Lighthouse Quick Takes - AI-driven direct traffic to hotel websites surged after May 7

On May 7, ChatGPT began pushing more responses that included outbound links to hotel websites — and the traffic data shows it immediately. In this Lighthouse Quick Take, Blake Reiter walks through what the numbers look like before and after that date, including a 50%+ increase in AI-originated traffic as a share of organic search, jumping from roughly 2% to over 3%.

The data makes clear that AI is becoming a distribution channel, and hotels that move to maximize visibility now stand to gain the most as the shift accelerates.