AT A GLANCE
You already pay the OTAs to be found. sAIph Search makes your own website the answer AI quotes and links to, so when a guest asks where to stay, the booking comes to you and the commission stays in the property.
AI assistants are now a new layer where OTAs start with the advantage. We keep the OTAs as your shop window and win the final click for your own website: book-direct facts AI can repeat, a price it can trust, the official link everywhere, and the sources that put you on the shortlist.
Hotel Online, Sept 2026; Booking.com Partner Hub; Cloudbeds, Mar 2026.
Work out what it costs you →WHERE THE BOOKING IS WON
Four things decide whether the booking comes to you.
When an AI assistant recommends your hotel, it passes the guest to whoever gives it the strongest reason. Each of these is something your website can win.
Price
The assistant quotes the rate it can find. If an OTA shows a lower one, the hand-off goes there. Rate integrity is now an AI problem.
A reason to book direct, stated as a fact
"Exclusive benefits" cannot be repeated. "Members receive breakfast when booking on our website" can. If your site does not say it, AI has nothing to pass on.
The official link
Every directory, profile and knowledge source should point to your own website as the official site, consistently.
The sources AI trusts
Guides, ratings and reviews decide whether you are shortlisted at all. Links from them to your site give the assistant a direct path.
HOW WE DO IT
Make your own website the answer AI quotes and links to.
We do not try to take you off the OTAs. We make your own website the most complete, current and correctly priced answer, so the final click comes to you.
Book-direct facts, written to be repeated
Your best-rate terms, member benefits and direct-only inclusions as plain sentences near the top of key pages, where AI reads first.
A price AI can trust
"From" prices and what each rate includes, in crawlable text, with regular rate checks against the OTAs so leaks are closed with your revenue team.
Your own rate on Google
Your website rate in Google Hotel Center and free booking links, matched to your Business Profile. Google stopped using third-party rates for hotel ads after 30 September 2026.
One identity everywhere
The same name, facts and official website across Google, Wikidata, Tripadvisor and every OTA listing, so engines resolve you as one hotel.
The sources that shortlist you
The guides, ratings and reviews each engine cites for your questions, with a plan to be named there and linked to your own site.
Pages AI can read and quote
Answer-first pages for suites, dining, events and occasions, open to AI crawlers, with the facts on the page rather than only inside the booking engine.
What we do not recommend
- Rewording or weakening OTA listings. Inconsistent facts weaken you as an entity and cut the billboard effect that feeds direct bookings.
- AI-only promo codes. AI repeats them, so they leak, and they read as discounting for a luxury house.
- Pages or links shown only to AI. Search engines cite the normal address, and showing bots different content counts as cloaking.
WHAT THE FEE PAYS FOR, AND WHAT IT NEED NOT
The fee buys you a shop window. It should not have to buy the booking as well.
Keep the listings: they are how guests find you and one of the sources AI reads. The work on this page is about the final click, so the stay is booked on your own site instead. And the guest it brings is worth less and cancels more.
On a £1,875 stay, 15% to 25% commission is £280 to £470 leaving the property. A brand.com loyalty booking carries a $28 net revenue advantage over an OTA booking once acquisition costs are counted (Kalibri Labs, Jul 2026).
WHAT CHANGED
AI shortlists hotels by reading the OTAs.
Guests ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Mode where to stay. The engines read booking sites, reviews and guides to decide, then show a link or hand off the booking.
AI books few hotels today. It already decides which hotels get considered, and where the click goes.
AI referrals were under 1% of Booking.com room nights in Q2 2026 (Booking Holdings). Google AI Mode began US hotel booking on 27 August 2026 with ten partners, OTAs among them (PhocusWire).
THE SUMS
What our fee costs against what the OTAs take.
Two ways a programme pays for itself: bookings moved from OTA to direct keep the commission, and new bookings AI wins bring revenue you would not otherwise have had. Try your own numbers.
BOOKINGS MOVED FROM OTA TO DIRECT
8 stays a month
Each one keeps £338 of commission in the property. This many cover the Signature fee from saved commission alone.
NEW DIRECT BOOKINGS AI WINS
1.4 stays a month
Each brings £1,875 of room revenue you would not otherwise have had. This many cover the Signature fee.
Moving ten stays a month from OTA to direct keeps £40,500 a year in the property at these figures, before the lower cancellation rate of direct guests.
Revenue figures, not profit. Signature is £2,700 a month plus VAT. OTA cost includes commission and programme discounts; typical commission is 15% to 25% (Hotel Online, Sept 2026) and Booking.com's Genius programme requires a 10% discount (Booking.com Partner Hub). Check your own contracts.
HOW WE MEASURE IT
Measured in direct share and commission saved.
- Direct share of room nights and revenue, by month.
- Commission saved: revenue moved from OTA to direct, at your effective OTA cost.
- Cost per booking and cost of sale by channel.
- AI-referred sessions, bookings and revenue, reported as a floor, not a total.
- In AI answers: how often you are named, whether your own site is cited, which domain gets the link and which price is quoted.
WHAT WE WON'T PROMISE
- No one controls what AI engines say. We do not guarantee a position, a citation or a booking.
- Answers vary run to run, so we measure share across many runs, every month.
- Some changes sit with your brand, booking engine or head office. We specify them clearly.
- Attribution undercounts AI influence. We would rather understate a number than pad it.
PROOF
The Langham, London: more of the AI answer, and the bookings to show for it.
QUESTIONS
What hotels ask about OTAs and AI.
Will this take us off the OTAs?
No, and it should not. OTAs are a shop window and one of the sources AI reads. The aim is to make sure that when AI recommends your hotel, the booking comes to your website and the commission stays in the property.
How much could we save on commission?
It depends on your rate, stay length and OTA costs. At £750 a night for 2.5 nights and an 18% OTA cost, each booking moved to direct keeps £338 in the property. The calculator above works it through for your numbers.
Can we offer a better deal on our own website?
Usually, yes, though what is allowed depends on your OTA contracts and market. Member benefits, offline rates and packages are common routes. We help you state those benefits in a way AI can repeat. Always check your own contracts.
Is this just SEO?
It overlaps, but it is a different discipline. AI assistants rewrite a guest's question into several hidden searches and read different sources. About half of the hotels AI recommends do not rank in Google's organic results for the same search (Tharro, Jun 2026).
Do we need new technology?
Usually not. Most of the work is content, facts, feeds you may already have, and listings. Where your booking engine or brand controls something, we specify it clearly.
How quickly will we see results?
Page and technical fixes can show in AI answers within one to three monthly re-runs. Editorial authority and direct-share gains take two to four quarters. We measure the same questions every month, so you see what moves.
We already have an SEO or PR agency.
We work alongside them. We give your PR agency the publications AI actually cites and the phrases worth targeting, and coordinate with your SEO agency rather than duplicating it.
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