In AI answers about hotels, Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt carry the story; booking sites get caveats

This snapshot covers 25 answers from five assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok) to five category questions, measured on 2026-09-28. None of the questions named a brand. Three of them, on customer experience, loyalty programs and sustainability, produced ranked or segmented lists of hotel companies. Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt sat at the center of most of those lists.

The answers hedged on "best" more than they picked one winner. Perplexity's customer-experience answer said the leaders "depend on which ranking you trust". On loyalty, ChatGPT's answer put Marriott Bonvoy first overall and Hyatt first on value. Perplexity's answer put World of Hyatt first for overall value. Claude's answer led with Choice Privileges.

The trust and avoid questions read differently. Several answers steered travellers toward booking directly with a hotel or airline, and the avoid question drew general warning signs and scam advice rather than company names.

Marriott and Hilton were each named in 16 of the 25 answers, and Hyatt in 15. Hilton was credited for Customer Experience most often (10 credits), with Marriott next (7) and Hyatt (5). Sustainability & Ethics credits ran close across the three (Hilton 5, Marriott 4, Hyatt 4). Hyatt also drew two Price & Value credits, which fits the loyalty answers that framed its points as the best value.

IHG appeared in 9 answers, and its largest credit category was Sustainability & Ethics (4), ahead of Customer Experience (2). Claude did not name IHG in any of its five answers. Booking.com was named in 7 answers and Expedia in 6, mostly on the trust question. Airbnb appeared in one answer, from ChatGPT on customer experience.

The sources behind the answers lean toward review and affiliate sites. In this snapshot, Review & Affiliate domains made up 65% of cited sources, News 19% and Other 15%. NerdWallet and The Points Guy were the most cited domains (6 each), followed by YouGov (4).

In the PeakMetrics news index over the prior 30 days, Marriott had the most volume of the group, at 24,774 mentions and 2,379 with the brand in the headline. Recent headlines were about openings and brand debuts, including two brands in Uganda and a resort transformation in Dana Point. Airbnb followed at 15,980 mentions, then Hyatt (14,355), Hilton (13,956), Expedia (8,564), Booking.com (4,565) and IHG (3,754).

Hilton's headlines were also expansion stories, including hotels in Mexico, Zimbabwe and South Wales. One of its five recent headlines concerns a person named Perez Hilton, not the company. Hyatt and Expedia headlines skewed toward investor and stock-price items. IHG's mixed new-property news with loyalty-points chatter.

Booking.com's coverage was about fake listings, including a fake Wetherspoons pub listing and a fake 10 Downing Street listing, plus a customer locked out of a flat. Airbnb's headlines covered EU rental rules, an affordable-housing investment and a lawsuit.

The starkest gap is Airbnb. It drew the second-largest news volume in this set but was named in one answer out of 25. Its press storyline, on housing rules and litigation, has little overlap with the hotel-experience and loyalty questions the assistants were answering.

Booking.com is the other split. Recent headlines focus on fake listings. In these answers it appeared as a trust pick in Perplexity's and Gemini's responses, and as a frequently complained-about platform in Grok's answer to the avoid question. Perplexity's answer added a caveat that "even the best-known OTAs can have weaker customer service than booking direct". The answers did not turn on the news coverage.

Expedia shows a similar pattern in a different form. Its coverage is largely stock and investor items, while the answers placed it in trust and booking discussions (6 answers, all on the trust and avoid questions), with only a few Customer Experience credits.

Press volume did not predict who the assistants named. Marriott led on news volume and tied for the most answers, but Airbnb's coverage was heavy and its naming almost nil. Coverage and AI visibility are separate things to track for each brand.

The cited domains matter more than headline count. Review and affiliate sites supplied most of the sources, and rankings from J.D. Power, YouGov, NerdWallet and The Points Guy shaped how the chains were described. A comms team could check which of those rankings and comparison pages describe its brand, and what they say.

Question framing changes the field. Experience and loyalty questions surfaced the big chains. Trust and avoid questions surfaced booking platforms and general scam guidance. These are single snapshots, so the same questions may return different brands on another run.