AI is doing to hotel websites what Booking.com did twenty years ago

How large language models risk turning hotel websites into invisible back-end data sources — and what hoteliers can do about it

Key takeaways

• History is repeating: Just as Booking.com captured the discovery layer two decades ago, AI interfaces are now absorbing the informational layer of hotel websites.
• Zero-click discovery is rising: Travelers get complete answers from AI tools without visiting hotel websites, leading to declining organic traffic.
• Websites risk invisibility: Hotels still provide content, but AI platforms summarize and surface it, reducing brand presence and direct relationships.
• Voice and structure matter: Schema-marked data improves citations, while authentic storytelling makes a property’s voice harder for AI to flatten.
• The next “Booking moment” is here: Hotels must adapt early to ensure AI speaks for them, not over them.

From front door to data feed

Before OTAs, travelers searched for hotels the old-fashioned way — through guidebooks, recommendations, or direct website visits. The hotel’s website was the discovery engine. It told the story, showed the rooms, and closed the sale.

Then Booking.com arrived. Within a few years, it had become the default starting point for millions of travelers. Hotels still owned their websites, but now those sites functioned mainly as back-end data sources — not because Booking scraped them, but because hotels voluntarily uploaded their content, photos, and descriptions to Booking’s platform. Once there, Booking reformatted and re-presented that material inside its own listings, which quickly became the interface most guests actually used.

Today, AI platforms are repeating that evolution at a new level. When someone asks ChatGPT, “Find boutique hotels in Zurich with lake views,” the model composes a direct answer — sometimes citing the sources, often not. Either way, most users never click through. The result? Hotels and local operators lose visibility, traffic, and brand connection.

The zero-click future

Google trained us for this years ago with “featured snippets.” Voice assistants extended it further. AI search now completes the circle: zero-click discovery has become the norm.

In that world, a hotel’s website doesn’t disappear — it just becomes invisible. It still provides the raw material (text, photos, reviews), but the guest interacts primarily with the AI layer on top. The value shifts from the hotel’s presentationto the AI’s interpretation.

That means the AI — not the hotel — increasingly controls:

• Which hotels are surfaced,
• How they’re described,
• What details are emphasized,
• And what booking path the user follows next.

If that sounds uncomfortably similar to what happened with OTAs, it’s because it is.

From intermediaries to interfaces

The shift from Booking.com to ChatGPT is not a change in motive — it’s a change in medium.

Both models compete for the traveler’s attention at the start of the decision journey. Both are funded by convenience — either through commissions or, eventually, advertising and transaction layers. And both reshape the digital landscape so that the interface becomes more important than the inventory.

In practice, this means the traveler no longer visits your homepage. They meet your brand through an algorithmic summary:

“A small design hotel in Zurich’s old town known for its quiet rooms and local breakfast.”

Accurate, perhaps. But also anonymous.

The personality, voice, and story that make your property unique get lost in translation. Your website — the digital expression of your hospitality — becomes a structured data feed for someone else’s interface.

What hotels can do now

AI won’t replace hotel websites — but it will change their purpose. The goal is no longer just SEO or conversion; it’s contextual authority — becoming the source the AI prefers to quote and link to.

Here’s how hotels can adapt:

1. Structure your content Use clear, factual, schema-marked data. This helps AI systems understand your offerings and cite you accurately.
2. Tell stories only humans can tell Inject local voice, narrative, and sensory detail — the kind of writing models can’t summarize neatly. (AI skips clichés but struggles with personality.)
3. Brand every paragraph Mention your property name naturally within text (“At Hotel Adler Zürich, our terrace overlooks the old town rooftops...”). If quoted, your brand travels with the snippet.
4. Build direct relationships Email newsletters, WhatsApp updates, and loyalty communities cut through the intermediaries.
5. Monitor how you appear in AI search Tools like Perplexity and Bing Copilot show citation patterns. See where your name appears — and where it doesn’t.
6. Stay findable — and clickable Offer unique assets that can’t be summarized: downloadable guides, maps, or short local videos. Anything that rewards the click itself.

The next Booking moment

When OTAs rose, hotels lost direct bookings but gained reach. AI search could bring a similar trade-off — global exposure, but diluted identity. The difference this time is that AI doesn’t just list your property; it speaks for it.

That voice will either echo your brand — or overwrite it.

Now is the time for hoteliers to make sure it’s the former.

by Markus Busch, Editor/Publisher Hospitality.today