Be in the shortlist, not just the search results.
not just the search results
Travellers now describe the trip they want and let an assistant narrow the choice to three properties. We plan, buy and measure ChatGPT ads for hotels and resorts — with a bias towards direct reservations rather than another commission — alongside our ChatGPT ads and AI search visibility teams.
Tell us a little about your brand and we'll be in touch within 24 hours to lock in a time.
FOUR WORKSTREAMS
Four workstreams behind paid placement inside travel answers.
inside travel answers
Account eligibility and creative, the campaign buying itself, the property visibility that decides whether an assistant shortlists you unpaid, and attribution that separates direct revenue from commission.
Eligibility, setup and creative
Campaign buying and pacing
Property visibility in AI answers
Attribution and direct revenue
Get the account and the claims right first.
This is a governed ad product, not an experiment on the side. Placements serve only to logged-in adult users on the ad-supported plans, while Plus, Pro and Enterprise subscribers stay ad-free, and OpenAI states the advertising does not influence the answers generated. Travel and experiences was among the first verticals opened, which is why properties can buy here at all.
We handle account setup, verification and the short factual creative this surface rewards: location, room types, dates, what is included, and the direct-booking advantage stated plainly. Restricted categories are checked first, since OpenAI restricts advertising in areas including adult content, alcohol, tobacco, financial services and gambling — which matters for resort and casino properties.
- Advertiser account, billing and verification set up in your name
- Category and claim review before any campaign is written
- Creative written as a factual answer, not a banner headline
- Rates, inclusions and cancellation terms stated accurately
Ad-free
Plus, Pro and Enterprise tiers never see these placements
Labelled
ads are marked and do not change the assistant's answer
Buy it like performance media, with a season attached.
The buying tools are now conventional. The self-serve platform opened to everyone in May 2026, campaigns run on a per-click basis with conversion-optimised bidding in beta, and daily limits can be paced the way any revenue manager would expect.
Hotels have the added complication of need dates, shoulder seasons and compression nights, so we pace investment against the reservations calendar instead of a flat monthly figure, and step budgets up only where the pickup justifies it. Every campaign is judged against your existing direct and paid channels rather than on its own flattering report.
- Daily limits paced against need dates and pickup
- Per-click bidding moved to conversion optimisation when eligible
- Two creative variants live at all times
- Benchmarked against your existing direct and paid channels
May 2026
when the ChatGPT self-serve ad platform opened to everyone
15-20%
typical OTA commission a direct booking avoids
Paid placement fails if the assistant cannot verify you.
Assistants shortlist properties they can describe confidently: consistent details across your own site and the platforms, accurate room and amenity information, current reviews, and pages that answer real trip-planning questions rather than selling adjectives.
The referral channel is small but moving fast — AI referral traffic is just under 1% of hotel website visits and grew more than 50% in a matter of weeks, taking AI's share of organic-equivalent traffic from about 2% to roughly 3.1%. We do the visibility groundwork with our GEO and AEO team so the paid and unpaid routes point at the same property.
- Consistent property details across your site and the major platforms
- Room, rate and amenity information an assistant can quote accurately
- Review recency supported, because freshness is what gets cited
- Trip-planning content written as answers, not brochure copy
~1%
of hotel website visits now arrive from AI assistants
+50%
growth in AI referral traffic within a few weeks
Follow the booking, not the impression.
The uncomfortable truth of this channel is where the reservation lands. Only 38% of AI-assisted bookings go direct to the hotel, while 44% land on an OTA and 8% are booked inside the AI tool itself — so influence without instrumentation quietly becomes commission.
We tag the traffic, separate assistant-sourced sessions in your analytics, connect the reservation system where it allows, and report direct income alongside investment. Expectations stay honest too: Booking Holdings processed 325 million room nights in Q2 2026 with AI referrals still below 1%. This is an emerging surface worth learning early, not a replacement for anything.
