We ran 660 queries across 4 AI engines to find out which hotel brands show up when travelers plan spring break trips. Major chains dominate 2:1 — but lifestyle brands win on quality when they appear.
Research Scope
We asked 660 questions across 4 AI engines covering 7 US spring break cities and 16 hotel brands. Here's what we found.
Hilton (120 mentions), Marriott (57), and Hyatt (40) captured 217 total mentions vs. 102 for lifestyle brands. But volume isn't the full story.
Moxy Hotels (vis score 90.0) and 1 Hotel (90.6) outscore Hilton (85.4) because they rank higher in lists when cited. More mentions ≠ better visibility score.
ChatGPT skews 4.8:1 toward chains. Gemini gives lifestyle brands their best shot at 1.6:1. There is no single "AI ranking" — engine-specific strategy is required.
Identical prompts on identical engines produced different brand mentions 30% of the time. Single-run visibility checks are statistically meaningless. The N=3 standard removes 83% of this noise.
If you're a hotel brand relying on a single AI engine check to understand your visibility, you're seeing at most 25% of the picture. Each engine recommends differently, results change 30% of the time, and the brands that "win" on mentions aren't necessarily the ones AI recommends first. Multi-engine, multi-run monitoring is the only way to get a real read.
Ranked by total AI mentions across all 4 engines and 3 runs. Lifestyle brands often rank higher in position when they appear — they just appear less often.
How often AI cited the brand across all 660 queries. Higher is more frequent.
Average list position when cited. Position 1 = mentioned first. Lower is better.
Composite score (0–100) weighting position quality + engine coverage.
| # | Brand | Mentions | Engines | Avg Pos | Vis. Score | Mention Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HiltonChain | 120 | 4/4 | 2.2 | 85.4 | 34.0% |
| 2 | MarriottChain | 57 | 4/4 | 1.9 | 91.6 | 16.1% |
| 3 | HyattChain | 40 | 4/4 | 2.0 | 88.0 | 11.3% |
| 4 | Caesars PalaceOther | 25 | 4/4 | 2.0 | 88.8 | 7.1% |
| 5 | Kimpton HotelsLifestyle | 22 | 3/4 | 1.9 | 89.8 | 6.2% |
| 6 | Virgin HotelsLifestyle | 19 | 4/4 | 2.8 | 75.0 | 5.4% |
| 7 | 1 HotelLifestyle | 16 | 3/4 | 1.8 | 90.6 | 4.5% |
| 8 | Moxy HotelsLifestyle | 12 | 4/4 | 1.8 | 90.0 | 3.4% |
| 9 | Ace HotelLifestyle | 10 | 3/4 | 2.2 | 88.0 | 2.8% |
| 10 | W HotelsLifestyle | 8 | 2/4 | 1.9 | 86.9 | 2.3% |
| 11 | citizenMLifestyle | 7 | 3/4 | 2.7 | 78.6 | 2.0% |
| 12 | AirbnbOther | 5 | 4/4 | 2.6 | 76.0 | 1.4% |
| 13 | Best WesternOther | 4 | 2/4 | 2.5 | 81.3 | 1.1% |
| 14 | Thompson HotelsLifestyle | 4 | 1/4 | 2.8 | 81.3 | 1.1% |
| 15 | Graduate HotelsLifestyle | 3 | 1/4 | 1.7 | 90.0 | 0.8% |
| 16 | The StandardLifestyle | 1 | 1/4 | 5.0 | 40.0 | 0.3% |
Major chains captured 217 total mentions vs. lifestyle brands' 102 — a 2.1:1 ratio. But when lifestyle brands do appear, they often rank in higher positions (avg 1.8–1.9) vs. major chains (avg 2.1–2.2). The gap isn't quality — it's discoverability.
Powered by the AIVO Research Platform. The leaderboard above is generated directly from our platform — aggregating mentions, position data, and engine coverage across 660 queries into a single, ranked view of AI visibility performance.
Same 55 prompts. Same 7 cities. Four completely different recommendation behaviors. There is no single "AI ranking" — engine-specific strategy is not optional.
TripAdvisor-Partnered
Verbose, list-heavy responses. TripAdvisor partnership creates a strong bias toward brands with established review presence. Kimpton's best engine — 16 mentions vs. 5 or fewer on all others.
Google DeepMind
Best engine for lifestyle brands. Virgin Hotels gets 12 mentions (63% of all its mentions). W Hotels appears almost exclusively here (7 of 8). If you're a lifestyle hotel, Gemini is your primary battleground.
Google Search Integration
Reflects traditional SEO signals. Big chain websites with stronger domain authority win. 1 Hotel is the exception — its strong online presence earns position 1.5 avg when it appears.
OpenAI
Fewest total brand mentions — concise, chain-dominated responses. Only 5 lifestyle mentions in the entire study. But when a lifestyle brand breaks through, it lands at position 1.0. High barrier, high reward.
ChatGPT has a 4.8:1 chain-to-lifestyle skew — the worst engine for lifestyle brands. Gemini gives lifestyle brands their best shot with only a 1.6:1 ratio. If you're only monitoring one engine, you're missing the majority of the visibility opportunity.
