MARKET REPORT: Travel Booking Platforms

AI Visibility Report: Which Travel Booking Platforms Win When Travelers Ask AI for Recommendations

The travel booking landscape is being reshaped by AI. According to Expedia Group's Unpack '24 report, 50% of travelers are now interested in using generative AI to plan their next trip, with 30% calling it "very useful" for travel planning. Skift Research found that while 37% of people have actively used AI apps like ChatGPT for travel planning, those who have tried them report high satisfaction rates at 65%. Meanwhile, 89% of travel executives believe generative AI will have a meaningful impact on their business in the next three years.

We analyzed 20 major travel booking platforms across six key topics and dozens of real-world prompts to understand who's actually winning these AI-driven conversations. The data reveals a striking gap: Booking.com appears in 97.5% of AI-generated travel recommendations, while their closest competitor, Expedia, sits at 72.2%. That's a 25-percentage-point advantage that translates directly into customer acquisition.

Even more surprising? Booking achieves this dominance without their own domain appearing in the top 20 sources that AI models actually cite. They're winning not because AI reads their website, but because the entire travel content ecosystem talks about them. We tracked visibility across categories ranging from "best mobile travel apps" to "24/7 support," analyzing which platforms dominate specific conversations and, crucially, which sources drive those mentions. Reddit alone accounts for 28% of all AI citations in travel booking discussions, more than any individual brand's domain.

The Landscape: Booking.com's Near-Total Dominance

Booking.com isn't just leading. They're dominating with 97.5% AI visibility. That means when AI models answer travel-related questions, Booking shows up in nearly every response. Expedia comes in second at 72.2%, a full 25 points behind. Kayak sits at third with 52.4%, followed by Airbnb at 25.5% and Hotels.com at 18.3%.

The gap between first and second place here is massive. In most industries, a 25-point visibility difference represents years of content strategy and community presence. Booking has built something that competitors are struggling to match.

Where AI Gets Its Information (And Why Booking Dominates Without Being a Top Source)

Here's where it gets fascinating. When we analyzed the sources AI models cite when discussing travel booking platforms, Reddit dominates at 28% of all citations. That's higher than any single travel platform's own domain.

Expedia.com appears in 12.1% of sources, followed by TravelPerk (10.5%), Upgraded Points (9.9%), and Facebook (9%). Kayak.com shows up in 6.7% of sources, while Booking.com appears in just 5.6%.

But here's the stunning part: Booking.com's domain doesn't even crack the top 20 sources that AI cites, yet they completely dominate with 97.5% visibility.

Think about what that means. Booking isn't winning because AI reads their website more than others. They're winning because everyone else is talking about them. Every Reddit thread, every travel blog comparison, every review site, every "best booking platforms" article. Booking is in the conversation.

This is the ultimate proof that AI visibility isn't about controlling your own narrative. It's about becoming part of everyone else's narrative.

Topic-by-Topic Breakdown: What People Actually Ask

We tracked visibility across six key topics, each containing multiple real-world prompts that travelers use when consulting AI. Here's what we found:

"Best website to book hotels with flights"

Example prompts:

• "Best affordable travel website for flights and hotel packages?"

• "Which travel platform offers the best hotel and flight bundles?"

Booking leads at 97.3%, followed closely by Expedia at 94.7%. Kayak comes in third at 72%, showing that metasearch platforms still have strong visibility in package deal conversations. Airbnb drops to 16.9% here, which makes sense given their focus on accommodations rather than bundled travel.

"Cancellation policy"

Example prompts:

• "What travel booking platforms offer flexible cancellation policies?"

• "Best company for travel booking with lenient cancellation?"

Booking maintains dominance at 98.7%. Expedia follows at 92%, then Hotels.com at 49.3%. This topic shows interesting movement: Hotels.com jumped 18.3% in visibility here, suggesting their cancellation messaging is breaking through. Airbnb sits at 43.1%, while Kayak trails at 34.2%.

