How Hotel Brands Compete in Travel Search Against Google and OTAs

Hotel and serviced apartment brands win travel search by reaching travelers early in the trip, long before anyone types a booking query that Google and the online travel agencies already own. That was the core of my session at Wire 3.0, the conference hosted by Ascott Indonesia, where I spoke to the leadership, marketing, and revenue teams of Ascott Indonesia about how travel search was changing.

Ascott Indonesia's serviced residences compete for the same travelers as every global chain and every listing on the big booking sites. The pressure on brands like it has grown since that session, because AI assistants now sit between the traveler and the search results, and Google has started planning whole trips inside its own interface.

Travelers now plan trips with AI assistants

When I gave the talk, the shift toward AI trip planning was already visible in survey data. In a March 2024 survey of nearly 2,100 travelers in the United States and Canada, Oliver Wyman found that 41 percent had recently used generative AI for travel inspiration or itinerary planning, up from 34 percent in August 2023. Among the people who had used it, 82 percent said they were likely to use it again.

The trend has kept growing. Phocuswright's November 2025 report on AI and travel search found that nearly 40 percent of US travelers used generative AI tools to plan trips in 2025, an 11 point increase in one year. Those AI users skewed younger, wealthier, and more frequent, which describes the guests most hotel brands want.

The same research found that travelers still check reviews and ask friends and family before they commit. An AI assistant shortens the list of options, and the brand then has to hold up when the traveler looks closer. For a hotel, that means your website, your reviews, and what other sites say about you all need to tell the same story.

Google and online travel agencies own the booking searches

Search engines used to send travelers to hotel websites. Google now competes for the same travelers with its own travel products, showing prices, availability, and comparisons directly on the results page. Independent brands find it harder to earn the click, because Google keeps the traveler inside its own tools for longer.

That pressure has increased since the talk. In November 2025, Google added trip planning to AI Mode in the US, where a traveler can build a plan that pulls in flights, hotels, photos, and Maps reviews in one view. Google also said it plans to add flight and hotel booking inside AI Mode with industry partners, which would move even more of the decision onto Google's own surface.

Online travel agencies hold the other end of the funnel. They invest heavily in search and win most of the transactional queries, such as "hotel in Jakarta near SCBD" or "serviced apartment Surabaya monthly". A single property rarely outranks them on those terms, so the better strategy is to win the traveler before they reach that query and give them a reason to book direct when they get there.

Hotel brands win earlier in the traveler journey

Travelers move through three broad stages, and each one needs a different kind of content. The stage where a brand can compete most easily is also the stage most hotels neglect.

1. In the inspiration stage, travelers have no destination or dates yet. They browse Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, and now ask AI assistants for ideas. Visual content and stories about local experiences work best here.
2. In the research and planning stage, travelers compare neighborhoods, properties, and things to do. Detailed guides, honest advice, and local knowledge make the brand a source they trust.
3. In the decision stage, travelers are close to booking. Clear room details, guest reviews, comparisons, and specific benefits such as family facilities or long stay rates answer the last questions before they pay.

Most hotel websites only serve the third stage. They have room pages, a booking engine, and a short page about the area. A brand that publishes useful guides for the first two stages meets travelers while they are still deciding where to go, which is the part of the journey where Google and the agencies have less control.

This also matters for AI search. When a traveler asks an assistant where to stay for a family trip to Bali or a three month work assignment in Jakarta, the assistant draws on pages that answer those questions in depth. A hotel that has published those answers gives the assistant something to cite. Our post on building topical authority explains how to plan that coverage.

Content for each traveler segment

One generic message about "comfort and convenience" reaches nobody in particular. In the talk, I broke Ascott's audience into segments and showed how each one searches for different things and needs a different kind of proof.

Corporate travelers care about location near business districts, reliable internet, workspace in the room, and meeting facilities. Families look for larger rooms, kitchens, safety, and activities for children. Luxury guests want privacy, premium service, and experiences they cannot book elsewhere. Wellness and leisure travelers look for spa facilities, quiet, and access to local culture. Eco-conscious guests want evidence of real practices, such as waste reduction and energy use, instead of a generic sustainability badge.

Each segment deserves its own pages, written in the words that segment uses when it searches or asks an assistant. A page for long stay business travelers should talk about monthly rates, laundry, and commute times. A page for families should answer questions about cots, connecting rooms, and nearby attractions. That level of detail helps the page rank and gives AI assistants specific facts to repeat.

Guest stories and local knowledge

Travel is personal, and stories from real guests and staff show a traveler what a stay will feel like better than any list of amenities. A short story from a guest who extended a business trip into a family holiday, or a concierge's guide to the food stalls near the property, gives the traveler a reason to choose one hotel over a similar one down the road.

Local knowledge also sets a hotel apart from the agencies. An agency lists thousands of properties and cannot tell a traveler which warung near the property opens early for breakfast or which weekend market is worth the trip. Staff who live in the city can, and that knowledge is hard for a competitor to copy.

Google rewards this kind of content. Its guidance on creating helpful content asks whether a page shows first-hand experience, such as having visited a place. Guest stories and staff recommendations are first-hand experience by definition. For more on how hotels show up in local results, see our guide to hotel local SEO.

Seasonal, evergreen and reactive content

Travel demand follows a calendar, so a hotel's content plan should mix three types of content with different lifespans. Seasonal content targets demand peaks. In Indonesia, that means Lebaran, school holidays, Christmas and New Year, long weekends, and major events in the city. Publishing these pages early gives them time to rank before the searches arrive.

Evergreen content answers questions that stay the same every year, such as how to get from the airport, which neighborhoods suit families, or what to know before a long stay in Jakarta. These pages build traffic slowly and keep it for years, and they form the base that seasonal pages link back to.

Reactive content responds to news and trends, such as a new MRT line near the property, a visa change, or a festival announced for the coming months. It needs a team that can publish within days. Brands that move quickly on these topics often become the source that other sites and AI assistants cite.

Making the property visible in AI answers

Brands do not need special tricks to appear in AI search results. Google's documentation on AI features in Search says there are no extra requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special files or schema to add. The page has to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet, and the usual practices apply, such as crawlable content, internal links, and structured data that matches what visitors see.

The bigger task is consistency. AI assistants build their picture of a hotel from its website, its Google Business Profile, review sites, travel agencies, and articles that mention it. If the room count, facilities, or location details differ across those sources, the assistant may describe the property wrongly or leave it out. Check that the facts match everywhere, and fix the listings you control first. Our free Agent View extension shows how much of a page AI crawlers can read.

Our DiscoverASR case study shows how this work grew the brand's AI search audience from about 7.4 million to 34.6 million between November 2025 and February 2026. To see where your property stands in AI answers today, you can request an audit. If you would like a session like this one at your own event, get in touch.