Four Simple DIY Steps to Get More Bookings With Google AI Citations

Lodge marketing and resort marketing in 2026 requires optimizing your website for AI search systems (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity) that now answer 60% of travel queries before showing traditional results. Properties appearing in AI-generated recommendations get more direct bookings than competitors stuck in position 4-10 of old-style search results.

Key Takeaways

• AI Search Changes Everything: Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity now answer travel queries directly, showing 3-5 properties before traditional search results appear—properties not optimized for AI citation are becoming invisible to travelers under 45.
• Your Website Isn’t the Problem: 80% of lodge websites work fine technically, but they’re built for 2015 search behavior when travelers clicked through 8-10 results—today’s travelers accept the first AI-generated answer and book by availability.
• The Demographic Risk: Properties relying on 55-65+ repeat guests face a silent crisis—the 30-40 year olds who should become your next generation of loyal customers are booking with competitors who appear in AI search results.
• Content Structure Matters More Than Volume: AI systems cite content with clear structure (headers as questions, numbered steps, comparison lists, specific data)—a single well-structured 1,500-word article outperforms ten rambling 500-word posts.
• First-Mover Advantage Window Closes Fast: Properties that prepare for AI visibility now will enjoy an unfair market share over the next 10 years of bookings—waiting 12-18 months means competing against established citations that AI systems trust and recommend repeatedly.

Why Your Beautiful Lodge Website Is Failing

Last week I talked to a lodge owner in Northwestern Ontario. He didn’t really watch his Google Analytics, he just had a website – but most of his bookings were good old word of mouth.

Here’s what he’s missing.

His website is beautiful. It was built in 2019—clean design, fast loading, mobile responsive. Everything the web developers promised. But it was optimized for search behavior that has been losing power since Google AI Overviews have been introduced.

People don’t browse eight search results anymore comparing options. They type “romantic cabin near Kenora” into Google, read the AI Overview that lists three properties with specific details, and book one of those three. His property never appeared in that AI-generated list. He was invisible to 60% of potential guests before they even saw his website.

The AI Search Visibility Gap

I’ve been mapping AI search visibility for properties across Manitoba and Ontario. The pattern is stark. When someone searches “family fishing lodge Lake of the Woods,” Google’s AI Overview shows three properties with detailed descriptions, pricing hints, and specific amenities.

Same query Perplexity: three Canadian properties with citation links.

Some lodges appear in all three systems consistently.

Others appear in none.

The difference isn’t website quality, social media following, or even traditional SEO ranking. It’s content structure that AI systems can parse, cite, and recommend with confidence.

What Makes a Lodge Website Work in the AI Search Era

Gerry Cariou from Sunset Country told me something that stuck: “AI for travel planning is going to be bigger than social media.”

He’s right.

But most lodge owners still thing of websites like it’s a two dimensional brochure—pretty photos, generic descriptions, contact forms. That worked when travelers had patience to click through ten results and compare. Not as many searchers need to go that far.

Your website needs to answer questions the way AI systems expect answers. Not flowery marketing copy. The “experience the beauty of nature” and the customer stories need to be formatted with specific, structured, citable information that AI can extract and present to travelers.

AI Visibility Plugin

Content Structure That AI Systems Cite

• Question-based headers: “What species can you catch in June?” not “Our Fishing Experience”
• Numbered lists for processes: “How to Get Here: 5-Step Directions from Chicago”
• Comparison tables: “Cabin A (sleeps 4, $225/night, lake view) vs Cabin B (sleeps 6, $275/night, includes boat)”
• Specific data points: “Average walleye: 18-22 inches, May-September” along with “great fishing”
• Clear definitions: “Optional shore lunch is a traditional Canadian tradition where your guide cooks fresh-caught fish on a remote beach using a portable grill”

When Perplexity and other AI Tools search the web for lodge recommendations, it looks for confident, specific answers it can cite. “This property reports average walleye of 18-22 inches” is citable. “Amazing fishing” is too generic to place. One gets recommended. The other gets ignored.

