LONDON, 25 February 2026 — HotelWorld AI, the world’s first multi-agent AI platform for hotels, today publishes the World’s Best at AI 2025 Index. This is the first and most comprehensive analysis of AI search visibility for the global hotel industry ever conducted. The report draws on 2.36 million data points gathered from ChatGPT, Google AI (Gemini), and Perplexity to rank 2,105 hotel brands across 130,884 properties in 30 countries.
You can download it here.
With ChatGPT surpassing 800 million weekly active users and 40% of travellers already using AI to plan trips in 2025 a figure Bain projects will rise to 60% by the end of 2026. The report argues that AI search is no longer a future trend, but AI is becoming the default way travellers search for hotels
The findings show only one-sixth of the world’s approximately 810,000 hotel properties are currently visible when travellers use AI tools to search for accommodation.
KEY FINDINGS
• Holiday Inn Express (IHG) leads the global rankings, followed by Ibis Hotels (Accor) and Hilton.
• AI Does Not Adopt A Hotel’s Self-Declared Classification. Nearly half of all hotel brands are being misrepresented by AI.
• Regional dynamics vary dramatically. The Ritz-Carlton scores 37.58 globally but 96.63 in the Middle East and Africa, where premium hospitality queries dominate AI search.
• AI visibility is self-reinforcing. Brands that appear in AI recommendations generate more bookings, more reviews, and more third-party citations, thus further compressing the gap between visible and invisible properties. The report describes this as a ‘flywheel effect’ that is accelerating, not stabilising.
• The window for first-mover advantage is open, but narrowing. Hotels that invest in AI search optimisation in the first half of 2026 will shape what AI platforms recommend for years to come, mirroring the structural advantages captured by early SEO adopters in the early 2000s.
“The findings in this report are a structural wake-up call for the entire hospitality industry. AI search is not coming, it is already the primary discovery channel for a growing share of travellers. The hotels that act now will own demand for the next decade. Those that wait risk permanent exclusion from the booking funnel of the future.” Filip Boyen, Co-Founder HotelWorld AI
“What surprises most hotel leaders is not that AI is influencing traveller decisions, it is that AI is often describing their properties incorrectly. A brand investing millions in positioning can find that AI is classifying individual properties at a lower tier, silently eroding RevPAR. Visibility and perception accuracy must be solved at each property.” Geri Cupi, Co-Founder, HotelWorld AI
About Hotelworld AI
Founded in 2024, HotelWorld AI is the world’s first multi-agent AI platform designed to help hotels improve discoverability, increase direct bookings, streamline operations, and deliver superior guest experiences in an AI-first world. Built and backed by alumni of Orient Express (Accor), Experian, Oracle, Google, Forbes Travel Guide, and Mandarin Oriental, HotelWorld AI equips hoteliers to win in a future where AI elevates guest experiences while simultaneously automating and optimizing hotel operations.
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