AI Visibility for Hotels and Resorts: No Company Holds More Than 3.1% of Mentions in AI Answers

• Zen Media's 2026 study on AI visibility for hotels and resorts, based on 3,015 AI answers to 1,000 traveler questions, found that Expedia led with 3.1% of all company mentions.
• Marriott followed at 2.8% and Hilton at 2.6%, and the top three names together held 8.4% of mentions across 5,242 companies.
• Of the 5,242 companies named, 3,581 appeared in only one answer.

Miami, FL, Oct. 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new study of 1,000 traveler questions about hotels and resorts found that no company held more than 3.1% of the company mentions in AI answers. In Zen Media's analysis, detailed in AI Visibility for Hotels and Resorts, ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok named 5,242 companies across 3,015 answers. Expedia held that top share, followed by Marriott at 2.8% and Hilton at 2.6%.

“AI doesn’t have a favorite hotel. It has a favorite hotel for you,” said Sarah Evans, CEO of Zen Media. “The answer changes with who’s asking, where they are and what they want, from a boutique stay to a family resort. The hotels publishing content for each of those travelers will leap ahead of everyone else.”

Methodology

Zen Media's AI visibility engine, ZAVI™, put 1,000 traveler questions to ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok on Oct. 28, 2026, and read 3,015 answers. No question named a brand. The questions came from 373 types of travelers, including families, business travelers, wedding planners and wellness travelers, and the study covered the U.S. market.

• Share of voice: a company's percentage of all company mentions in the answers.
• Answers: the number of answers that named the company at least once.

A company was counted only when its name appeared in the answer text. Percentages are rounded, so the top three’s combined 8.4% differs slightly from the sum of their individual figures. The study was conducted independently. No company participated in, reviewed or funded the research, or was notified before data collection.

AI visibility for hotels and resorts: the top 10 names held 16% of mentions

The ranking counts how often ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok named each company. Share of voice is a company's percentage of all 13,194 company mentions, while the Answers column shows how many of the 3,015 answers named that company. Of the 5,242 companies in the answers, 3,581 appeared only once, and a hotel with excellent guest reviews can end up in that long tail if the answers rarely mention it.

Rank	Company	Type	Share of voice	Answers
1	Expedia	Online travel agency	3.1%	404
2	Marriott	Hotel chain	2.8%	365
3	Hilton	Hotel chain	2.6%	337
4	Hyatt	Hotel chain	1.5%	202
5	Airbnb	Vacation rental platform	1.4%	183
6	VRBO	Vacation rental platform	1.3%	177
7	IHG	Hotel chain	1.1%	148
8	Marriott Bonvoy	Hotel loyalty program	0.8%	104
9	Google Hotels	Hotel search and price comparison	0.7%	98
10	Hilton Honors	Hotel loyalty program	0.7%	94

Hotel chains were tied to direct booking, and booking platforms to price comparison

The answers sorted the field by how a traveler books. Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and IHG came up with direct booking, loyalty points and elite status. Expedia and Google Hotels came up with third-party inventory, rate aggregation, filters and price alerts, while Airbnb and VRBO were praised for private yards, larger rentals and bedroom filters.

Hotel loyalty programs were the largest grouping in the answers, at 11.7% of segment mentions, and Marriott Bonvoy alone held 16.8% of it. For a hotel that sells direct, loyalty perks and booking terms are the details its own pages have to cover, since the answers already use them to tell hotels and booking sites apart.

AI answers cited resort websites alongside fee checkers and destination guides

Across 3,015 answers, the engines cited 59 pages from 57 domains, and only a search engine and a resort fee checker appeared twice. Seven citations pointed to websites belonging to companies named in the answers, including a hotel search service and two resorts. The other 52 went to destination guides, government pages, fee checkers and the sites of resorts the answers did not name.

Resort websites appeared in that same mix, so a property can earn citations on its own pages and through third-party coverage. Zen Media's Published Monthly™ program identifies the traveler questions where a property is missing from AI answers, then builds coverage in the third-party media those answers cite. Hotels and resorts can book an AI visibility audit through Zen Media's AI Accelerator or Published Monthly™ programs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: Do ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok recommend the same hotel companies?

Answer: No. In Zen Media's 2026 study, Expedia led company mentions in ChatGPT at 2.1% and Grok at 4.4%, while Marriott led Gemini at 3.1%. The platforms also differed in how many companies they named per answer: Gemini averaged 6.6, Grok 3.7 and ChatGPT 2.7.

Question: What do AI answers say about hotel resort fees?

Answer: Resort fees appeared in 99 answers as a problem for hotel guests, and the study rates mandatory resort fees, raised in 36 answers, as the sharpest high-severity problem. Total price including taxes and fees was a decision criterion in 76 answers. The answers also criticized a booking platform because it "may hide mandatory resort fees in fine print."

Question: Where is AI visibility for hotels and resorts still open to new names?

Answer: The study names wellness and spa travel as the largest opening. Canyon Ranch led that category with 2.8% of mentions, across 336 answers and 634 companies. The study also lists the buying questions in six of its nine traveler categories, wellness included, as open lanes that no company owns yet.

Question: What details do AI answers weigh when they compare hotels?

Answer: Location was the criterion the answers raised most often, in 124 answers. Availability followed in 92 answers, free cancellation in 87 and cancellation flexibility in 85. Among answers assigned to a single stage of the buying process, 67.3% fell into the evaluation stage, when travelers compare options before booking.

About Zen Media

Zen Media is a strategic communications and marketing company helping brands shape how they are discovered, understood, and chosen across media, search, and AI. The company combines public relations, content, demand generation, and proprietary AI visibility technology to build authority across the buyer journey, from earned media and search to AI-generated answers. Zen Media works with companies across industries and stages, from growth-stage brands to global enterprises, that want to build authority, demand, and visibility across modern discovery channels.

Beyza Aydogan
Zen Media
pr@zenmedia.com