How AI Search Is Changing Who Books Your Lodge

Here’s the question I ask every owner: “What’s the average age of your repeat guests?” Most say 55-65. Some older. These folks discovered you 10-20 years ago, loved it, kept coming back, referred their friends. That’s been the foundation of the business.

Now I ask: “Where are your replacement customers coming from?” Silence. Because the 30-year-olds who should be discovering you right now—the ones who’ll become your repeat guests for the next 30 years—they’re finding you how?

If you’re invisible in those AI results, they’ve already booked with the lodge that makes the trip easy to plan. They have a great trip and book their cabin again for same time next year. They tell their friends and bring a bigger group next year. They don’t search and compare – they just come back to that property.

When you never even entered their consideration set, those missed bookings are invisible to you as well.

The Demographic Cliff Nobody Talks About

Your core guest base is aging. That’s not criticism—that’s demographics. If your average guest is 60 today, they’ll be 70 in ten years. Some will still travel. Many won’t.

Meanwhile, the 35-year-olds with young kids who should be building traditions at your lodge are building traditions at properties that appear in AI search results.

I’ve been researching resorts in Ontario and Manitoba over the past few months facing exactly this. Their repeat guest rate was 70%—incredible loyalty.

I ran dozens of properties through ai visibility scans where I find zero mentions. Then I searched “family resort near (their location)” in all three systems. Competitors appeared in every result.

This resort—with 40 years of history and dozens of five-star reviews—had not yet claimed their Google Business Profile, a critical space where their next generation of guests are searching.

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Can Your Existing Website Be Optimized or Do You Need to Start Over?

First question every owner asks: “Do I need to rebuild my whole website?” Usually not. If your site is already created on WordPress, it can work on mobile, has flexible plugin options, the bones are probably fine. The problem is content structure and information architecture.

I run a complete diagnostic but we only change things that improve the way you already to business.

The 80/20 Fix for Most Lodge Websites

Most properties need content restructuring, not website rebuilding. Your current platform may work. You need to reorganize information so AI systems can parse it.

This isn’t just about adding more content. It’s about restructuring existing information so AI systems recognize it as authoritative and citable. A lodge with 15 well-structured pages outperforms a lodge with 100 rambling blog posts that AI can’t interpret.

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What Happens If You Wait 12 Months to Address This

Here’s what concerns me. AI systems learn which sources to trust through citation patterns. When ChatGPT recommends a property and users engage with that recommendation, it reinforces that citation. The property gets recommended more often. It becomes the default answer for queries in that region or category.

Right now, we’re in the window where AI recommendation patterns are forming. Properties that establish AI visibility in 2026 will dominate recommendations for years because they become trusted sources. Properties that wait will fight uphill against established citation patterns.

Think about it this way.

When you Google “best lodge near [anywhere],” you probably click on properties in the top 3 results. You don’t even look at position 8. AI search works the same way, except there is no position 8.

AI gives three recommendations and stops.

If you’re not one of those three, you don’t exist to that traveler.

How to Get Started: Step-by-Step Website Optimization for AI Search

You don’t need to be technical to start this. You need to think differently about what information travelers want and how AI systems interpret content. Start with your most important pages—usually homepage, cabin descriptions, and fishing/activity pages.

1. Audit your current content: Read each page and identify vague statements. “Beautiful views” becomes “Panoramic views of Lake of the Woods from all cabins, with sunrise visible from deck.” Takes 2 hours to audit a typical site.
2. Rewrite headers as questions: Your “Amenities” page becomes “What’s Included in Your Cabin Rental?” Your “Location” page becomes “How Do I Get to Your Lodge from Winnipeg?” Takes 30 minutes per page.
3. Add structured data: If you’re on WordPress, install a schema markup plugin (Rank Math or Yoast). Configure it to mark up your location, pricing, and reviews. Takes 1 hour, no coding required.
4. Create comparison content: Build one page comparing your cabin types, another comparing seasons, another comparing package options. Use tables or bulleted lists with specific details. Takes 3-4 hours total.
5. Test AI visibility: Search for your property in ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, and Perplexity. Document what appears. Repeat monthly to track improvement as your changes get indexed.

