Answer engine optimisation
When someone asks an AI where to stay near you, be the property it names
Since October 2025 ChatGPT has carried Booking.com and Expedia as apps inside the chat, and Perplexity books hotels through Tripadvisor and Selfbook. A guest who asks an assistant for “a dog friendly place near Bala with parking” gets two or three names and a booking button, and the button belongs to an OTA unless your own site is the obvious official source. AEO is the work that gets your property into the answer and your site into the button. It is inside every tier from £399 a month, because it is the listing, the reviews, the pages and the markup done to a higher standard, not an extra.
Where the answers come from now
- ChatGPT
- Google AI Overviews
- Google AI Mode
- Gemini
- Perplexity
- Microsoft Copilot
- Claude
The questions
What people ask an assistant before they book a stay
Shapes of question, not keywords. An assistant answers them with names and reasons, and the reasons come from what it can find about you: the dog, the parking, the breakfast, the walk from the door.
- “Where should we stay near Portmeirion that takes a dog and has parking?”
- “Best small hotel in Chester for a quiet weekend with a good breakfast”
- “Is there a pub with rooms on the Offa's Dyke path near Llangollen?”
- “Cottage sleeping eight near Anglesey beaches, with a hot tub, October half term”
- “Family hotel near Chester Zoo with a family room for five”
The sources
What an assistant reads before it names a property
Every answer is assembled from an index. ChatGPT and Copilot lean on Bing and the OTA apps; Google's AI and Gemini lean on Google's hotel index and the listing. The foundations are the ones the listing and the pages already built, and AEO is about being consistent and quotable inside them.
- The Google listing
- Category, class, amenities, photos, the description, and above all the reviews and what they say. Google's AI reads it directly; the others reach it through Bing and the web.
- Tripadvisor, Booking.com and Expedia
- Now inside the chat: ChatGPT carries Booking.com and Expedia as apps, and Perplexity books hotels through Tripadvisor and Selfbook. The assistants lean on their data by default, so yours has to agree with it.
- Your own pages
- One room, one season, one specific search per page, with the answer in the first paragraph and the rate on the page. Assistants quote pages that answer; they skip pages that advertise.
- The tourism board and the local sites
- VisitWales or VisitEngland listings, the town's visitor site, the walking route pages. Being on them with the same name, address and phone is how an assistant decides you are real and where.
- Structured data
- Hotel, BedAndBreakfast or LodgingBusiness markup with check-in times, amenities, rooms and price range, matching the listing exactly. Cheap to add, and most hotel sites have none.
Search and answers
Same foundations, a different finish line
Google gives a module, a panel and ten results. An assistant gives one paragraph and a button. The work overlaps by about two thirds; the rest is writing to be quoted and making sure the button has somewhere of yours to go.
| Google search | An assistant | |
|---|---|---|
| The result | The hotel module, the panel, ten blue links | One paragraph naming two or three properties, often with an OTA's booking button |
| What decides it | Listing completeness, reviews, a rate feed, pages for specific searches | Consistency across the sources the assistant trusts, and being quotable |
| The booking | Your price list entry, or an OTA's | An OTA app inside the chat unless your own site is the clear official source |
| How we check | Impressions, clicks, booking-link clicks, room nights | Which prompts name you, which sources are cited, referrals from the assistants |
Each month
What the AEO work contains
Included in every tier, because most of it is the listing, the pages and the mentions done with the assistants in mind.
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- A prompt list for your property and your area: thirty questions people ask an assistant before they book a stay, refreshed each quarter
- Answer-first pages and question pages written to be quoted: the first sentence answers, the rest explains
- A schema graph on every page (LodgingBusiness type, HotelRoom, Offer, FAQ) matched to the listing, and an llms.txt file so the crawlers know where to look
- AI crawlers allowed in robots.txt and never blocked by the firewall, checked monthly
- A monthly check: we ask each assistant your prompts, record who is named and what is cited, and put it in the report next to the room nights
Honest expectations
What this will and will not do for a property
It will get you into the sources the assistants read, and named for the prompts where you deserve to be. It will not replace the name search and the hotel module this year; those still send the bulk of the bookings. The point is to be present in both, because the second is growing and the OTAs have already moved into it. Pricing is on the pricing page.
Related
The rest of the job
Questions hotel owners ask us
Do hotels really get bookings from ChatGPT?
Some, and more each quarter. The share is still small next to the name search and the hotel module, but a person asking an assistant where to stay is usually about to book, and the OTAs have put booking buttons inside the chat. The work that gets a property named also lifts the ordinary listing and rankings.
If Booking.com is inside ChatGPT, does the assistant always book through them?
It means the default is theirs. When the assistant names your property, it offers whatever booking route it trusts, and the OTA app is right there. The counter is being the unmistakable official source: the listing complete with your own rate, your site marked up as the official site, and your pages answering the question the guest asked.
Can you guarantee an assistant recommends us?
No, and be wary of anyone who does. The assistants decide, and they change. What we can do is put you in the sources they read, write the pages they quote, and show you every month which prompts name you.
Is it extra?
No. AEO is inside every tier from £399 a month, because the listing, the pages, the schema and the mentions are the same work done properly.
Find out whether an assistant would name you today
Send us the property name and the town. We ask the assistants the questions your guests ask, and tell you who they name, what they cite and where the booking button goes, with the quote.