Key takeaways
Buyers now find software by asking AI. If ChatGPT doesn't name you, many buyers never see you.
GEO builds on SEO. Strong pages and links still matter, but AI also weighs what others say about you.
For travel-tech, review sites carry a lot of weight, especially Hotel Tech Report, G2 and Capterra, along with comparison articles and integration marketplaces.
You don't have to be the biggest brand to get recommended. Buyers ask AI very specific questions, like "best booking software for a walking tour company", so a content strategy that clearly serves your specific customer can beat bigger names.
Measure it simply: monthly prompt tests, AI referral traffic in GA4, external tools such as Ahrefs and "How did you hear about us?" goes a long way.
Let’s start with a profile: a hotel owner on the Central Coast of California. She runs a small operation of 24 rooms, and her old booking system keeps double-booking without her knowledge. She's absolutely had it with her current system. So, she opens ChatGPT and types: "What's the best property management system for a small boutique hotel?"
In a few seconds she has a shortlist of three or four names, with pros and cons laid out for her. She'll probably book demos with those, and that’s the end of her search.
If your travel software isn't on that list, you may never get the chance to have a conversation with her.
That's what GEO, generative engine optimization, is all about: making sure AI tools know your product, understand who it's for, and recommend it when hoteliers, tour operators and travel advisors ask for help.
Here's how it works for travel-tech companies, and what you can start doing right away.
What is GEO, and how is it different from SEO?
GEO (generative engine optimization) is the work of getting your brand mentioned and recommended in AI-generated answers, from tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews. You'll also hear it called AEO (answer engine optimization) or AI search optimization. They all mean roughly the same thing in my book.
SEO and GEO are close cousins:
| SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| The goal | Rank on page one of Google | Get named in the AI's answer |
| What the buyer sees | A list of links to click | A shortlist, often with reasons |
| What matters most | Your own pages and links | Your pages plus what the rest of the web says about you |
| How you measure it | Rankings, clicks | Mentions, citations, AI referral traffic |
The important part: GEO builds on SEO, it doesn't replace it. AI tools still read websites, review sites and articles to form their answers. A travel-tech company with strong SEO foundations is on the right track.
How travel businesses shortlist software now
Travel is full of busy operators: boutique hotels to large hospitality groups, family-run tour operators and larger companies, solo travel advisors to ultra-luxury agencies. They are busy running their operations and they don't have a ton of time to find and read 20 vendor websites.
AI tools give them a shortcut by simply answering their questions and giving them recommendations based on their needs.
The questions often sound like this:
Hoteliers: "Best channel manager for a 30-room hotel?" "Which PMS works with Booking.com and Airbnb?"
Tour operators: "Booking software for walking tours that syncs with Viator?" "Cheapest way to take online bookings for kayak rentals?"
Travel advisors: "What CRM do travel advisors use?" "Best itinerary software for luxury travel agents?"
Vacation rental hosts: "Software to manage five Airbnbs in one place?"
Notice how specific these are: the size of the business, the tools it already uses, and its niche. That's good news for travel-tech companies. You don't need to be the biggest name in hotel software. You need to be the clearest answer for a specific kind of customer.
Where AI tools get their answers about travel software
AI tools don't guess. They draw on what's written about your product across the web, and for travel-tech, a few kinds of sources come up again and again:
Travel-tech review sites: Hotel Tech Report is where many hoteliers compare software, and G2, Capterra and Software Advice cover tour, rental and agency tools. Ratings, review volume and category rankings all feed into AI answers.
"Best of" and comparison articles: "10 best channel managers for small hotels" or "Bokun vs FareHarbor". These lists shape shortlists, whoever writes them.
Your own website: product pages, pricing, integrations, help docs and case studies. If AI can't find out who you're for and what you connect to from your site, it can't recommend you for those things.
Industry media and communities: Linkedin, Skift, PhocusWire, Hospitality Net, travel advisor Facebook groups, Reddit threads and podcasts.
Integration marketplaces: partner listings on booking platforms, PMS marketplaces and channel managers show AI how your product fits into a travel business's tech stack.
The takeaway: in GEO, what others say about you counts just as much (if not more) as what you say about yourself.
