Guests now ask ChatGPT where to stay, and a small Irish hotel, guesthouse, B&B or holiday let can be named in that answer. ChatGPT search can read and link any public website that lets the OpenAI search crawler in, at no cost. The work is practical: a readable website, a complete Google Business Profile, and fresh reviews.
Key takeaways
- Guests ask ChatGPT where to stay, so an accommodation website must be readable by AI search tools as well as by Google.
- ChatGPT search can read and link a public site only if robots.txt does not block OAI-SearchBot.
- Google says hotels with photos on their Business Profile get 42% more requests for directions and 35% more clicks to their websites.
- Free booking links on a Google Business Profile show a hotel’s direct rates and availability without Google Ads.
- ChatGPT labels the visits it sends with utm_source=chatgpt.com, which shows up in Google Analytics.
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Why AI answers matter for Irish hotels now#
Imagine Sinéad, who runs a small holiday lettings agency in Clifden that lets Connemara cottages on behalf of local owners. Her team knows every cottage and every bay, yet in search results she sits below Booking.com and Airbnb, which list the same area. Guests have started asking an AI assistant for a recommendation instead of reading a list of results, and that gives a local specialist a fresh chance to be named.
Big hotel groups are already there. According to OpenAI, Radisson Hotel Group launched a ChatGPT tool on 7 October 2026 that helps travellers find, compare and book its hotels. The tool covers over 1,640 hotels across 10 brands, shows them on a map with prices and amenities, and was built in six weeks. Early results in July and August 2026 showed about 1.5 times the booking conversion of organic (unpaid) search.
Two lessons follow for Sinéad. Big groups treat AI answers as a real channel, so a property that stays invisible loses ground. Guests still finish the booking on the hotel’s own website, so the hotel keeps the guest and the relationship.
The work is often called GEO (Getting a business read and quoted by AI search tools.), and it rewards clear, readable pages rather than spending. Fáilte Ireland targets 90% digital adoption and 25% AI adoption by tourism businesses by 2030 in its corporate strategy, and commits to helping businesses improve their online presence and AI-discoverability. Budget is not the barrier either: OpenAI said on 5 October 2026 that advertising does not influence the answers ChatGPT gives, and that ads appear separately from answers.
Let ChatGPT read your website#
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Before any of that helps Sinéad, ChatGPT must be able to read her website. According to the OpenAI Help Center, any public website can appear in ChatGPT search. To be included in summaries and snippets, a site should not block OAI-SearchBot in its robots.txt (The file that tells search crawlers which pages they may read.).
That crawl is separate from model training. OAI-SearchBot (The crawler that lets ChatGPT search read and link a website.) powers ChatGPT search. GPTBot (The crawler OpenAI uses to train its AI models.) feeds training and can be blocked on its own. ChatGPT also labels the links it shows with a UTM tag (A short label on a link showing where a click came from.) called utm_source=chatgpt.com, so that traffic is visible in tools such as Google Analytics.
Sinéad’s checks, in order:
- Open the website’s robots.txt file, usually at the domain name followed by /robots.txt, and look for OAI-SearchBot.
- If the file blocks OAI-SearchBot, remove that line. Blocking GPTBot is a separate choice and does not affect ChatGPT search.
- Write one plain page for each question guests ask: location, rooms and bed types, parking, pets, breakfast, check-in times, and how to book direct.
- Keep the same answers on the website, the Google listing and every booking site, so nothing contradicts.
None of that is a long job. The common mistake is burying these details in a PDF, a photo or a booking box, where a reader cannot pick them out.
Tip: Read the home page as a guest would. If parking, pets or breakfast take more than one click to find, move those answers higher up.
A step-by-step walkthrough of the same method sits in this guide to getting found in ChatGPT answers.
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Hotel SEO basics that AI answers lean on#
Once the website is readable, the next layer for Sinéad is what other sites say about her agency and its cottages. The playbook from Google tells hotels to add photos of rooms, amenities and services to the Google Business Profile (The free Google listing showing a business’s details, photos and reviews.). It reports that hotels with photos get 42% more requests for directions on Google Maps and 35% more clicks to their websites.
The same playbook covers the Hotel Details tool, which holds amenities, check-in and check-out times, and highlights such as pet-friendly, free Wi-Fi and free parking. It advises replying to positive and negative reviews, and notes that 91% of consumers use reviews to evaluate local businesses. Free booking links, set up through a partner integration, show a hotel’s direct rates and availability without Google Ads.
Not every detail comes from the hotel itself. According to Google Business Profile Help, a profile can show amenities such as Wi-Fi or a swimming pool. Google gathers this information from various sources, and hotels can edit certain attributes themselves.