- Assistant-sourced sessions tagged and reported separately
- Reservation system connected where the platform allows
- Direct income and average nightly rate reported against investment
- A monthly written read on what this surface produced
38%
share of AI-assisted bookings that go direct to the hotel
Below 1%
AI share of room nights at the largest travel platform
of AI-assisted reservations land on an OTA rather than the hotel
AI share of organic-equivalent traffic to hotel sites
Creative variants live at all times during a test
Advertiser account, creative and tagging stay in your name
We made the difference for those brands
Apparel and lifestyle
Home essentials, appliances, kitchen & pet
Food & beverage
Food & beverage
Apparel and lifestyle
B2B software, fintech, insurance
Beauty, personal care & wellness
Travel & mobility
B2B software, fintech, insurance
Food & beverage
Beauty, personal care & wellness
Healthcare & regulated services
Consumer tech and platforms
B2B software, fintech, insurance
Home essentials, appliances, kitchen & pet
Creative, content, arts & culture
Food & beverage
Retail & commerce
Creative, content, arts & culture
Healthcare & regulated services
Consumer tech and platforms
Retail & commerce
Beauty, personal care & wellness
Consumer tech and platforms
Beauty, personal care & wellness
Healthcare & regulated services
B2B software, fintech, insurance
Apparel and lifestyle
B2B software, fintech, insurance
Healthcare & regulated services
01 — The challenge
Guests arrive saying an assistant recommended you.
It starts at the front desk. A guest mentions they were choosing between three properties an assistant suggested, and picked yours. Nobody can find that journey in the reporting, so the conversation never becomes a decision about budget — and the reservation itself probably arrived through a partner that took a commission.
“Guests keep telling us a chatbot shortlisted us, yet not one bit of it shows up anywhere.”
The distribution maths is the real issue. Only 38% of AI-assisted bookings reach the hotel directly, with 44% landing on an OTA, and OTA commissions typically run 15 to 20% per booking. Influence you cannot see is influence somebody else is billing you for.
02 — Our approach
Earn the shortlist, buy the placement, keep the booking direct.
We begin with what an assistant can verify about the property. Room types, rates, amenities, policies, location detail and review recency, consistent between your own site and the platforms that feed these answers. Contradictory information is the fastest way to be left out of a shortlist, and it is usually fixable in a fortnight.
Then we buy the placement. Account setup and category checks first, then a controlled launch with daily limits paced against your need dates, two creative variants live at all times, and per-click bidding moved to conversion optimisation once the data supports it. Creative stays factual: location, rooms, inclusions, and a direct-booking reason worth choosing.
Measurement runs from day one, because the point of this surface for a hotel is not reach but margin. Tagged sessions, reservation system connection where possible, and a monthly written read on direct income against investment. If the numbers do not justify the outlay we will say so, and the advertiser account stays in your name either way.
03 — What we did
Four weeks in, then a monthly rhythm.
Visibility groundwork, account setup, a controlled launch, then measured pacing with a written read every month.
Week 1 / Audit
What an assistant can see about the property
Room, rate, amenity and policy information checked for contradictions across your site and the platforms, with the gaps that keep you off shortlists listed plainly.
Week 2 / Build
Account, creative and landing pages
Advertiser account set up in your name, category checks completed, factual creative written, and a booking-ready page per campaign prepared.
Weeks 3-4 / Launch
Paced against the booking calendar
Campaigns go live with daily limits aimed at need dates, tagged sessions and the reservation system connected wherever the platform allows.
Ongoing / Manage and pace
Scale what books direct
Investment follows the creative and dates producing direct income, reported beside your other channels rather than in a flattering silo.
WHAT YOU GET
Deliverables you keep, whatever happens next.
you keep
Advertiser account, creative, tagging and landing pages stay in your name from day one.
AI visibility audit
What assistants can verify about the property today, and the contradictions keeping you out of the shortlist.
Channel and spend plan
What this surface gets, which need dates it targets, and what it has to return to keep the budget.
Creative built for AI answers
Short factual variants covering location, rooms and inclusions, tested in pairs rather than shipped once.
Reservation-ready landing pages
Pages that answer trip-planning questions and reach the reservation system in as few taps as it allows.
Direct income reporting
Tagged sessions, reservations and direct income against investment, written plainly with a clear recommendation.
Front desk playbook
The question to ask at check-in and how to log it, so guest anecdotes become data you can act on.
HOW WE WORK
Operating standards, not promises.
Operating standards
Resorts and boutique properties
Higher rates and longer consideration, where the description does the selling.
ExploreGroups and management companies
Several properties, one budget, and a need to see which one each dollar filled.
Explore
Built on trust. Proven by results.
