AI search has fundamentally changed the way people make decisions, with around nine in ten B2B buyers adopting the technology as part of their purchasing process.*
If hospitality tech brands want to succeed, they need to ensure their name pops up when a potential customer jumps into ChatGPT to do some research.
That’s why we wanted to break down the search shift and what it means for your brand. This article also explores how AI decides whether to talk about your company – and in what terms – along with actionable tips for ensuring LLMs cite you accurately.
Want to build the authority that helps your brand show up on AI search platforms? Contact Abode today.
The search shift: How AI has changed online discovery
When ChatGPT and other AI search engines exploded back in 2024, Google’s search share dipped below 90% for the first time in a decade. And Gartner predicts that 50% of search traffic will be gone by 2028.
This monumental shift hasn’t just impacted where people get their information, but how they look for it as well.
People aren’t just searching anymore; they’re asking full, conversational questions. Traditional search queries average two to four words, while LLMS prompts often exceed 20.
The takeaway for hospitality tech companies? The same playbook you’ve been using for years will no longer get you the same results.
Brand visibility and reputation now depend on how you show up everywhere online, not just on Google. And when we’re talking about AI platforms, the stakes are high.
LLMs shape a buyer’s perception of your brand long before they ever visit your website or speak to a sales rep. Compare what the process used to look like to what it looks like now:
- Traditional search: A prospect searches the term “best PMS”. They come across a paid ad from your website, one of your product pages, and a listicle from a competitor site that you secured a mention and a link in. You control the messaging and choose how to talk about your brand.
- AI search: A prospect queries, “what PMS should I use if I’m a property manager who only has a few rentals?” into ChatGPT. All they see is the limited list of solutions that the LLM generates, and if your name isn’t on it, the prospect probably won’t put you on their shortlist of solutions.
The shift isn’t necessarily bad news for hospitality tech brands, but it should be a wake-up call for teams to adjust their approach to marketing and PR.
How does AI find your brand and decide to cite it?
ChatGPT and other AI search engines rely on publicly available information when referencing brands. But that extends far beyond the messaging on your own website.
89% of links cited by AI are from earned media, and 61% of ChatGPT’s brand references come from editorial sources. In other words, AI search engines favor brands that are frequently mentioned in authoritative, third-party publications. If you’re absent from or misrepresented in key industry outlets, you lose your opportunity to control the narrative.
So what does this mean for you? Metadata tweaks and SEO hacks only go so far. Being recommended by AI search engines requires strong brand authority and third-party validation, both of which signal trust and credibility. Earned media plays a critical role in building that foundation.
Focusing on traditional search, whether paid or earned, is no longer enough to stay visible. As AI becomes a primary discovery channel, strategic PR is more important than ever. Securing consistent coverage in trusted, editorial publications helps ensure ChatGPT and other AI-powered search platforms reference your brand accurately, credibly, and on your terms.
Here are a few ways PR helps improve AI search performance:
- Citations: Mentions from authoritative sources are just as valuable for LLMs as self-promotion on your website via case studies or testimonials.
- Sentiment: AI processes the emotional framing of your coverage, which is why it’s essential to control the narrative around how publications talk about your brand.
- Context: Appearing in recurring narratives, such as guest experience or contactless tech, builds relevance and familiarity around the pillars of your brand.
- Volume: Frequent mentions in credible press keep you current in models that are constantly scraping the web to provide the most up-to-date information available.
How to ensure LLMs cite factually accurate content about your hospitality tech brand
It doesn’t matter how well you position your brand if it doesn’t show up in the right places. In addition to owned channels, you need to target news articles in high-authority publications, trusted product review sites, educational content, discussion forums, comparison lists, and even Wikipedia.
