and used.
Having a good website is no longer enough
For many years, the digital strategy of hospitality focused on some pillars: proprietary website, SEO, reviews, OTAs, and metasearch. All these elements remain important, but today they represent only part of the discovery journey.
AI systems build answers using a much broader ecosystem of information. Consequently, not only the quality of content on the official site becomes strategic, but also the consistency with which a venue is described across external sources, directories, media, platforms, reviews, and other digital environments.
Forbes Travel Guide and Michelin Keys: authority enters AI recommendations
Another interesting signal comes from an analysis reported by Hospitality Net in the luxury segment. The study examined 148 hotels and found a strong association between some external authority signals and how frequently the venues are recommended by AI systems.
In particular, Forbes Travel Guide and Michelin Keys emerge as significant factors in the analysis, together explaining 55% of the variation observed in recommendation frequency.
The data should be interpreted cautiously. The sample concerns a specific type of venue and does not allow concluding that ratings and recognitions are universally the main factor determining AI visibility. However, it reinforces an important concept: authority granted by third-party sources can significantly contribute to a hotel’s digital representation.
Visibility becomes distributed
For hospitality, therefore, a form of distributed authority. The digital identity of a facility does not depend solely on the official website, but on the complex of sources that describe its characteristics, reputation, and positioning.
Industry media, guides, reviews, directories, specialized platforms, commercial partners, and editorial content can help create a set of signals that AI systems use to understand a facility and assess its relevance to a particular query.
The same applies to independent hotels. Cvent’s research highlights that the opportunity is not only for large chains: a smaller property, but able to precisely describe its strengths and features, can be more relevant than a much better-known brand.
SEO, AEO, and GEO: they are not alternative disciplines
The growth of AEO does not mean that SEO has lost importance. On the contrary, the site, technical structure, content, authority, and presence on search engines continue to represent a fundamental base.
However, the final objective changes. Traditional SEO mainly aims to increase visibility in search engine results pages. AEO aims to ensure that a brand or facility can be used in the answers produced by conversational engines. GEO, Generative Engine Optimization, further broadens the concept towards visibility within generative environments.
For hotels, the strategy cannot therefore be “SEO or AI.” The real challenge is to build reliable, complete, and easily interpretable information in all the environments where a travel decision arises.
Expedia experiments with the new travel funnel
Expedia is also trying to understand how the funnel will evolve. Gorin emphasized that the topic is still open for the entire industry, but the group is already experimenting with different uses of AI and considers personalization increasingly important. Expedia also highlighted how a significant part of its consumer business comes directly from its channels.
The evolution does not necessarily mean that the entire trip will be booked through a simple chat window. Travel remains a highly visual and comparative product: photos, descriptions, alternatives, prices, and details continue to play an important role in the choice.
Rather, it is likely that artificial intelligence will gain increasing weight in the early stages of the process, when the traveler seeks inspiration, narrows the field, and builds their shortlist.
The new battle of hotel distribution
It is at this point that Google, Expedia, and the hospitality world meet. Google continues to modify its search ecosystem in Europe, Expedia invests in AEO and artificial intelligence, while hotels and venues begin to face a new form of discoverability.
The challenge therefore concerns something deeper than the adoption of a new technology: the place where the traveler’s choice is made is changing.
Until a few years ago, the competition was mainly to win a position on Google, intercept qualified traffic, and reduce dependence on OTAs. Today a part of the battle shifts even further upstream, at the moment when an AI system decides which facilities to present and which to leave out of the answer.
For hotels the question becomes increasingly concrete: not only “where are we positioned?”, but “when someone asks artificial intelligence which hotel to choose, are we among those suggested?”.
FAQ on AI, AEO, and hotel visibility
What is AEO in tourism?
AEO, Answer Engine Optimization, includes activities aimed at making content, brands, and facilities more easily usable in responses from conversational engines and artificial intelligence systems.
Will SEO no longer be useful for hotels?
No. SEO continues to have a fundamental role. AEO and GEO expand the work on visibility toward answer engines and generative environments, but do not replace the technical, content, and reputational foundations of SEO.
Do event planners already use AI to choose hotels?
Yes. According to the research cited by Cvent, 75% of event planners already use artificial intelligence tools during the sourcing process, with particular interest in the search and selection of venues.
Why do some hotels not appear in AI responses?
There can be numerous causes. Relevant factors include the availability of detailed information, clarity of content, presence on external sources, relevance to the user’s request, and online authority signals.
What information should a hotel publish?
In addition to rooms and services, it is useful to provide precise information on location, transport, accessibility, event spaces, capacities, catering, parking, technological equipment, sustainability, and all the features that can meet specific traveler needs.
Do Forbes Travel Guide and Michelin Keys influence AI recommendations?
An analysis of 148 luxury hotels reported by Hospitality Net found a strong association between some external ratings, including Forbes Travel Guide and Michelin Keys, and the frequency of AI recommendations. However, the data concerns a specific sample and cannot be automatically generalized to the entire sector.
Pubblicato in Digital Travel, Hospitality
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