The details below should match wherever a guest looks.
| Detail | Where it must match |
|---|---|
| Rooms and bed types | Website, Google profile, booking sites |
| Check-in and check-out times | Website, Google profile |
| Parking, Wi-Fi and pets | Website, Google profile, booking sites |
| Breakfast and what the rate includes | Website, booking sites |
| Direct booking link | Website, Google profile |
Note: Google can pick up an amenity such as a swimming pool from another source, so check the attributes on the profile and correct anything that is wrong.
Booking direct for hotels#
The free booking links described above matter most at the moment of booking, because they show Sinéad’s own rates and availability without an ad spend. Her direct booking page should answer the guest’s remaining questions on one screen: what the rate includes, the cancellation policy and check-in arrangements, with a clear button that starts the booking. This is where a local agency can beat the big platforms: it can say which cottage has the best sea view, a reliable broadband line or a short walk to the village, details a large booking site rarely gets right.
Radisson’s tool follows the same pattern, with the booking finished on the hotel’s own website rather than inside ChatGPT, as the launch details above show.
Watch out: If a booking site shows a lower rate than the hotel’s own page, guests notice. Keep rates, policies and room descriptions identical everywhere.
How to check whether ChatGPT sends you guests#
Tracking is what turns the effort into a decision, and a short monthly routine beats a one-off look.
- Open Google Analytics, find the report that shows where visits came from, and look for the chatgpt.com label.
- Note how many visits arrived that way, and whether they led to an enquiry or a booking.
- Ask ChatGPT the questions a guest would ask, such as ‘a pet-friendly cottage near Clifden with a sea view’. Note which properties are named and which details appear.
- Repeat the check each month and after any large change to the website or the listings.
The common mistake is checking once and treating a single answer as a result.
AI for hotels: using ChatGPT behind the desk#
The same tool can also help inside Sinéad’s office, in a few narrow ways. ChatGPT suits drafting replies to common questions, writing website or social media copy, and turning a long policy into short, plain sentences.
It is not a place to paste guest names, booking references, card details or email threads. That information is personal data under GDPR, the EU data protection law that applies in Ireland, and the Data Protection Commission is the body that regulates it. Anything tied to a booking should stay inside the booking system or CRM (software that holds guest details, enquiries and past bookings). Staff should also know which tools the business has approved for guest information.
Putting AI visibility to work in an Irish hotel#
This work does not need a large project. It needs one person who owns it and a routine that survives a busy weekend.
In a small lettings agency or guesthouse, the owner or office manager can hold the website, the Google profile and the booking site listings. Replying to reviews once or twice a week keeps the profile active. Front desk staff can note the questions guests ask most, and those questions become the pages the website needs. A short monthly check of the AI answers, the analytics tag and the profile details catches wrong amenities or old rates.
Where the job keeps slipping between shifts, an outside AI search visibility service can take it on. That might mean the crawler checks, the listings and the monthly report (the traffic and booking figures) get done in one go. Outside help earns its place when a booking engine (software that shows room availability and takes bookings) hides rates from crawlers, or when several properties must stay consistent.
How Baikou checks a business in ChatGPT answers#
Baikou’s team runs these checks with its free AI visibility check. It first reads the website the way AI assistants do: the main page, robots.txt and the sitemap. It then asks ChatGPT, with web search switched on, the questions a customer would ask about that type of business in that town, and records whether the business is named, who is named instead and three things to fix first. ChatGPT answers change from day to day, so the team treats each report as a snapshot and repeats the check after changes to the website or the listings.
The next step for an Irish hotel#
For a small Irish hotel, guesthouse, B&B or holiday let, the first step is small. Check that robots.txt lets OAI-SearchBot in, complete the Google profile details, and write one plain page for the questions guests ask most. After that, check the AI answers and the tracking tag once a month and fix anything that has drifted. Baikou helps Irish businesses with AI search visibility, so those checks can sit with one team. More at Baikou.
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See GEO / AI search optimisationFAQ#
Can a hotel pay to appear in ChatGPT answers?
An ad slot and an answer are two different things. OpenAI has said that advertising does not influence the answers ChatGPT provides, and that ads appear separately from answers. Paying buys a marked placement, not a place in a recommendation. A hotel’s chance of being named comes from what it publishes about itself and what other sites say about it.
Does ChatGPT take hotel bookings itself?
In the Radisson example, no. Travellers browse and compare inside the tool, then finish on the hotel’s own website. That keeps the booking and the guest details with the hotel, and it means the direct booking page has to work well on a phone, with the rate and the cancellation policy in plain words.
Can this help holiday home advertising?
Yes, and the steps are the same: a readable website, a complete Google profile and recent reviews. Guests often look by area and by feature, such as a house that takes dogs or has parking, so those details need to sit in plain text. Visits can be tracked in the same way. A holiday home with no website of its own can only be described through the platform or local letting agency that lists it.
