Searchless.ai Publishes First Multi-Vertical AI Visibility Indexes, Revealing How AI Recommends Hotels and Products
London, UK — Searchless.ai today published its first multi-vertical AI Visibility Index series, analyzing how AI engines recommend hotels and ecommerce products. The reports reveal striking concentration: Booking.com appears in 38.7% of AI travel answers, Amazon in 66.7% of AI shopping answers, while thousands of competing brands are effectively invisible.
The Hotel & Travel Index and Ecommerce Index are based on 300 AI-generated answers across 100 consumer prompts spanning destination queries, hotel comparisons, product recommendations, and shopping platform evaluations.
“AI is becoming the new storefront, and most brands don’t realize they’re not in it,” said Amy Johnson, Editor-in-Chief of Searchless.ai. “When a traveler asks AI where to stay in Rome or a shopper asks AI where to buy headphones, the answer they get determines where they spend their money.”
Key Travel Findings:
– Booking.com appears in 38.7% of AI travel answers, more than any hotel brand
– Hilton and Marriott tie at 19.3% as most-recommended hotel chains
– OTAs capture 36% of all brand mentions, directing travelers to commission-based booking
– Luxury brands (Four Seasons, St. Regis) appear in under 8% of answers
Key Ecommerce Findings:
– Amazon appears in 67% of AI shopping answers, 2 out of every 3 responses
– Marketplaces account for 40% of brand mentions; independent Shopify stores just 3.8%
– Only 4 Shopify-native brands appear in AI answers at all
– Best Buy (24%) outranks the Apple Store (2.7%) even for Apple products
Alongside the indexes, Searchless.ai is launching two vertical GEO products:
Palmtree.ai — AI visibility optimization for travel and hospitality. Hotels and travel brands can check their AI Travel Score for free and access done-for-you GEO services to improve visibility in AI recommendations.
Shopti.ai — Agentic commerce optimization for ecommerce. Merchants audit their AI discoverability and access product schema, feed optimization, and agentic checkout integration.
“Brands spend billions on SEO and Google Ads but completely ignore the AI layer” added Amy Johnson. “When Booking.com appears in 39% of AI travel answers and a hotel’s own website appears in nearly zero, that’s a structural visibility gap. Palmtree and Shopti exist to close it.”
Reports available at:
– Hotel & Travel: https://searchless.ai/ai-visibility-index-hotels-2026
– Ecommerce: https://searchless.ai/ai-visibility-index-ecommerce-2026
Additional coverage and analysis of AI visibility trends is published daily on the Searchless website.
