Google Keeps the Click.OTAs Get Cited, Not Clicked.
We queried Google AI Mode 4,000 times to find out where hotel traffic actually goes. 79% of hotel clicks stay within Google. OTAs get 3.6%.
Executive Summary
Google keeps the click. Hotels still win.
79% of hotel clicks stay within Google (via Google Business Profiles). Only 3.6% go to OTAs. Hotels get 16.3% direct — but since most GBP listings link back to the hotel, the effective direct access rate is ~93%.
Yet OTAs dominate reference citations — the small source links AI Mode uses. Intermediaries account for 46.6% of all citations. This means AI Mode learns from OTAs but sends traffic to Google and hotels.
Local Pack appears in only 6.5% of queries but when it does, 81% of its links go directly to hotel websites — making it the most hotel-friendly surface.
Where Do Hotel Clicks Go?
Of 6,130 hotel mentions users can click in AI Mode responses:
Hotel website direct (16.3%) + GBP listings that link to the hotel (~97% of 79.1%) = ~93% of hotel clicks ultimately reach the hotel.
Hotel Click Destinations
Hotel Click Destinations
| Destination | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Google (GBP) | 4,851 | 79.1% |
| Hotel website (direct) | 1,002 | 16.3% |
| OTA | 221 | 3.6% |
| Meta/review site | 42 | 0.7% |
| Hotel chain site | 14 | 0.2% |
OTAs get almost nothing from hotel clicks — only 3.6%. Google keeps 79% within its own ecosystem (GBP), and hotels get 16.3% direct. The OTA dominance is only in the reference citations, not in the actual hotel cards users click.
Two Surfaces, Two Behaviors
AI Mode displays hotels in two distinct surfaces with very different link behaviors.
Link Type by Surface
4,968 hotel mentions
GBP dominates — Google acts as intermediary between user and hotel
1,162 hotel mentions
81% supplier rate — most hotel-friendly surface
Reference Citations
Separate from hotel clicks. These are the inline source links AI Mode uses to support its answers. OTAs dominate here — but users don't click these the same way.
Local Pack Appearance
How often do map results appear in AI Mode responses?
By Query Type
Local Pack Appearance by Query Type
Local Pack Rate by Query Type
| Query Type | Local Pack Rate |
|---|---|
| Boutique | 10% |
| Generic | 8.5% |
| Persona | 6.1% |
| Star Filter | 6% |
| Neighborhood | 1.6% |
Neighborhood queries have the lowest local pack rate (1.6%) despite being the most location-specific. Boutique queries trigger it most often (10.0%).
By City
Local Pack Appearance by City
Local Pack Rate by City
| City | Local Pack Rate |
|---|---|
| London | 14.2% |
| Lisbon | 9.2% |
| Paris | 8.4% |
| Barcelona | 5.8% |
| Berlin | 5.4% |
| New York | 5.2% |
Reference Citations
84,329 inline citation references — the small source links AI Mode uses to support its answers.
References by Type
Reference Citations by Source Type
Reference Citations by Source Type
| Source Type | Count | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Metasearch/Reviews | 24,651 | 29.2% |
| Independent Hotels | 17,111 | 20.3% |
| Google Properties | 16,777 | 19.9% |
| OTAs | 14,627 | 17.3% |
| Editorial/Media | 9,214 | 10.9% |
| UGC (Reddit, etc.) | 1,213 | 1.4% |
Top 10 Domains
Top 10 Referenced Domains
Top 10 Referenced Domains
| Rank | Domain | Type | Citations | Share | Runs In |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | google.com | 16,770 | 19.9% | 1,863 | |
| #2 | tripadvisor.com | Meta | 13,891 | 16.5% | 3,422 |
| #3 | booking.com | OTA | 3,269 | 3.9% | 1,792 |
| #4 | agoda.com | OTA | 2,766 | 3.3% | 1,629 |
| #5 | cntraveler.com | Editorial | 2,463 | 2.9% | 1,750 |
| #6 | expedia.com | OTA | 2,299 | 2.7% | 1,604 |
TripAdvisor appears in 3,422 of 4,000 runs (86%) — the most consistently cited source. Google cites itself in 19.9% of all references.
Hotel Concentration
How concentrated are AI Mode's hotel recommendations?
Concentration by City
Concentration (HHI) by City
HHI Concentration by City
| City | HHI |
|---|---|
| Bordeaux | 810.6 |
| Vienna | 505.7 |
| Lisbon | 403.5 |
| Barcelona | 353.9 |
| Paris | 335.5 |
| Berlin | 300.4 |
HHI (Herfindahl-Hirschman Index): <1500 = low, 1500–2500 = moderate, >2500 = high.
Concentration by Query Group
Concentration by Query Group
| Group | Tiers | Unique Hotels | Mentions | HHI | Top 5 % | Once % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Generic | 1 | 383 | 1,589 | 121.3 | 15.4% | 56.4% |
| Filtered | 2, 3, 4 | 819 | 3,496 | 51.1 | 8.1% | 52.4% |
| Persona | 5 | 300 | 1,045 | 108.2 | 14.6% | 53% |
Why hotels concentrate differently than other categories
SparkToro's research on AI consistency found high inconsistency for brands and products — ask the same question twice and you get different answers. Hotels are the opposite.
The reason is structural: hotels are geographically bound with finite supply. There are only so many good hotels in Bordeaux. The AI has no choice but to concentrate because the real-world inventory is limited.
Bordeaux illustrates this well: with an HHI of 810.6 (highest in the study), the top 5 hotels account for a large share of all mentions. But this isn't AI bias — it's geography. A smaller city with fewer hotels will naturally show higher concentration than London (HHI 156.3, lowest), which has hundreds of options.
This makes hotel AI visibility fundamentally different from product or brand visibility: your competitive set is small and fixed, and the AI knows it.
Study Design
Data Collection
- 40 prompts (8 cities x 5 query tiers)
- 25 runs per prompt per country via SERPAPI
- 4 country proxies: US, DE, FR, ES
- Engine: google_ai_mode (no_cache=True)
- Date: Feb 2–3, 2026
- Total: 4,000 queries
What We Measured
- Hotel click destinations (GBP, direct, OTA)
- AI Overview vs Local Pack surface
- Reference citations (URL, domain, type)
- Local pack appearance rate
- Concentration metrics (HHI)
- Cross-tab outlier detection
Data Quality
Query Tiers
| Tier | Example |
|---|---|
| 1. Generic | Best hotels in Paris |
| 2. Boutique | Best boutique hotels in Paris |
| 3. Star Filter | Best 3-star hotels in Paris |
| 4. Neighborhood | Best hotels in Paris Marais |
| 5. Persona | Best boutique hotels in Paris for a couple |
Cities
Data Source
Data collected via SERPAPI google_ai_mode engine on Feb 2–3, 2026.
Cache disabled (no_cache=True) to ensure fresh responses for each query.
SERPAPI is the same API used by ChatGPT for web search.
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