What is actually changing

Google’s share of the travel search market is declining in relative terms, not because Google is shrinking, but because AI search tools are growing quickly and taking a growing share of early-stage travel research. When a traveller is deciding where to go (not yet searching for specific flights or hotels), they increasingly ask ChatGPT or Perplexity before they search Google.

This early-stage research phase is where hotels win or lose consideration. A traveller who gets a specific hotel recommendation from ChatGPT in the research phase is likely to search that hotel by name when they’re ready to book. Traditional SEO has very little impact on this phase. AI visibility has direct impact.

What SEO still does

Hotel-specific SEO keywords still drive direct bookings. When a traveller has decided on a destination and is comparing specific hotels, they use Google to search “Hotel X vs Hotel Y”, “Hotel X reviews”, “Hotel X best room type”. These are SEO queries. A hotel with good SEO for its own branded terms and comparison keywords gets direct traffic that the AI channel may have sent their way in the first place.

Local SEO and Google Business Profile overlap with AEO. The work of optimising a Google Business Profile, getting Google reviews, and ensuring NAP consistency is simultaneously local SEO and AEO. These are not separate programmes. A hotel with strong local SEO has most of the infrastructure needed for Google AI Overview visibility.

Content SEO for planning queries. Blog posts and destination guides on your hotel website (“Things to do near our hotel”, “Best time to visit [your city]”) still drive organic traffic from travellers in the planning phase. AI systems also read this content and may cite it. Content that serves travellers in the planning phase serves both channels.

What SEO no longer does

Ranking for generic category queries in traditional organic search is declining in value for hotels, because those queries now return AI Overviews at the top of the page, and travellers click through to organic results less often. The hotel that was ranked #3 for “boutique hotels in Bruges” in organic results is far less visible now that position #1 is an AI Overview recommendation, even if that organic ranking was earned through years of SEO work.

This is the specific channel that is declining, not SEO as a whole.

The right mental model

SEO and AEO are not competing strategies. The right mental model is a priority stack:

Foundation (do first, serves both): Entity consistency, Google Business Profile, schema.org markup, fast website with good structure.

SEO layer (for direct booking traffic): Branded search optimisation, local SEO, content for planning queries.

AEO layer (for early-stage consideration): llms.txt, attribute-rich property descriptions, review strategy for AI signal, llms.txt file, FAQ pages.

A hotel that does only the foundation is reasonable. A hotel that does the full stack has the best position in both traditional search and AI search.

See also: What is answer engine optimization for hotels | Hotels: from invisible to recommended