We partner with SMBs and Fortune 500 companies to deliver more than reach — we bring clarity, execution, and measurable outcomes. Every successful partnership starts with a strong culture fit and a shared drive to grow.
CASE STUDIES
Case studies
Website Portfolio
Video Ads
Static Ads
FAQ
Questions hoteliers ask us
Where do these ads actually appear?
Inside the conversation, clearly marked as sponsored. They are shown only to logged-in adult users on the ad-supported plans, while Plus, Pro and Enterprise users remain ad-free, and OpenAI states that advertising does not influence the answers. You are buying presence beside a recommendation, never the recommendation itself.
Are hotels an eligible category?
Yes — travel and experiences was among the first verticals opened. Some adjacent offers are not, since restricted categories include alcohol, tobacco, financial services and gambling, which matters if your property markets a casino, a bar programme or a resort credit product. We check the current policy against your specific creative before anything runs.
How much of our business could realistically come from this?
Today, a small share — and we would rather say that plainly. Booking Holdings processed 325 million room nights in Q2 2026, up 5% year on year, with AI referrals still below 1%. The case for testing now is learning curve and cost of entry, not immediate volume.
Is AI referral traffic actually growing?
Quickly, from a small base. AI referral traffic to hotel websites is just under 1% of total visits but grew more than 50% within weeks of a change to how ChatGPT includes outbound links, moving its share of organic-equivalent traffic from around 2% to roughly 3.1%. That trajectory is why we recommend building the groundwork now.
Will an AI booking still come through an OTA?
Often, which is exactly the problem worth managing. Only 38% of AI-assisted bookings go direct, 44% land on an OTA and 8% are completed inside the AI tool. With OTA commissions typically 15 to 20%, a campaign that shifts even part of that mix towards direct pays for itself well before it adds incremental demand.
Do travellers trust AI enough to book through it?
They trust it to shortlist far more than to transact. An Expedia Group survey of more than 5,700 adults found 53% comfortable letting AI suggest travel options but only 8% comfortable completing a booking through it. That gap is the opportunity: win the shortlist, then make your own reservation path the easiest one to finish.
What sort of creative works here?
Short, factual and specific. The reader is mid-question about dates, location or amenities, so stating neighbourhood, room types, what is included and the direct-booking advantage beats atmospheric copy. We keep two variants live for comparison and avoid claims about rates or availability that the reservation system cannot honour.
How do you handle seasonality and need dates?
Pacing follows the reservations calendar rather than spreading evenly. Investment concentrates on need dates and soft periods, eases back during compression when you would have filled anyway, and steps up only where pickup justifies it. Revenue management sees the plan before it goes live.
How do we measure something that never touches our website?
Partly through tagging, partly by asking. Assistant-sourced sessions are separated in analytics, the booking engine is connected wherever it allows, and the front desk adds one question at check-in. Together those turn guest anecdotes into a pattern you can act on rather than a story told at a meeting.
What should our property have in place before advertising here?
Consistent, verifiable information: room types and rates that match across your site and the platforms, accurate amenities and policies, current reviews, and pages that answer real trip-planning questions. Contradictions are the quickest way to be dropped from a shortlist, and they cost nothing but attention to fix.
Is this available outside the United States?
Increasingly. OpenAI began testing in the US in February 2026, expanded to eight further markets, and announced a rollout to 31 European countries in August 2026. Availability and buying routes differ by market, so for international properties we confirm what is open where you operate before planning spend.
What budget makes sense for a first test?
Enough to gather signal across a month or two of need dates without disturbing the routes that already fill rooms. We size it from your average daily rate, the commission you are trying to avoid and the dates you actually need help with, then set a clear bar this surface must clear to keep the money.
How does this sit alongside our other marketing?
As an additional shortlist surface, not a replacement. Paid search and paid search and metasearch still carry the transactional demand, brand work still drives direct intent, and this surface reaches travellers earlier, while they are still describing the trip. It works best alongside hotel marketing that is already healthy.
Who owns the account and the data?
You do. The advertiser account, billing, creative, tagging and landing pages are set up in your name from the start, so everything moves with you. We ask for a fair testing window because a new surface needs learning time, not because anything is locked.
Who will be running this for us?
A named senior strategist who also joins the monthly session, working with our AI search specialists. You will know who writes the creative and who controls the pacing, and you can reach them directly rather than through an anonymous queue.
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