Plot Twist in the AI Debate: ChatGPT Ads Set to Boost OTA Visibility

Research evidence excerpt

Plot Twist in the AI Debate: ChatGPT Ads Set to Boost OTA Visibility

1%).

...Which could support OTA share gains: With ~80% market share of hotel-related ads in

ChatGPT, OTAs over-index versus their ~35% share of global total hotel bookings and ~60%

share of global online hotel bookings. Our findings suggest that performance marketing on LLMs

could accelerate share consolidation around the most scaled Internet names. Since AI provides

consumers a smaller, more personalized, list of search results that reduces the opportunity for

unpaid listings, it allows advertisers with the greatest capacity for performance marketing to

capture a disproportionate share of traffic acquisition. We think this opportunity is particularly acute

for OTAs, given the hotel industry is generally too fragmented to compete with their marketing scale.

Share gains combine with already evident margin tailwinds: Advertisements on AI search

platforms also represent an alternative to GOOGL/META and other large-scale performance

channels, potentially driving down overall customer acquisition costs. Additionally, we think AI-

driven cost efficiencies are becoming increasingly evident across Internet, particularly in the areas

of customer service and employee productivity. For example: 1) ABNB saw a ~15% reduction in

human customer service contact rates after launching an AI service agent; 2) AI drove a double-

digit % reduction in customer service cost at BKNG's Agoda subsidiary in 1Q, and 3) AI has made

John Colantuoni * | Equity Analyst

EXPE's property onboarding process 70% faster. Early evidence also suggests AI search results 1 (212) 778-8634 | jcolantuoni@jefferies.com

have higher-than-normal conversion, which could help drive greater marketing efficiency.