It was a pleasure and honour for Heads On Pillows to be part of NoVacancy London Expo on 26 February 2026, joining hospitality leaders to discuss how AI is reshaping the way travellers discover, compare, and choose hotels.
Samuel Walter, CEO and Founder of Heads On Pillows, spoke at the event, sharing insights on hospitality marketing and digital transformation. For hotel owners, shareholders, CMOs, and marketing executives, this shift is already becoming an important part of how hospitality brands stay visible, relevant, and competitive.
1. Why NoVacancy London Is Worth Attending
NoVacancy London is part of the wider NoVacancy hotel and accommodation event ecosystem. The 2026 London event was positioned as a must-attend exhibition and conference for the UK hotel and accommodation sector, with a focus on ideas, innovation and practical solutions.
The event matters because hospitality teams are dealing with multiple pressures at once: guest acquisition, revenue growth, operational efficiency, technology adoption, marketing performance and direct booking strategy. UK Hospitality described the event as bringing thousands of owners and operators together to explore solutions that improve efficiency, guest experience and revenue.
Heads On Pillows was listed as an exhibitor on the NoVacancy London sponsors and exhibitors page.
For HOP, the event was a timely opportunity to speak about the next phase of hotel digital marketing: the move from search rankings alone to AI-led discovery, GEO marketing and answer-based visibility.
2. Key Takeaway
The New Landscape of Travel Search
People increasingly ask instead of search.
Travellers are no longer only typing short keywords such as “hotel near Hyde Park” or “best resort in Vietnam”. They are asking longer, more specific questions, such as:
“What is the best boutique hotel in London for a quiet weekend near good restaurants?”
“Where should I stay in Bangkok if I want a wellness hotel with easy transport?”
“What are the best family-friendly resorts in Da Nang with direct beach access?”
These questions change how hotels need to appear online. A traditional search result gives a list of links. AI search often gives a shortlist, summary or direct recommendation. If a hotel is not clear, consistent and citable across the web, it risks being left out of the answer.
Heads On Pillows’ GEO service page reports a +1104% increase in total users landing on tourism websites from AI-search engines in 2025, based on HOP data. That growth shows why hospitality digital marketing now needs to cover both search engines and AI-generated responses.
For more context on how AI is transforming the booking journey, read AI Is Changing Traveller Behaviour, to discover how traveller behaviour is shifting.
What Is GEO and How It Works
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It focuses on making a hotel, resort or accommodation brand discoverable inside AI generated answers, not only visible in traditional search rankings.
This means hotels need to become tailored recommendations inside search engines and AI responses. AI tends to recommend brands that communicate clearly, appear consistently across trusted platforms, and provide information that is easy to understand, extract and cite.
For hotel marketing teams, GEO does not replace SEO. It expands it. SEO helps your hotel rank in search results. GEO helps your hotel become the answer when AI tools summarise the best options for a traveller.
The Pillars of GEO Success
The session highlighted that GEO success starts with clarity. Hotels need to focus on a specific audience, answer real guest questions directly and make key information easy for both humans and AI systems to understand.
HOP’s AI search optimisation approach includes making content findable and readable, building authority across the web, and structuring content so AI can quote, reference and recommend it.
The same principle applies to website structure. HOP’s guide on AI citations explains that generative engines compete for citations, not just rankings, and that hotel content needs explicit, unambiguous facts rather than only brand storytelling.
To apply this to your own website, explore more here about how hotels should structure site content for AI search citations.
The Future of Hotel Search and Discovery
The future of hotel search will include more zero-click answers, more AI-generated shortlists and more assistant-led travel planning.
A traveller may not always visit ten hotel websites before choosing where to stay. They may ask an AI tool to compare options, narrow the list, explain the best neighbourhoods, suggest hotels for a specific travel style and recommend where to book.
This does not make the hotel website less important. It makes the website more important as a source of truth. AI systems still need clear, accurate and consistent information to cite.
Opportunity for Accommodation Businesses
AI-led discovery creates risk, but it also creates opportunity.
Accommodation businesses can increase direct bookings by becoming easier to understand, easier to recommend and easier to trust. A hotel that clearly owns a niche segment in a destination can compete against larger brands when the guest query becomes specific.
For example, an independent hotel may struggle to compete for broad terms like “best hotel in London”. But it may have a stronger chance of appearing for queries such as “quiet boutique hotel near ExCeL London for a business traveller” or “romantic heritage hotel near restaurants in Bowral”.
This is where GEO supports positioning. It helps hotels strengthen premium perception, build topic authority and become recognised for the specific guest needs they serve best.
For a broader perspective on this shift, reach more about what it means to be found without being searched.
3. Talk to Heads on Pillows About Growing Your Hotel
Hotels still need SEO, content, paid media, social media, website performance and brand strategy. But they now also need AI visibility, generative engine optimisation and clearer digital signals across channels.
Heads On Pillows helps hotels, resorts and tourism brands increase direct bookings through SEO/GEO and Digital Marketing. If your hotel wants to understand where it appears in Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or other discovery channels, this is the right time to review your visibility. Speak with HOP get growth more direct booking
