ROI Summary: Leo

The context

AI search is becoming a new layer of organic distribution for hotel brands. As guests increasingly discover, compare and shortlist properties through AI-generated answers rather than conventional search results alone, the commercial risk is no longer just ranking lower in search; it is being absent from the recommendation set altogether.

For hotel groups, Leo offers a practical way to diagnose that risk and turn it into a measurable growth opportunity. Used effectively, marketing and commercial teams understand where the brand is visible, where competitors are outperforming, and which actions are most likely to improve direct demand, reduce distribution cost and strengthen brand presence across AI-led journeys. We are frequently asked what KPIs we would use to measure Leo’s performance.

But when it comes to ROI, the answer is more simple. Leo can help:

1. Ensure your properties are seen (at the cost to your competitors);
2. Drive more traffic to direct booking links (at the cost to the OTAs).
   

Stronger visibility versus competitors

AI search creates a new competitive battleground. In many journeys, users may only see a small set of recommended hotels - on average 3 results, compared to multiple SERPs pages in past days. That makes relative visibility more commercially important than many legacy SEO metrics. We have seen multiple cases where AI Visibility has increased by 20-30% over a period of 3-6 months.

AI Search Audit tools can help leadership teams track whether the group is gaining or losing share of voice against competitors in the moments that matter: destination searches, comparison prompts, category-led queries, and experience-led questions such as family, luxury, business or wellness travel.

This is achieved by systematic execution of Leo’s daily tips, which cover topics such specific content creation (across web and socials), structured data, entity consistency, third-party authority and property-level information that AI systems reward. Instead of broad SEO activity or generic content expansion, teams can make more selective changes with clearer expected outcomes.

Direct booking growth

The most important executive outcome is incremental direct revenue. If more travellers encounter a hotel brand in AI-generated answers for high-intent queries, and those answers steer users toward trusted direct channels, the inevitable result is stronger direct booking performance.

In one case, Leo has been able to help generate an increase of 38.1% in the proportion of direct links to the website (either one-click or mediated), compared to links to a third-party booking site such as an OTA. In this case the hotel is now over-indexing against the benchmark of their competitor set, where only a few months ago, they were lagging.

Direct booking growth has three primary effects that - combined - generate significant, high-value return on investment.

1. Reduced distribution costs - elimination of commission payments on third-party bookings.
2. Lower cancellation rate - 10.6% on direct bookings vs 21.8% on OTAs
3. Opportunity to build a dis-intermediated customer relationship with all the associated benefits.

It’s worth noting that, on AI Search - at least for now, but maybe not for long - strength in the AI surfaces means a property can divert money away from paid search via traditional channels.

Conclusion

The KPIs shown in the first section really speak to how Leo should be monitored and managed, but these are a means to an end. Process goals rather than outcome goals. Ultimately, the ROI comes from more visits to your own site, from guests who are primed and ready to book with you. And this statement hints at the ultimate goal.

Effective trust-building, through the search-journey, leads to higher conversion rates. And there’s a multiplicative effect:

Well-structured, user‑friendly content drives greater visibility.
Greater visibility attracts more visits with clear intent and higher trust.
More high‑intent, trusted visits lead directly to more direct bookings.