20.3% of Hotels Receive Zero AI Recommendations; Only 17.2% Are 'Consistently Recommended'
Key facts
- 20.3% of Hotels Receive Zero AI Recommendations; Only 17.2% Are 'Consistently Recommended'
- Terrace Roots conducted a survey on AI hotel recommendations across 64 properties in 8 major Japanese cities. With 20.3% receiving zero recommendations, the study highlights that 'AI optimization' is crucial for hotels seeking to reduce OTA dependency.
- Source: PR Times
- Date: June 2, 2026
Direct answer
Terrace Roots conducted a survey on AI hotel recommendations across 64 properties in 8 major Japanese cities. With 20.3% receiving zero recommendations, the study highlights that 'AI optimization' is crucial for hotels seeking to reduce OTA dependency.
- Citation
- 20.3% of Hotels Receive Zero AI Recommendations; Only 17.2% Are 'Consistently Recommended' (June 2, 2026), PR Times
- Source
- PR Times
- Date
- June 2, 2026
Terrace Roots conducted a survey on AI hotel recommendations across 64 properties in 8 major Japanese cities. With 20.3% receiving zero recommendations, the study highlights that 'AI optimization' is crucial for hotels seeking to reduce OTA dependency.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: June 2, 2026 at 19:30
- 🔍 Collected: June 2, 2026 at 10:50
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: June 2, 2026 at 10:52 (1 min after Collected)
Terrace Roots, a consulting firm specializing in Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) for the hospitality industry, conducted a proprietary survey in May 2026 on the 'recommendation visibility' of 64 representative city, luxury, design, and upper-upscale business hotels across 8 major Japanese cities: Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto, Sapporo, Sendai, and Fukuoka.
The study tested 6 queries per city, totaling 1,152 judgments across three generative AI services (ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode). Results show that 20.3% (13 properties) were never recommended by any of the three AI services. Only 17.2% were consistently recommended (recommendation rate of 40% or higher), meaning 82.8% of major hotels are effectively outside the AI recommendation loop.
### Background: Travel Planning Shifts from 'Search' to 'AI Consultation'
AI adoption in the travel industry is accelerating rapidly between 2025 and 2026. According to the US research firm Phocuswright, 56% of travelers used generative AI for planning, booking, or on-site usage in the past 12 months. In the domestic market, a survey by Shukuken (February 2026) revealed that 38.6% of generative AI users would have chosen standard, famous hotels if they hadn't used AI. This indicates that AI is pushing choices beyond 'standard' options, putting hotels that are not recommended at risk of losing their competitive standing.
### Four Structural Findings
1. **20.3% Receive Zero Recommendations:** Only 17.2% are consistently recommended, leaving 53 out of 64 properties effectively invisible.
2. **Gap Between Brand Strength and AI Visibility:** Some historic luxury hotels had a recommendation rate of only 11.1%, proving that traditional name recognition does not equate to AI visibility.
3. **Differences by Platform:** Google AI Mode had the highest 'zero recommendation' rate at 46.9%, illustrating a paradox where high SEO ranking does not guarantee AI recommendation.
4. **Severity in Regional Cities:** In some cities, the 'zero recommendation' rate reached 62.5%, highlighting significant disparities in 'discoverability' between locations.
### Management Impact: The Path to Reducing OTA Dependency
This survey result is not merely a marketing issue. For hotels struggling with OTA commissions (typically 15-30%), securing AI recommendations is directly linked to improving profit structures and reducing dependency on third-party booking platforms.
FAQ
What does AI Zero Recommendation Hotel refer to?
It refers to accommodation facilities that were never recommended by any of the three generative AI services: ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode. In this survey, 13 facilities, or 20.3% of the total, fell into this category.
Which cities were included in the survey?
The survey covered eight major cities in Japan: Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Kyoto, Sapporo, Sendai, and Fukuoka.
What were the trends in zero-recommendation facilities across platforms?
Google AI Mode had the highest zero-recommendation rate at 46.9%, followed by ChatGPT (40.6%) and Perplexity (35.9%).
Is there a correlation between AI recommendations and brand power?
The survey found that even well-known luxury hotels had very low recommendation rates from AI, indicating that traditional brand recognition does not necessarily align with AI recommendation frequency.
Why is AI recommendation optimization a critical business issue?
As generative AI becomes a starting point for accommodation consideration, not being recommended by AI can mean losing a source of customer acquisition. To reduce dependency on OTAs and achieve a high-profit structure through direct customer acquisition, it is essential to optimize for AI search (GEO).