Here’s a breakdown of where you need to signal your authority and trust and why it matters for showing up in AI search.
| Source type | Examples | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| High-authority publications | Skift, PhocusWire, Property Week, Hospitality Investor | Often scraped by LLM pre-training |
| Trusted product review sites | Capterra, G2, Trustpilot, HotelTechReport | Contains rich structured data, high weight in LLMs |
| Thought leadership content | Opinion piece in tier-one media | Topic-rich, signals spokesperson topic authority |
| Third-party content | Guest posts, influencer content | Builds authority, trust, and diverse signals |
| Educational content | Academic papers, FAQ pages, blog | Easy to pattern match in answers |
| Owned content | Website: landing pages, product pages, blog, etc. | Serves as the anchor of your brand’s messaging |
| Discussion forums | Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn comments | Often scraped for training |
| Comparison lists | Review articles, listicles on third-party sites | Easy to pattern match in answers |
| Wikipedia | Wikipedia | High weight in LLMs |
Now, let’s take a deeper look at the steps you should take to ensure AI search engines talk about your brand just how you want them to.
1. Recognize what you can and can’t do about LLM visibility
Understanding AI search also means understanding your limitations. You can’t correct an LLM by sending in a support ticket to explain that it doesn’t have your messaging right.
The only way to influence AI outputs is through the information ecosystem these models learn from. In other words, you have to work to position your brand exactly how you want it to be reflected in AI search answers across the entire digital landscape.
Your job is to shape all the content LLMs pull from across the web, from owned content and earned media to product reviews and community conversations, to ensure that it’s accurate, consistent, and up-to-date.
2. Audit your brand’s LLM visibility
Look into how your brand currently performs in LLMs. Run the following queries across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini:
- “Describe [your brand] in one paragraph, including what problem it solves and who it is for.”
- “List the top [category] platforms in 2025 and explain why each is considered a leader.”
- “What are the best alternatives to [competitor] for companies that need [specific use case]?”
- “Compare [competitor] with other leading solutions in the [category], including strengths and weaknesses.”
- What are experts saying about the future of [category]?
- “Which companies or leaders are shaping the future of [category], and why?”
Log whether or not you appear in these answers, whether the information is accurate, and which sources the LLMs cite.
From there, identify outdated, inaccurate, or incomplete descriptions of your brand. You may have to correct descriptions on your product pages, update FAQ answers, or work to control the narrative on online forums.
Prioritize updating the sources that are most frequently referenced to have the biggest impact.
3. Keep your owned content accurate and consistent
You have the most control over your own content, but many businesses still fail to keep this valuable asset up to date. Take a structured approach to updating your messaging, website pages, and press releases.
Messaging and brand positioning
Your brand evolves over time, and with it, your positioning does too. That’s all well and good, but if your internal teams aren’t aligned about these changes and don’t know how to accurately communicate them, LLMs won’t be aware of your updated messaging.
Whenever these shifts happen, make sure your PR and marketing teams know how to describe the brand consistently. That way, whether you’re making a pitch to the media or publishing an article on your blog, your positioning is correct.
Let’s say, for example, you’re a guest messaging platform that has expanded into the CRM space. This extended scope must appear everywhere, from the pages you create on your site to the articles your PR team pitches.
Your website, blogs, and static pages
Your owned content acts as the anchor of your brand, and it needs to be accurate, current, and aligned with your latest positioning.
This ranges from facts about your product and stats in case studies to feature descriptions and FAQ pages. So as soon as you make an update to your product or you get new data on time savings customers see with your solution, update your website.
You don’t need to revamp your website every week, but schedule an audit every quarter to make sure your homepage, product pages, case studies, and high-traffic blog articles accurately reflect your current product and messaging.
Press releases and boilerplates
Consistent boilerplates emphasize your key messaging to AI search engines. So make sure your boilerplate is up to date for every press release you send out, which helps train the models over time by reinforcing accurate descriptions that show up time and time again.
While you may not see the impact immediately, this consistency pays off in the long run; over time, you’ll see more accurate citations in LLMs.
4. Strengthen high-authority public sources
Appearing in industry-leading publications can move the needle when it comes to showing up in AI search. But this PR tactic can be a big investment.
If you want to start with a more manageable task, there are some smaller-scale projects that can also make an impact and get you more visibility on ChatGPT and other LLMs: Wikipedia, review sites, and online forums.
