How to get a lodge, hotel or B&B recommended in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews

How do ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews decide which places to recommend?

They work differently, but both start from what they can find on the web.

Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode draw on Google's own search index. Google says its AI features follow the same fundamentals as normal search, with no special markup needed. If Google can crawl, index and understand your site, you are eligible.

ChatGPT search uses OpenAI's own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, alongside third-party search providers. In practice that makes Bing matter as well as Google. A site that is well indexed in Google but barely present in Bing can be underrepresented in ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot.

When someone asks for "a quiet, dog-friendly lodge near the coast in the Outer Hebrides", these tools look for places that clearly match each part of that question, and for other sources that agree.

What should a hospitality website say to be recommended?

The specific things guests ask about, written in plain sentences on pages that can be crawled. Vague lines like "a unique escape" give an AI tool nothing to match. Specifics do.

• Exactly where you are: the village or area, and how far you are from the places people travel for, such as the ferry, a beach or a town.
• Each room or unit: how many it sleeps, beds, bathrooms and what is included.
• The things guests filter on: dogs, children, accessibility, parking, EV charging, Wi-Fi, breakfast, self-catering.
• What is nearby and what guests actually do during a stay.
• Seasons, minimum stays and how to book direct.

Put this in the page text, not only in images or a booking widget. Text loaded by a third-party widget is often invisible to crawlers.

Do reviews affect whether AI tools recommend my business?

Reviews are one of the main ways AI tools and search engines confirm that a place is real and well regarded. Reviews that mention specifics, like the view, the breakfast or the walk to the beach, also give these tools more detail to match against a guest's question.

Ask happy guests to leave a review on Google and on whichever booking sites you use. Never buy, write or incentivise reviews. Fake reviews are banned under UK consumer law, breach Google's policies, and are the kind of thing that undermines trust in every other signal you have.

Does my Google Business Profile matter for AI search?

Yes. It is one of the most complete, structured sources of information about a local business that Google has, and other tools pick up the same details from the places they gather data. Fill in every field, choose accurate categories, keep hours and seasonal closures current, and add real photos. We cover this in detail in our Google Business Profile checklist.

Then claim Bing Places as well. It can import your details from Google, which takes a few minutes.

Could my website be blocking AI tools without me knowing?

It is possible. Some hosting and security services offer settings that block AI crawlers, and some have switched them on by default for new sites. Check your site's robots.txt file (add /robots.txt to your domain) and your hosting or security dashboard.

Blocking a crawler used only for training an AI model is a business decision you are entitled to make. Blocking the crawlers that fetch pages to answer live questions, such as OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot, means those tools cannot read your site when a guest asks about you.

What structured data should a hospitality website have?

Structured data, or schema markup, is code that states facts about your business in a format machines read without guessing. Schema.org has specific types for places to stay, including LodgingBusiness, Hotel and BedAndBreakfast.

Useful details to include are your name, address, map coordinates, phone number, check-in and check-out times, whether pets are allowed, and amenities such as parking or Wi-Fi. Everything in the markup must also be visible on the page. Search engines check the two against each other, and markup that claims things the page doesn't show is ignored at best.

How do I know if any of this is working?

Two ways. First, look at your analytics for visitors arriving from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com and similar sites. Second, ask the AI tools yourself, once a month, in a fresh session, using the questions a guest would actually ask. Write down whether you were mentioned and what was said.

Expect this to move slowly. It is the same compounding work as search, and anyone who promises results in weeks is guessing. See how our AI search visibility work is set up, or what goes into a website for a hospitality business.