Some lodge owners can do this themselves over a few weeks. Most lodges have a web team who could implement this plan. If you’d rather have it done for you, I offer packages that include content restructuring, schema markup, and AI visibility optimization. Either way, the work needs to happen if you want to remain visible to travelers under 50.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need coding skills to optimize my website for AI search?

No coding required. The most important changes are content structure and writing style. If you can edit pages in WordPress (or whatever platform you use), you can make these changes. Schema markup plugins handle the technical parts automatically. The hard part is rewriting content to be specific instead of vague—that’s writing skill, not technical skill.

How long does it take to see results from AI optimization?

Google reindexes most sites within 2-4 weeks. ChatGPT’s training data updates every few months. You’ll see Google AI Overview changes fastest—usually 30-45 days after making content updates. ChatGPT and Perplexity take 60-90 days. Direct booking increases typically show up 90-120 days after optimization as the compounding citation effect kicks in.

What if my lodge doesn’t have much web content to start with?

That’s actually better than having 50 pages of badly structured content.

➜ Start with 10-12 core pages: homepage, about, cabins (one page per type), fishing/activities, location/directions, FAQ, rates, and booking. Each page 800-1,200 words of specific, structured information.

That’s enough to establish AI visibility if it’s written correctly. Quality beats quantity for AI citation.

Can this work if I’m in a remote area with little competition?

Remote properties actually have an advantage. Less competition means easier ranking in AI results for location-based queries. Someone searching “fly-in lodge Northern Ontario” sees fewer options than someone searching “cottage near Toronto.” Your optimization effort goes further when you’re one of five relevant properties instead of fifty. Plus, remote lodges often have unique features (fly-in only, no cell service, true wilderness) that make great specific content AI systems love to cite.

What’s the monthly cost to maintain AI search visibility?

If you’re doing it yourself: zero ongoing cost beyond your existing website hosting. The optimization is mostly one-time content restructuring. Maintaining visibility means adding 1-2 new pieces of structured content per month (a fishing report, a seasonal comparison, an activity guide). Takes 8-12 hours monthly. If you want automation, my systems include content generation, schema maintenance, and monthly AI visibility tracking.

How quickly do I need to decide on this?

The first-mover advantage window is open now but closing. Properties establishing AI visibility in 2026 will likely dominate their regions for 3-5 years as citation patterns solidify. Waiting until 2027 means competing against established sources AI already trusts. That said, don’t rush—wrong implementation wastes time. Take two weeks to research, understand the concepts in this AI visibility article, then decide whether to DIY or hire help.

What happens if I do nothing and my competitors optimize?

You become invisible to 60-70% of travelers under 45 who use AI search as their primary planning tool. Your bookings increasingly come from aging repeat guests and expensive OTA traffic while competitors capture younger guests through AI-driven direct bookings. Within 3-5 years, you’re paying 20-30% commissions on most reservations while competitors pay zero. That’s the reality—this isn’t optional if you plan to run your lodge for another decade.

Next Steps: Get Your AI Visibility Analysis

And you are free to continue with business as usual. But this is a real shift happening right now, and understanding where your property stands is like knowing where your booth is at the sport show. Some lodges are already showing up consistently in AI search results—they’re positioned well.

Others are completely invisible and painful part is that they don’t realize it.

If this feels like you. let me run your property through the same analysis I’ve done for 50+ lodges across Manitoba and Ontario.

I’ll show you exactly what travelers see when they search for properties like yours in the most important AI Visibility tools. You’ll see whether you’re getting recommended, who’s getting recommended instead, and specifically why.

Takes me 30 minutes to put together. No cost, no obligation. If you’re positioned well, I’ll tell you. If you’re invisible, I’ll show you exactly what needs fixing.

Then you can decide whether to tackle it yourself using the information in my methodology articles, hire someone local, or work with me on a done-for-you package.

The properties I’m most concerned about are the ones relying heavily on repeat guests over 55. That’s been a great business model for 20 years, but the next generation of guests is forming loyalty to whoever appears in their AI search results right now.

If that’s not you, we should talk.

Book a call at douglampi.com/services or email me directly. Either way, don’t wait until you notice bookings declining—by then, your competitors have already established the citation patterns that will dominate the next decade.