You can’t see an AI tool’s “ranking”, because there isn’t one. What you can do is ask the questions your guests ask and see what comes back. Done carefully, and repeated every month, that tells you a lot.
This guide is the method. It takes about an hour the first time and less after that.
Why should you check your hotel’s AI visibility?
Because some travellers now start with a question to an AI tool rather than an OTA search, and you can’t fix what you haven’t measured. A monthly check shows whether you’re on the shortlists that matter, who’s there instead, and whether the AI tools describe your hotel accurately.
How do you check, step by step?
Step 1: Write five to ten real traveller questions
Write questions the way a guest would type them, about hotels like yours in your area. Don’t use your hotel’s name; you want to know whether you come up when someone doesn’t already know you. Mix three kinds:
- Broad: “best boutique hotels in Jaipur for a couple”
- Specific to your strengths: “family hotel near the beach in Goa with a pool and a kids’ menu”
- Practical: “hotel near Kochi airport for an early flight, under ₹6,000”
Five to ten questions is enough. Keep the list, because you’ll reuse it every month.
Step 2: Use a fresh session
Open a private browser window. Where the AI tool offers a temporary or logged-out chat, use it, so your own past chats and settings don’t shape the answer. If you can’t avoid being logged in, note that in your results.
Step 3: Ask the same words in each AI tool
Ask each question, word for word, in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude. If you also see Google’s AI Overviews when you search the question on Google, include those.
Step 4: Record what you see
For each answer, note:
- Named? Is your hotel mentioned at all, and where in the list?
- Who else? Which hotels are named instead of or alongside you?
- What’s said about you? Is it accurate: price range, location, amenities?
- Which sources? Many answers now show links to the pages they drew on. ChatGPT search surfaces websites in its answers,[2] Google’s AI Overviews show supporting links,[1] Gemini can ground answers in Google Search with citations,[3] and Perplexity can include links to the pages it visited.[4] Those links show you which sources to fix.
Step 5: Ask each question two or three times
Answers vary from run to run. Asking twice or three times, in new sessions, shows you whether a mention is steady or a fluke.
Step 6: Repeat every month
Same questions, same day of the month, same method. The trend over three or four months tells you far more than any single result.
What mistakes should you avoid when checking?
A few habits make the results look better or worse than they really are:
- Searching for your own hotel’s name. Of course the AI tool finds you. The question is whether it suggests you to someone who doesn’t know you yet.
- Asking once. A single answer can be a fluke in either direction. Ask each question two or three times.
- Changing the wording every month. If the questions change, you can’t compare months. Keep the same list, and add new questions alongside it rather than replacing old ones.
- Testing while logged in to your own accounts. Your history can shape what you see. Use a fresh session.
- Judging one month. Visibility moves slowly and answers vary. Look at three or four months before deciding something has worked or failed.
What should your tracking table look like?
A simple spreadsheet is enough. One row per question, per AI tool, per month:
| Month | Question | AI tool | Named? (position) | Hotels named instead | Accurate? | Sources shown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct | Boutique hotel in Jaipur for a couple | ChatGPT | No | Hotel A, Hotel B, Hotel C | n/a | Hotel A’s site, an OTA, a travel blog |
| Oct | Boutique hotel in Jaipur for a couple | Gemini | Yes (3rd) | Hotel A, Hotel D | Price range wrong | Your Google profile, an OTA |
These rows are illustrative examples of how to fill the table, not real results.
How do you read the results?
Look for patterns across questions and months, then match each pattern to a fix:
| What you see | What it usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| You never appear | AI tools can’t find or don’t trust enough about you | Work through the basics in our checklist |
| You appear, but facts are wrong | A source they rely on is out of date | Fix the cited pages: your site, Google profile, OTA listings |
| A competitor appears for your strength | Their information about that strength is clearer than yours | Write about it plainly on your site and listings |
| You appear for some questions only | Your content covers some topics, not others | Add clear details and FAQs for the missing ones |
| Results jump around month to month | Normal variation | Keep measuring; judge the trend |
What should you fix first?
Start with whatever stops AI tools finding you at all, then work on accuracy, then on the strengths you want to be known for. Our 15-point AI visibility checklist covers each fix in order. For the bigger picture on why these fixes work, see what AEO means for hotels.
When is it worth getting help?
If you’d rather not run this yourself, book a free AI visibility audit. We put the questions travellers ask about hotels like yours to Google’s Gemini with Google Search grounding, several times each, and show you a score out of 100, who appears instead and what to fix first. It covers Gemini only, so it doesn’t replace checking the other tools yourself. HostOS’s AI Visibility Optimization service then does the work and re-runs the audit every month.
For the bigger picture of how Indian travellers use these tools, read how AI is changing the way Indians plan trips.