A growing number of travelers never visit a hotel website before booking. They ask an AI assistant: "What's the best wellness hotel in the Algarve?" or "Where should my family stay near Lisbon?" The AI answers. The traveler books.
This is not a prediction. A March 2026 study by NYU and BCG found that 37% of travelers already use AI to plan and book hotels. Among those travelers, 84% are more likely to book when an AI assistant specifically recommends a property.
Portugal is particularly exposed. 62% of Portuguese consumers use generative AI tools, the highest rate in Europe (Eurostat, 2025). But only 11.5% of Portuguese companies formally use AI in their operations. Travelers are asking AI where to stay. Hotels have not adjusted.
That creates a visibility gap most hoteliers do not know they have.
Sources
What we found
We tested 9 query categories across ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini: wellness, beach, family, romantic, golf, all-inclusive, adults-only, and location-specific queries for Vilamoura and Albufeira. 27 tests across dozens of specific queries. We designed the research to be fair to every hotel type, matching categories to each chain's actual positioning.
Some of the results were shocking.
Meanwhile, independent hotels with distinctive positioning appeared consistently:
It is not about hotel quality. Pestana Vila Sol is an excellent golf resort. Vila Gale Collection Praia is a well-regarded property. They are invisible because their online descriptions do not give AI systems anything specific to recommend.
The one exception: all-inclusive
To be fair: chains do appear in one category. When we searched "best all-inclusive resort in Algarve," Tivoli Alvor was recommended by all 3 platforms. Pestana and AP Hotels each appeared on 2 of 3. All-inclusive is a category where chain infrastructure is a genuine differentiator, and AI recognizes that.
But all-inclusive represents a fraction of how travelers search. In the other 8 query categories we tested, chains were largely absent.
The broader pattern
Here is how the same hotels appeared across four common lifestyle queries (wellness, beach, family, romantic):
| Hotel | ChatGPT | Claude | Gemini |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vila Vita Parc (Porches) | ✓ Recommended | ✓ Recommended | ✓ Recommended |
| Pine Cliffs Resort (Albufeira) | ✓ Recommended | ✓ Recommended | ✓ Recommended |
| Martinhal Sagres | ✓ Recommended | ✓ Recommended | ✓ Recommended |
| Bela Vista Hotel & Spa (Portimão) | ✓ Recommended | ✓ Recommended | ✓ Recommended |
| EPIC SANA Algarve (Albufeira) | ✓ Recommended | ✓ Recommended | ✗ Not mentioned |
| Conrad Algarve (Quinta do Lago) | ✗ Not mentioned | ✗ Not mentioned | ✓ Recommended |
| Tivoli Hotels (Algarve) | ~ 1 property | ✗ Not mentioned | ~ 1 property |
| Pestana Group (40+ properties) | ✗ Not mentioned | ~ 1 property | ✗ Not mentioned |
| Vila Galé (10+ properties) | ✗ Not mentioned | ✗ Not mentioned | ✗ Not mentioned |
Results from 4 lifestyle queries across 3 AI platforms, March 2026. AI responses vary between sessions. The pattern is consistent: distinctive descriptions outperform brand recognition.
Why some hotels appear and others don't
AI assistants build recommendations from publicly available data: Booking.com descriptions, Google Business Profiles, review content, and website copy. They process this like a very fast, very literal reader. If your hotel describes itself as an "oasis of tranquility offering relaxation and rejuvenation," AI cannot tell you apart from the seven other properties in your market using the same words.
The hotels that appeared on all three platforms share something: specific, differentiating language.
Vila Vita Parc mentions its "Sisley Paris Spa" and "two Michelin-starred Ocean restaurant." Pine Cliffs highlights its "Porto Pirata children's village" and "clifftop golf course." Martinhal Sagres describes its "baby concierge" and "five kids clubs from 6 months."
These are not better hotels. They are better described hotels. Their Booking.com listings give AI systems something specific to recommend. The hotels that did not appear used the same generic vocabulary as every other property in the region.
Specificity is the new SEO. Just as Google rewards specific, well-structured content, AI assistants reward descriptions that differentiate.
Hotels that describe themselves like everyone else become invisible to the systems that increasingly influence where travelers book.
3 things you can do this week
1. Audit your Booking.com description for generic language.
Open your property listing. Search for phrases like "ideal location," "warm hospitality," or "modern amenities." These are noise. AI skips them because every hotel says the same thing. Replace them with what makes your hotel different. A beachfront property in Lagos should say "direct access to Meia Praia beach, 50 meters from the room." Not "close to the beach."
2. Ask AI what it says about your hotel.
Open ChatGPT (free version works). Type: "What is the best [your hotel type] in [your city or region]?" See if your hotel appears. If it does, check whether the description matches reality. If it doesn't, you now know the gap. Do the same with Google Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. Each platform reads different sources and produces different results.
3. Update your Google Business Profile with specific features.
AI recommendations often start with Google data. Add your specific amenities (not "swimming pool" but "heated saltwater pool, open year-round"). Upload recent photos. Update your business description with the same specific language you used in step 1. Google Business Profile is free and takes 20 minutes to update. It is the single highest-impact action for AI visibility.
Generic vs. specific: what AI actually uses
| Generic (AI ignores) | Specific (AI recommends) |
|---|---|
| "Luxury hotel" | "5-star with rooftop restaurant overlooking the Tagus" |
| "Relaxation and rejuvenation" | "Thermal water spa with outdoor forest bathing pool" |
| "Ideal location" | "200m from Faro marina, 10-min walk to Old Town" |
| "Modern amenities" | "EV charging, co-working lounge, Nespresso in every room" |
The opportunity for independent hotels
Large hotel groups are slow to adapt. Their Booking.com descriptions are managed centrally, updated rarely, and written in marketing language that made sense for human readers but fails for AI. That creates an opening.
An independent hotel that updates its descriptions this month, with specific, differentiating language, can outrank larger brands in AI recommendations. No budget required. No technology to implement. Just better words in the right places.
This is not a one-time fix
Updating your descriptions once is a good start. But AI visibility is not a project with a finish line. It is an ongoing process. AI models update their training data. Competitors adjust their descriptions. New platforms emerge. What works today may not work in six months.
Maintaining AI visibility requires regular monitoring: checking how each platform sees your hotel, tracking changes in recommendations, and adjusting your positioning as the landscape evolves. This is not something you do once and forget. It is something you build, review, and refine over time.
This is what SmartHotel does. We monitor your hotel's AI visibility across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and others. We track how recommendations change over time, alert you when competitors move, and help you adjust your positioning to stay visible. It is part of every intelligence report we build.
The hotels that appear in AI recommendations will capture a growing share of bookings. The ones that don't will wonder where the traffic went.