Big Travel Brands Lead AI Answers, but Not Every Question
Booking platforms own the cheap and last-minute questions; the open space is where people want someone's experience.
Big travel brands get named most in ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews, new BrightEdge data shows. Inspiration questions are where your smaller site still has room.
Run a travel site, or any site in a crowded niche? Then this one is worth ten minutes of your time.
Which brands lead AI answers
Search Engine Journal reported the data on October 31. It comes from BrightEdge’s holiday travel report, which tracked US English prompts from August to September 2026.
BrightEdge calls its numbers share of voice: how often a brand appears in tracked AI answers. AI answers have no fixed positions.
Here are the leaders:
- Hotels: Hilton leads AI Overviews at about 28%, and Marriott leads ChatGPT at about 29%.
- Booking platforms: Expedia shows up in AI Overviews answers about twice as often as Kayak (31% against 14%), with a smaller gap on ChatGPT.
- Airlines: American Airlines leads both engines.
- Cruise lines: Royal Caribbean leads both engines too.
So the leader can change with the engine. Mostly it doesn’t.
Where booking platforms win
The question type matters more than the engine. In AI Overviews answers, booking platforms appear in 38% of booking-intent prompts and just 12% of inspiration prompts.
Price words are worse for you.
Booking platforms appear in 78% of AI Overviews answers with words like “cheap”, “deal”, “budget” or “last-minute”, against 17% of other answers. BrightEdge calls that an association, and says it doesn’t prove those words cause a brand to appear.
Where your site has room
Then there are inspiration questions, where YouTube, Reddit and AAA show up more often. Only 9% of tracked AI Overviews prompts had booking intent.
Inspiration and comparison questions make up most of the panel. That’s a lot of AI answers where the big brands have less of a grip than you’d think from the headline numbers.
One caveat from BrightEdge itself: the numbers describe what AI answers show, rather than bookings or market share.
Why it matters
My read: if you run a smaller site in a niche with big brands, stop chasing “cheap flights to Bali”. Expedia will win price questions in AI answers, and you don’t need them.
You need the inspiration questions, where your reader wants someone’s experience.
Write about the trips you took, the places you’d skip and why, and the honest details a brand page won’t say. That’s what your site can give that a booking platform can’t.
So check where you stand before you rewrite anything:
- List 20 questions your readers really ask, half inspiration questions and half comparison questions.
- Ask them in ChatGPT and in Google, and note who gets named in the AI answers.
- Pick the five where Reddit or YouTube wins, and write the page someone who’s been there would write.
Is being named enough? Sadly, no.
One opt-out test put AI Overviews at under 1% CTR, though Google is moving inline links higher in AI answers. Track your clicks and brand searches alongside mentions.
Still, this is travel data from one company’s panel. I’d take it as a pattern for crowded niches, and no more.
Common Questions
Which travel brands appear most in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews?
In BrightEdge’s August to September 2026 data, Hilton led hotels in AI Overviews and Marriott led in ChatGPT. American Airlines, Royal Caribbean and Expedia led their categories on both engines.
Can small travel sites still show up in AI answers?
Yes, mostly on inspiration questions. BrightEdge found YouTube, Reddit and AAA more prominent in those AI answers, while booking platforms appear most in price and booking-intent questions.
What is share of voice in AI search?
It’s how often a brand appears across a set of tracked AI answers. BrightEdge uses it instead of rankings because AI answers have no fixed positions.
