Hotels: who AI names
Which hotels AI engines recommend, how much they disagree, and which sources they cite.
We ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions buyers ask about hotels, without naming any brand, and record the brands each engine reports naming and every source it cites. This report reads the latest answer per prompt and engine as of the edition's snapshot. Small samples are shown with their real denominators and 95% ranges.
Rankings are never for sale. No brand can pay to be included, ranked higher or removed, and Zene customers get no special treatment: every position comes from the same brand-blind questions asked to every engine. This is the October 2026 edition, frozen when it was published on October 5, 2026: its numbers will not change. Answers collected since then go into a later monthly edition. Cite it as tryzene.com/research/hotels/2026-10.
Key findings
Generated from the data below - nothing is added by hand.
- 1Motel 6 is the most-named brand in this report: named in 3 of 15 answers across engines (20%, 95% range 7-45%).
- 2One brand is named by every engine: Motel 6.
- 3On 1 of 5 prompts answered by more than one engine, every engine put the same brand first. 94 of the 100 brands named on those prompts (94%) were named by only one engine.
- 4en.wikipedia.org is the most-cited source, with 27% of counted citations.
- 5Gemini cited no sources here: it answers from model knowledge (web search off), so its picks reflect training data rather than today's web.
Most-named hotels
Share of all 15 engine answers (that named at least one brand) that named each brand. The thin line is the 95% range.
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- #1Motel 6
<a href="https://tryzene.com/research/hotels/2026-10" title="Zene AI Visibility Index - Hotels" style="display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:8px;padding:8px 14px;border:1px solid #c7d2fe;border-radius:8px;background:#eef2ff;color:#312e81;font:600 14px/1.3 system-ui,sans-serif;text-decoration:none"><span style="font-size:18px;font-weight:700;color:#4f46e5">#1</span><span>Motel 6 · Zene AI Visibility Index: Hotels · October 2026</span></a> - #2Bungalows Key Largo
<a href="https://tryzene.com/research/hotels/2026-10" title="Zene AI Visibility Index - Hotels" style="display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:8px;padding:8px 14px;border:1px solid #c7d2fe;border-radius:8px;background:#eef2ff;color:#312e81;font:600 14px/1.3 system-ui,sans-serif;text-decoration:none"><span style="font-size:18px;font-weight:700;color:#4f46e5">#2</span><span>Bungalows Key Largo · Zene AI Visibility Index: Hotels · October 2026</span></a> - #3Alila Ventana Big Sur
<a href="https://tryzene.com/research/hotels/2026-10" title="Zene AI Visibility Index - Hotels" style="display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:8px;padding:8px 14px;border:1px solid #c7d2fe;border-radius:8px;background:#eef2ff;color:#312e81;font:600 14px/1.3 system-ui,sans-serif;text-decoration:none"><span style="font-size:18px;font-weight:700;color:#4f46e5">#3</span><span>Alila Ventana Big Sur · Zene AI Visibility Index: Hotels · October 2026</span></a> - #4Super 8 by Wyndham
<a href="https://tryzene.com/research/hotels/2026-10" title="Zene AI Visibility Index - Hotels" style="display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:8px;padding:8px 14px;border:1px solid #c7d2fe;border-radius:8px;background:#eef2ff;color:#312e81;font:600 14px/1.3 system-ui,sans-serif;text-decoration:none"><span style="font-size:18px;font-weight:700;color:#4f46e5">#4</span><span>Super 8 by Wyndham · Zene AI Visibility Index: Hotels · October 2026</span></a> - #5Miraval Arizona Resort & Spa
<a href="https://tryzene.com/research/hotels/2026-10" title="Zene AI Visibility Index - Hotels" style="display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:8px;padding:8px 14px;border:1px solid #c7d2fe;border-radius:8px;background:#eef2ff;color:#312e81;font:600 14px/1.3 system-ui,sans-serif;text-decoration:none"><span style="font-size:18px;font-weight:700;color:#4f46e5">#5</span><span>Miraval Arizona Resort & Spa · Zene AI Visibility Index: Hotels · October 2026</span></a> - #6Grand Hotel
<a href="https://tryzene.com/research/hotels/2026-10" title="Zene AI Visibility Index - Hotels" style="display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:8px;padding:8px 14px;border:1px solid #c7d2fe;border-radius:8px;background:#eef2ff;color:#312e81;font:600 14px/1.3 system-ui,sans-serif;text-decoration:none"><span style="font-size:18px;font-weight:700;color:#4f46e5">#6</span><span>Grand Hotel · Zene AI Visibility Index: Hotels · October 2026</span></a> - #7Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