My top five steps to get your travel software recommended by AI
Make it obvious who you're for
Create a page for each type of customer you serve: "Software for boutique hotels", "Booking system for walking tour companies", "CRM for independent travel advisors". Open each page with the specific questions your buyers are asking and provide a summary of what’s on the page: what the product does, for whom, and what makes it different.
Publish honest comparison and "alternatives" pages
Buyers ask AI to compare tools, so give it good material. Pages like "[Your product] vs [competitor]" or "Best [category] for small hotels" get pulled into answers when they're genuinely useful. Be fair about these lists. AI tools, and buyers, trust balanced content more than a sales pitch.
Build up your review-site profiles
Complete your profiles on Hotel Tech Report, G2 and Capterra, and ask happy customers for reviews regularly. Detailed reviews that mention specific use cases ("perfect for our 18-room inn in Big Sur") help AI match you to the right questions.
Keep your facts consistent everywhere
Pricing, integrations, supported regions, customer types: AI tools cross-check them across your site, review profiles, marketplaces and press. If your website says you integrate with 40 channels and an old article says 12, the AI gets confused. Do a quarterly sweep to keep everything aligned.
Get the technical basics right
Make sure AI crawlers can read your site (check your robots.txt isn't blocking them by accident)
Put key information in text, not just images, PDFs or demo videos
Add schema markup, such as Organization, SoftwareApplication, Product and FAQPage
Add your site to Bing Webmaster Tools, since ChatGPT's search leans on Bing's results
Keep help docs and integration pages public. They answer exactly the detailed questions buyers ask AI.
How to measure GEO for a travel-tech company
GEO is the new kid on the block when it comes to SEO, so the tools are still catching up. A simple, free setup works well to start:
Run a monthly prompt test. Write 15–20 questions your buyers ask ("best PMS for a small boutique hotel", "booking software for food tours"). Each month, ask them in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews, and note whether you're mentioned, how you're described, and which competitors appear. (Tip: Do this on another device or incognito)
Track AI referral traffic in GA4. Look for visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com and copilot.microsoft.com in your traffic sources. It's often small, but these visitors tend to arrive ready to book a demo.
Ask new customers. Add "How did you hear about us?" to your demo form, with "ChatGPT or another AI tool" as an option.
Watch your review profiles. Review count, ratings and category rankings on Hotel Tech Report, G2 and Capterra are early signals of how AI will see you.
Use an AI visibility tool once you're ready to scale. Tools like Ahrefs Brand Radar and Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit track how often your brand appears in AI answers and how you compare with competitors, so you don't have to test every prompt by hand. Start with the free monthly test, then invest in a tool once AI search is clearly bringing you demos.
Check progress monthly and expect change over months, not weeks.
Frequently asked questions
How does GEO work for B2B SaaS companies? GEO for B2B SaaS works by making your product easy for AI tools to understand and trust. That means clear pages about who you serve, honest comparison content, strong review-site profiles, consistent facts across the web, and a site AI crawlers can read. When a buyer asks an AI tool for software recommendations, these signals decide whether you're on the shortlist.
Is GEO different for travel-tech companies? The principles are the same, but the sources differ. Travel buyers lean heavily on industry review sites like Hotel Tech Report, integration marketplaces, and travel communities. Travel-tech companies should focus their GEO effort there, alongside their own website.
Does GEO replace SEO? No. GEO builds on SEO. AI tools still rely on web content, so strong SEO foundations (useful pages, good structure, quality links) make GEO much easier.
How long does GEO take to work? Most companies see changes in AI answers within a few months of consistent work. Review profiles and third-party mentions often have the fastest effect.
How do I know if ChatGPT recommends my software? Ask it. Run the same set of buyer-style questions each month in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews, and record whether and how your product appears.
The answer is the new first impression
For travel-tech companies, the first impression used to be your homepage. Today it's often a three-line summary in ChatGPT, written before a hotelier or tour operator ever visits your site.
The good news is that very few travel software companies are working on this yet. Start with the basics: clear customer pages, honest comparisons, strong reviews and consistent facts. You'll be ahead of most of your category.
Curious what AI says about your product?
I help travel brands and travel-tech companies get found and chosen via Google and in AI search. I'd love to run a free AI visibility check for you: the questions your buyers ask, whether you show up, and who shows up instead.