Wikipedia
Many companies make the mistake of neglecting their Wikipedia page, but ChatGPT very frequently cites this source: Wikipedia is the LLM’s single most-cited content type. A small project that can have a big impact is a Wikipedia audit.
Review your company page to check that it’s accurate, takes a neutral stance, includes relevant information about your product and features, and cites reputable sources. This helps ensure that when ChatGPT cites your Wikipedia page, it talks about your brand just as you would.
If your brand doesn’t have a Wikipedia page yet, make creating one a priority. This article walks you through the steps for making one. Doing so is a worthwhile investment of your team’s time, which will pay off in the long run.
Review sites, comparison platforms, and directories
Review sites play a significant role in influencing how your brand shows up in AI search. Think HotelTechReport, G2, Trustpilot, and Capterra, to name a few. These are trusted sources for LLMs, and they carry a huge weight for citations and rankings.
Marketing departments should oversee the task of keeping review ecosystems accurate. Your team should create a system for:
- Auditing listings to ensure they reflect current positioning and features
- Encouraging and incentivizing customers to leave strong, authentic reviews
- Keeping all metadata, categories, awards, and product capabilities updated
Forums and community spaces
Online forums are often overlooked in PR and marketing, but they’ve gained much more importance with the rise of AI search. While ChatGPT has recently scaled down on Reddit citations, other LLMs still draw from widely discussed public forums.
How people talk about your brand in these communities influences how (and how often) you show up in LLMs. So make it a practice to keep an eye on key threads around your brand and industry, and participate organically where relevant.
For example, you can do a Google site search to look for threads where your brand appears (or should appear):
- site:reddit.com [brand name]
- site:reddit.com [category] tools
Parse through the results to see how people candidly talk about your brand or if it shows up at all in important industry conversations. Repeat this audit for any other relevant communities where your brand should have a presence, and get involved to make sure you’re part of the conversation.
5. Manage listicles and third-party content
“Best of” lists, vendor roundups, and product comparisons are major training data inputs for LLM. Getting mentioned in listicles is usually a product of a strong reputation built by a sustained PR strategy, as well as solid marketing efforts.
PR efforts may secure you earned mentions in listicles on trade magazines, but your marketing team might also want to look at paid opportunities on websites that use sponsored content.
The first step is to do an audit of listicles that feature your brand, then split these assets into PR and marketing to determine who owns the review and follow-up tasks. Then, go through these listicles to scan for any factual errors or outdated information.
If that’s the case, reach out to the publisher, whether it’s an industry publication or affiliate blog, to mention that there’s a factual error in their description. Request a correction and supply them with the updated information.
6. Play the long game: influence through consistency
Optimizing for AI search is a long-term project. LLMs take time to integrate new information, so you probably won’t notice a change overnight.
But you’ll start seeing results if you stay disciplined and maintain:
- Consistent messaging
- Clear, differentiated branding
- Frequent PR activity focused on quality content and outlets
- Up-to-date owned content
- SEO-friendly web presence
For maximum influence on LLM visibility, take a combined static and dynamic approach to content. Static content includes website pages, profiles, and directory listings, which remain relatively consistent over time. Dynamic content, like press coverage and ongoing earned media, should be focused on sharing more frequent updates about your brand and product. You need both to build credibility with LLMs: static ensures factual accuracy, while dynamic reinforces reputation and relevance.
Boost your brand’s LLM visibility with strategic PR
Earned media and PR can be one of the most challenging aspects of AI search optimization to tackle, which is why working with a team of strategic communications experts who know the ins and outs of your sector can give you a big push in the right direction.
At Abode, we help build clarity and credibility for hospitality tech companies that want to become market leaders. We’re deeply embedded in the industry, which is why we’re able to generate visibility that drives reputation, relevance, and results.
Need help increasing visibility around your hospitality tech brand? Contact Abode today.
*B2B Buyer Adoption Of Generative AI, Forrester
