Why HotelRank.ai?
It’s always a delicate exercise to promote your own solution. But some fundamental differences make me genuinely believe this is the most suitable tool for hoteliers. Whether compared to traditional SEO tools (Ahrefs, Semrush, …) or to generalist AI search trackers, our focus on the hotel vertical is what sets us apart. Here’s an overview.
AI and SEO expert at the forefront of AI Search. He analyses models daily and runs hospitality-focused experiments on a database of over 1M prompts, citations and mentions.
Why HotelRank.ai is Better Suited Than Traditional SEO Tools
A new world, new rules
SEO is evolving. In 2025, AI-driven search (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini…) is already starting to replace traditional Google traffic. According to Semrush, it could be fully replaced as early as 2028 (source: here)!
I love SEO tools. I’ve worked in this space for over 10 years and we still use some of them internally. They’re starting to adapt to this shift—with things like Ahrefs’ AI Brand Radar, Surfer’s AI Tracker, or Semrush’s AI SEO Toolkit (to name a few big ones).
But none of these tools were built for hotels.
They’re excellent general-purpose tools, each with their own strengths—especially in how they leverage proprietary crawl data. But when it comes to AI visibility, it’s just a side feature. In every case, it’s an “add-on,” not the core product. And let’s not even talk about the price :)
So what makes HotelRank.ai different?
We won’t list out every difference, but at its core, HotelRank.ai was designed with hotels in mind—from their business models to their pain points.
- HotelRank measures direct links vs OTA links.
Ahrefs might show you a booking.com URL, but it doesn’t know if it points to a specific hotel. AI search is a huge opportunity for revenue teams to improve their distribution mix—and get more margin. After speaking with over 150 hotels this summer, the sentiment is clear: OTAs can be useful… but most hoteliers want to reduce their dependency.
- HotelRank understands hotel-specific logic
We know thathttps://all.accor.com/hotel/9068/index.en.shtmlrefers to the Mercure Hotel Berlin Zentrum, which has 78 rooms. We also know Accor has 224 hotels in the United Kingdom, and 23 in Vienna. We know which ones are chains, franchises, or independents. That’s built into the system.
- HotelRank builds a knowledge graph around hotels
We map everything: guest profiles (business, couples, families…), star ratings, hotels that co-appear in the same queries, analytics setups (yes, even who’s running GA or not), and macro trends. We’ve mapped the landscape to provide the most granular analysis possible.
- HotelRank doesn’t expect you to be an SEO expert
Most hotel GMs, investors, and operators don’t want to export 15 CSV files. They want to understand—and act. HotelRank is designed for that.
Can’t I just use ChatGPT directly?
ChatGPT is a great starting point.
You can ask about your hotel, copy/paste results into Excel, tweak a few things, and get a rough idea of how you’re doing. Maybe you repeat the process on Gemini or Perplexity. Maybe you try different models, go incognito to avoid memory bias.
But let’s be honest: that quickly becomes unmanageable.
Now imagine you’re tracking multiple hotels, testing multiple prompts, analyzing multiple LLMs, and accounting for model updates. It becomes impossible to monitor your AI presence in any structured way.
What about using ChatGPT for recommendations?
Sure, but it often lacks the context, strategic lens, and executional insight to actually improve your visibility. If you’re a hotelier looking to grow your visibility in AI search, you need a specialized tool—not just a chatbot.
HotelRank doesn’t replace ChatGPT. It analyzes it (and competitors).
What about a general-purpose AI visibility tracker?
At first glance, generalist tools can look more powerful. They may offer broader model support or flashier features. I even recommend them to friends who are exploring AI visibility for their brands.
But more isn’t always better.
The real value lies in meeting user needs.
Just like with SEO tools, these general-purpose platforms focus mostly on brand monitoring—Share of Voice, brand mentions, etc. Useful, but they miss the nuance of the hotel world: OTAs, location-based visibility, direct booking links.
If you’re tracking Share of Voice, you might as well know whether it drives direct bookings or not.
AI search is changing everything—fast
AI-driven travel planning is already reshaping how people book trips. Some LLMs are displaying maps (as I mentioned [here]), and others now let users book directly in-app—meaning no more clicks to your website or even OTAs.
HotelRank lets you track this evolution over time, across models (GPT-4, GPT-4o, GPT-5-mini, etc.).
“Sure, but every tool does that.”
Not quite.
We measure model variability on a fixed set of prompts—allowing hotels to spot volatility and adapt fast. Just look at the graph below.
OTA links in GPT4/5 traveller requests
In conclusion
- SEO tools are amazing—for classic SEO.
- Generalist AI tools are great—for brand monitoring.
But if you’re a hotelier and want to understand your AI visibility with true hospitality-specific intelligence behind it… you should probably give HotelRank a try :)
