We tested 1,500 queries across 5 AI engines, 18 travel & hospitality brands, and 2 languages (EN/ES) to discover which brands dominate AI recommendations — and which ones are invisible. Presented at POSSIBLE 2026.
For the first time in any AIVO study, all 5 engines picked a different #1 brand. There is no consensus leader in travel AI — Airbnb leads by total mentions (786) but each engine has its own preferred recommendation.
Travel is the most fragmented AI recommendation landscape we've ever studied. Unlike footwear (Crocs sweeps all 5) or beauty (e.l.f. takes 4 of 5), no travel brand can claim AI dominance. Airbnb's slim lead over Hilton (786 vs 773) is statistically marginal — this is a true five-horse race.
Each brand's AI Visibility Score (0–100) measures how often it appears across 1,500 queries. The gap between digital-native brands and legacy names tells a clear story about what AI values.
Visibility Score = % of queries where the brand was mentioned by AI engines. Higher is better.
Travel brands show moderate language splits, with booking platforms gaining in Spanish and premium hotel brands losing ground.
Global booking platforms (Booking.com +34%, Expedia +31%) gain visibility in Spanish, leveraging international presence. Mass-market cruise lines (Carnival +45%) also surge. Meanwhile, premium US-centric brands (Hyatt -28%, Southwest -40%) lose ground.
Each AI engine brings a unique travel recommendation philosophy. Perplexity favors alternative accommodations, OpenAI recommends traditional hotels, and Google AIO leans toward its own ecosystem.
Budget chains, secondary cruise lines, and vacation rental alternatives struggle to break through despite massive real-world booking volumes.
Wyndham (334 mentions) operates 9,000+ hotels globally but barely registers in AI. Vrbo (312), despite being Expedia Group's vacation rental brand, is overshadowed by Airbnb at 2.5x the mentions.
Before running the study, we set 4 hypotheses about travel & hospitality AI visibility. Here's how they held up against 1,500 data points.
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