Each engine's recommendation personality maps directly to the sources it cites. The content an engine pulls from shapes which brands it recommends.
Top sources: Condé Nast Traveler (36), Travel+Leisure (22), US News Travel (18)
Editorial travel media regularly features lifestyle hotels → Gemini recommends more lifestyle brands.
Top sources: TripAdvisor (82), YouTube (68), Expedia (38), Hotels.com (30)
Review platforms where chains have larger footprints → moderate chain skew.
Top sources: YouTube (111), Reddit (79), TripAdvisor (45), Facebook (44), Instagram (37)
UGC and social media where chains generate more content volume → strong chain skew.
Only 13 identifiable citations out of 421 total — 97% are unclassifiable misc sources.
Relies heavily on training data rather than live sources → chains dominate by sheer volume in training corpora.
For hotels wanting to improve AI visibility, the source strategy matters as much as the content strategy. Earning coverage in editorial travel publications (Condé Nast Traveler, Travel+Leisure) directly improves Gemini visibility. Building a strong TripAdvisor review presence improves Perplexity. Investing in YouTube and Reddit content improves Google AI Overview. There is no single "AI SEO" playbook — each engine responds to different source signals.
Powered by the AIVO Research Platform. Every citation traced back to its source domain — so we know exactly which publications AI is reading to form its recommendations. This is the intelligence layer that separates a real AI visibility strategy from guesswork.
Major chains dominate on volume, but lifestyle brands consistently earn better positions when they appear. The question is whether they appear at all.
| Engine | Lifestyle | Major Chain | Ratio | Lifestyle Avg Vis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini | 42 | 67 | 1:1.6 | 84.3 |
| Perplexity | 39 | 85 | 1:2.2 | 81.7 |
| Google AI Overview | 16 | 41 | 1:2.6 | 91.6 |
| ChatGPT | 5 | 24 | 1:4.8 | 100.0 |
ChatGPT shows the worst ratio (4.8:1) but the best lifestyle position quality — every lifestyle brand that breaks through lands at the top of the list (avg 1.0). The engine is nearly invisible for lifestyle brands, but its recommendations carry more weight when they happen. Gemini is the volume play. ChatGPT is the prestige play.
We asked identical prompts to identical engines on different days — and minutes apart. The variation rate was almost the same. This isn't drift. It's baked into the models.
| Engine | Same-Day Advantage |
|---|---|
| Gemini | +3.7pp more stable same-day |
| OpenAI | +3.6pp more stable same-day |
| Perplexity | 0.0pp — Identical |
| Google AI Overview | -3.7pp LESS stable same-day |
If you check whether "Perplexity recommends your hotel for Nashville spring break," there's a 54.5% chance the next check gives a completely different answer. Brand mentions are the most volatile element. Single-run checks are statistically meaningless. The N=3 standard removes 83% of this noise.
Moxy Hotels achieved a visibility score of 90 with just 12 mentions — outscoring Hilton (85.4) which had 120 mentions. Here's how position quality beats raw volume.
Position 1.0 every time — always first when it appears
Strong top-2 placement across runs
Lower position but consistent presence
Position 1.0 — top recommendation when featured
Hilton gets 10x more mentions — but Moxy Hotels's better average position produces a higher Visibility Score. More mentions ≠ better score. Position quality does.
The Moxy Hotels pattern isn't unique to one brand — it reveals how AI visibility actually works for hotels. Three actionable takeaways:
Being mentioned first in 12 responses is more valuable than being buried in 120. AI users act on the first recommendation — not the fifth. Optimize for how prominently you appear, not how often.
Only 5 of 16 brands appeared on all 4 engines. If your brand is only visible on 1–2 engines, a single algorithm update could make you invisible overnight. Multi-engine strategy is risk management, not a nice-to-have.
The data proves lifestyle brands don't need Hilton-scale awareness to win in AI. Brands with strong editorial coverage, clear positioning, and structured digital presence consistently earn top positions — even with a fraction of the mentions.
Transparent methodology for 660 queries across 4 AI engines, 7 cities, and 3 independent runs per prompt.
Powered by the AIVO Research Platform. Each of the 660 queries was executed, captured, and analyzed through AIVO's proprietary research engine — giving us response-level visibility into exactly what each AI said, for every prompt, across every run.
55 spring break hotel prompts covering planning, booking intent, city-specific recommendations, and lifestyle vs. chain preference queries. Each prompt designed to simulate a real traveler asking an AI assistant where to stay.
All 4 major AI engines tested with web search enabled (where applicable). Each represents a distinct recommendation behavior and source preference.
Every prompt was run 3 times per engine — not once. This is AIVO's statistical standard, derived from reviewing 20 academic papers on LLM output consistency. N=3 removes approximately 83% of ranking noise vs. single-run checks.
Prompts executed via AIVO Research Engine on OpenRouter. All responses analyzed for brand mentions, positions, and citation sources.
16 brands across Lifestyle and Major Chain tiers, covering the primary hotel options likely to appear across all 7 spring break markets.
Every metric in this study is defined transparently. The Visibility Score is a composite metric that weights position quality higher than raw mention frequency.
Get a personalized analysis of how your brand performs across ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity— plus actionable recommendations to improve your visibility.