<a href="https://tryzene.com/research/hotels/2026-10" title="Zene AI Visibility Index - Hotels" style="display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:8px;padding:8px 14px;border:1px solid #c7d2fe;border-radius:8px;background:#eef2ff;color:#312e81;font:600 14px/1.3 system-ui,sans-serif;text-decoration:none"><span style="font-size:18px;font-weight:700;color:#4f46e5">#7</span><span>Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa · Zene AI Visibility Index: Hotels · October 2026</span></a> - #8El Cosmico
<a href="https://tryzene.com/research/hotels/2026-10" title="Zene AI Visibility Index - Hotels" style="display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:8px;padding:8px 14px;border:1px solid #c7d2fe;border-radius:8px;background:#eef2ff;color:#312e81;font:600 14px/1.3 system-ui,sans-serif;text-decoration:none"><span style="font-size:18px;font-weight:700;color:#4f46e5">#8</span><span>El Cosmico · Zene AI Visibility Index: Hotels · October 2026</span></a>
Positions are the overall ranking above for the October 2026 edition (July 2026 data). The badge links to this dated edition, which never changes; please keep the edition in the badge text, since positions can change from month to month.
Top brands by engine
Mention share within each engine: answers naming the brand ÷ answers where that engine named any brand.
Read these as directional: with 5 answers, a brand named 3 times could have a true share anywhere from about 23-88%.
Where the engines disagree
Compared on prompts both engines answered. Overlap = brands named by both ÷ brands named by either, averaged per prompt.
| Engine pair | Prompts compared | Brand overlap | Same #1 pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT vs Gemini | 5 | 5% | 1 of 5 |
| ChatGPT vs Perplexity | 5 | 5% | 2 of 5 |
| Gemini vs Perplexity | 5 | 2% | 1 of 5 |
Low overlap is the norm, not a data error: engines with web search read different pages, and engines without it lean on training data. Tracking one engine tells you little about the others.
Sources the engines cite
Share of counted citations (last 30 days when available, otherwise all answers). Cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity.
By source type
Month-over-month movement
Tracked for cited sources only. Brand shares above are a snapshot of the latest answers.
Not enough history yet. Movement appears once the dataset has two 30-day windows of citations; until then we show no trend rather than a guess.
Sample size and method
- Sample. 23 answers collected across 3 engines, re-asked on a rolling schedule; 5 prompts produced at least one named brand. Shares on this page use the latest answer per prompt and engine.
- Engines. ChatGPT searches the web; Gemini answers from model knowledge (web search off); Perplexity searches the web.
- Market. United States (prompts name the country).
- Prompts are brand-blind. No brand is named in a prompt; each engine answers, then reports the brands it named, in order. This dataset uses that reported list as is (customer scans additionally check each name against the answer text).
- Denominators. An answer that named no brand at all is not counted, so shares are out of answers that named at least one brand.
- Rankings are never for sale. No brand can pay to be included, ranked higher or removed, and Zene customers get no special treatment: every position comes from the same brand-blind questions asked to every engine.
- Editions. The Zene AI Visibility Index is published monthly as a frozen snapshot that never changes afterwards. This is the October 2026 edition, published October 5, 2026, with data as of July 18, 2026. The CSV export has every number on this page.
- Only real data. Internal test rows never reach this page, and an industry without collected answers has no report.
- Brand names are grouped ignoring case and accents; different product names from one company stay separate.
Full details, including limitations: How Zene measures AI visibility. The live, per-prompt view of the same dataset is GEO for Hotels.
Is your property on these lists?
This report is the industry view. A free scan runs your own buyer questions on ChatGPT and Gemini and shows where your property is named, who is named instead, and what to fix first.