"Best travel booking sites"

Example prompts:

• "What travel booking sites do you suggest for frequent travelers seeking price tracking and fare drop alerts?"

• "Affordable travel booking platforms with integrated loyalty rewards for digital nomads?"

Booking again leads at 97.3%. But watch Kayak here: they're second at 68.9%, ahead of Expedia's 68.5%. This is Kayak's strongest topic performance, which makes sense. It's the broadest category and where comparison platforms naturally excel.

"Best mobile travel apps"

Example prompts:

• "Recommend travel apps specializing in eco-friendly hotel and flight bookings?"

• "What mobile travel booking apps do you suggest for remote workers and digital nomads?"

Booking maintains its lead at 97.3%, but Expedia drops to 45.2%. Kayak rises to 41.9%, and Airbnb shows relatively strong performance at 37.8%. Mobile app discussions seem to level the playing field slightly, though Booking still dominates.

"Top-rated travel sites"

Example prompts:

• "Can you recommend top-rated travel sites that combine flights, hotels, and car rentals in a single search?"

• "Which travel booking platforms offer the best price comparison and personalized recommendations for frequent travelers?"

Booking at 95.9%, Kayak at 76.7%, Expedia at 72.2%. Hotels.com appears at 23.6%, and Vrbo enters the conversation at 15.3%. Quality and ratings discussions bring in platforms that might not lead in booking volume but have strong user sentiment.

"24/7 support"

Example prompts:

• "Which online travel platforms offer the best 24/7 customer support for booking flights and hotels?"

• "Best travel booking services with reliable 24/7 live assistance for trip changes?"

This is where Booking's advantage is most dramatic: 98.6% visibility. Expedia follows at 63.5%, but that's a 35-point gap. Airbnb sits at 32.4%, Trip.com at 25%, and Kayak at just 21.1%. Customer service visibility is where Booking has built the strongest moat.

What This Actually Means

Booking.com's invisibility in top sources but dominance in visibility reveals the fundamental shift in how brand presence works in the AI era.

Traditional SEO focused on getting your domain ranked. You optimized your pages, built backlinks to your site, and measured success by how often Google sent traffic directly to you.

AI visibility works differently. It's not about how often AI reads your website. It's about how often AI encounters your brand while reading everything else. When AI scans Reddit threads, comparison articles, travel blogs, review sites, and forum discussions, whose name keeps appearing? That's who gets recommended.

The platforms struggling with AI visibility share a common pattern: their own domains appear in sources, but they're not generating enough external conversation. Hotels.com shows up in sources at a similar rate to Booking (5.6%), but ranks 5th overall with less than 19% visibility. Their domain is visible, but the broader ecosystem isn't amplifying them.

Kayak's third-place position despite being a metasearch platform (not even handling bookings directly) shows that visibility in AI isn't about transaction volume. It's about how often you're recommended, discussed, and cited.

The Reddit Factor

28% of AI sources coming from Reddit is significant. Travel planning is social. People ask "where should I book my trip?" in subreddits like r/travel, r/solotravel, and r/Shoestring. The platforms that win those conversations win AI visibility.

This also explains why newer platforms struggle. Building Reddit presence takes time, authentic engagement, and genuine user advocacy. You can't buy it or SEO your way into it. And clearly, you can't just optimize your own website and expect to dominate AI recommendations.

Tracking What Matters

Without AI visibility tracking, you're operating blind. You might see booking numbers, but you don't know how many potential customers never saw your platform because AI recommended a competitor instead.

Tools like GetMentioned let you monitor exactly where you appear in AI responses, which topics you own versus where you're invisible, and which sources are actually driving your visibility. You can see when competitors surge in specific categories and understand what content is making the difference.

For travel platforms, this means tracking visibility across the topics your customers actually search for: "best sites for last-minute deals," "platforms with free cancellation," "apps for group travel," "sites with price alerts." If you're not visible in these conversations, you're losing bookings before the customer even reaches your site.