If you want AI to recommend your hotel, you need to think like a journalist

It’s the buzzword (acronym?) that is set to redefine how hotels and travel experiences are discoverable online. Your marketing meetings are likely humming with talk of AI, how to harness SEO and GEO for hotels and whether guests will ever find you again. 

Is your content responding to prompts? Do backlinks matter anymore? Should all your SEO pages be made GEO (generative engine optimisation) friendly?

The panic sets in - there is a sudden urge to fix everything for these new search engines right away, or risk being lost forever in the abyss. 

But let’s take a breath. Yes, AI is changing things, but it’s also presenting an opportunity.

Have you used it recently? Whereas you may have typed a fragmented phrase like “Boutique rural hotel Mallorca” into Google, when it comes to AI, we become much more prescriptive and commanding, perhaps writing: “Find me a quiet, independently owned hotel in Mallorca with historic architecture and a hyper-local farm-to-table food philosophy.”

Robotic SEO copy just doesn’t cut it as a response to that second prompt. AI models aren’t ranking properties based on how many times a keyword is repeated on a page. They are ranking properties based on context, authority, and genuine narrative value.

As a travel journalist, this is music to my ears. What does it mean? We should be writing human-led copy - high-quality, informative content. AI models can read through the PR fluff, they want the real story. Hallelujah. 

And that’s where a journalist’s approach comes in. Forget waffling on about finding the “ultimate oasis of luxury” or “unparalleled guest service”. What gives your hotel its soul?

Is it the 14th-century stone walls of your farmhouse property? The microclimate that allows your vines to flourish in the vineyard? Perhaps it's Pedro, the local fisherman who supplies your restaurant with its daily catch, or the interior design that incorporates antiques to make you feel like you’ve stepped back in time. 

When you write like a journalist, you feed the AI engines what they want - structured, contextual data that helps them index your property accurately. These details are your proof points. They give the AI the confidence to spit out the answer to your searcher, saying: “This is the exact historic, hyper-local hotel you were looking for.”

Of course, it can become more technical than that. You’ll need different types of copy for different goals, and different AI platforms favour different approaches. Some might value third-party credibility (your reviews and appearances on other authoritative pages). Others like to see you using respected sources to back up your claims, or using different types of media, from written features and video content to newsletters and LinkedIn posts. 

But to me, that all still sounds like good journalism. Back up your sources, be clear about what you’re saying, write something original, reach people where they are.

If you’re writing content for your website, it’s not enough to just rip off a version of another blog on the same topic you found online. So think like a journalist and ask yourself these questions… 

Is what you’re saying really new?

If you went into the editor pitching a story because your rival newspaper wrote it yesterday you’d probably be greeted by a few expletives and the question, “but what’s new?”. You can be inspired by other copy, but how do you advance the story? How do you bring a fresh angle or point of view?

Are you just churning out marketing speak?

Marketing is full of those vague, sweeping statements - the ones that explain that the hotel breakfast being served features “seasonal ingredients from the local area”.

A journalist will tell you that the sourdough bread is baked fresh at the neighbourhood bakery down the road, that the figs were harvested from the trees on the estate and drizzled with honey from Enrico the local beekeeper (bonus points if you offer a tour to meet him and harvest your own honey). This option gives AI concrete data points to include in a response to a prompt asking about artisanal food - it knows exactly which hotel to recommend.

Can you verify what you say?

That same attention to detail is needed to replace those bland sustainability claims. So you’re trying to be green, an editor would say: “So what? Prove it.” A journalist digs into the details to cite specific water-recycling statistics or carbon offsetting data. It gives the AI something tangible for AI to pull information from when someone is looking for a sustainable stay. 

The same when you talk about your history. Great, you have an old building - again, so what? Wouldn’t it be better if you could talk about the original family that built it and even link to a source to back up your claim? AI likes trusted sources as much as that insistent editor - it can verify your claims across the web, giving it the confidence to recommend you to users.

Is it simple to understand?

In the world of travel, it can be tempting to wax lyrical and create a floral work of art, but an editor would call that self-indulgent. The point of your writing is to immerse people in a destination, yes, but also to impart information, not show how vast your vocabulary is. AI thinks the same. If its crawlers cannot extract any practical context from what you’re writing, it simply won’t consider you, rendering your site invisible. 

Do you answer the question in the first paragraph?

As a journalist, you’re taught that the first paragraph of a news story is vital. It should answer who, what, where, when and why. And it should be snappy about it. 

Your GEO copy isn’t all that different. When you’re creating a website page or writing a blog, you want to have a question in mind that you’re answering. In fact some say each page should be targeted towards answering a different question. 

What would someone write as an AI prompt for your culinary offering for example? If you make sure you answer that in the first 100 words or so, cleanly and succinctly, you’re creating a lovely citation for AI to use. Bonus points if you put key facts into easily digestible bullet points. 

Are you being consistent?

There is a reason media outlets have style guides. Because consistency builds trust. If a newspaper was covering a breaking news story but spelt the country involved three different ways across its socials, website and physical paper, you wouldn’t really trust the reporting, would you? 

Well, AI wants the same. And that can be as simple as ensuring your Google Business Profile is up to date and rich in content, and that the key details - like your phone number and address - are identical across all touchpoints. AI models like to cross-reference sources to make sure they have the right information - inconsistencies mean they won’t trust you.

Are you making your copy work hard?

As any journalist knows, it doesn’t matter how great your article is if nobody is reading it. So what do newspapers do? They disseminate. That print article also goes online, it’s teased on social media channels and perhaps then used as the basis for a longer-form feature or an opinion piece. If you’ve worked hard on an article, make it work hard for you.

It’s the same with any marketing content you produce. You’ve put the work in, you’re telling a great story, so make sure it reaches potential guests where they spend their time. AI models also love different formats, from videos to podcasts, images to written content - the more you have, the more AI trusts you as a legitimate source of information.

Have you considered making it a feature?

A great news story makes for an even better feature. Think of those lovely double-page spreads in the newspaper that really give you a deep-dive into a trending story. Well AI loves it when you do the same with your content.

Previously, people used to game search engines by writing endless posts covering a topic from different angles to position themselves as experts. But AI seems to prefer one long, in-depth post over 10 dissecting the same themes. So don’t be afraid to dig deep and really write something of value. Channel your inner feature writer. 

So what does this all mean for your hospitality business?

While there is a sense of panic across marketing teams that SEO is out and GEO is in, the reality is a little more nuanced. The future of search engine optimisation is heavily influenced by AI, but if you have a good basis for SEO, you’re actually in a good position to optimise for generative search, too

Yes, there are things you can do and changes you can make, but you’re not throwing everything out and starting from scratch. In fact, a lot of those journalism-inspired tips are good for SEO, too. The question is, have you been thinking like a journalist? Or a marketer? 

At Peregryn, we bridge that gap between technical search algorithms and premium travel journalism. As the founder - a journalist who has worked in the industry for almost 20 years - I am well-versed in delving into those stories and picking out the details that make your brand unique. 

And as an agency, we’re experts in translating those stories into marketing strategies and content that make your travel or hotel brand impossible for both humans and AI to ignore.

So if you’re ready to update your digital strategy, take a look at our content marketing services and get in touch.

Written by brand strategist Sarah Gordon