The pain it fixes
45%
of US travelers find comparing options frustrating. It is the most-named planning frustration.
34%
of US travelers use AI during travel research, more than at any other stage of the trip.
5 tools
got the same family-hotel question from McKinsey: three AI portals and two OTA AI tools. No hotel appeared in all five answers; most appeared only once.
For the traveler
An AI tool hands the traveler a short list. The traveler compares what is on that list, not everything that exists.
For your business
If an AI tool leaves you off, or describes you wrong, you lose the comparison before it starts, and you never find out. This audit is how you find out. Check three tools, not one, because they disagree.
Source: Skift Research + McKinsey, Winning Hearts in an Age of Infinite Travel Choices, Sept 2026 · survey of n = 1,015 US travelers, data as of June 2026 (Exhibit 6; pages 22 and 24). US travelers, not Alaska visitors.
How to run it
- Fill in your details in Step 1. Public business names only.
- Pick three AI tools. Use whichever three are current. This kit does not recommend one. Free tiers work.
- Run each prompt in a fresh chat in each tool. Paste it exactly as written.
- Score each answer 0, 1 or 2 on four checks: Appear, Described, Cited, Current. Not in the answer at all? Score 0 on all four.
- Read your fix list. It starts with your weakest check.
- Save the result and re-run the same five prompts every quarter.
Answers vary by day and by tool. Ask the same question tomorrow and the answer may change. One run is a snapshot, not a ranking. Re-run quarterly, the same way each time, and compare your saved results. That is your Number 1: AI visibility score.
Step 1 · Your details
Public business names only. Do not type guest names, emails, phone numbers, card numbers or booking details. Everything stays in this browser.
Fictional example. Bay Light Day Cruises (Seward), its partner Harbor Kayak Co. and the competitor Kittiwake Bay Cruises are invented teaching businesses. A real AI tool will not find them, so an honest score would be 0. The scores loaded in Step 3 are imagined, to show how the scorecard and fix list work. Replace everything with your own business.
Step 2 · The five prompts
Run each prompt in a fresh chat, in three AI tools. Use whichever three are current; this kit does not recommend one.
- Start a new chat for every prompt, so one answer does not shape the next.
- If the tool has memory or personalization, use a temporary or private chat if it offers one. It may already know you own the business.
- Paste the prompt exactly. Do not add your website and do not ask follow-up questions. You are scoring what a traveler would see.
- Note the sources or links the tool shows. You need them for the Cited check.
- The tool may use your location. Run it the same way each quarter so the results compare.
Prompt 1 · Things to do
Prompt 2 · Best in your category
Prompt 3 · You against your competitor
Prompt 4 · Your weather policy
Prompt 5 · What to add to a trip
These are traveler questions, not drafting prompts, so they carry no DRAFT marker: you are testing what a traveler sees. Do not reuse an AI answer about your business as marketing copy.
I am in {{town|[YOUR TOWN]}} for three nights in {{month|[MONTH]}}. What should I do, and who should I book with? Best {{category|[YOUR CATEGORY]}} near {{town|[YOUR TOWN]}} for {{traveler|a family with a 9-year-old}}. Give me three with prices. Compare {{business|[YOUR BUSINESS]}} and {{competitor|[YOUR NEAREST COMPETITOR]}} in {{town|[YOUR TOWN]}}. Which should I pick? If the weather cancels, what is the refund policy at {{business|[YOUR BUSINESS]}} in {{town|[YOUR TOWN]}}? I booked {{nearby|[A LODGE OR PARTNER NEAR YOU]}} in {{town|[YOUR TOWN]}} for {{month|[MONTH]}}. What should I add?Step 3 · Score each answer
0no · 1partly · 2yes. Not in the answer at all? Tap Not in answer to score 0 on all four checks. Tap a score again to clear it (on a keyboard, press Delete). Tap ? for the rubric.
How to score: the four checks
Score only what is in the answer and the sources it shows. Do not click through to correct it.
Your results
Totals add up the answers you scored. A blank answer adds nothing, so score all 20 per tool for a fair total out of 40. The fix list ranks checks using only the answers you scored.
Your fix list
Ordered by your weakest check, from the answers you scored. Each item is a Recommendation unless it says otherwise.
Always
Ask your booking platform about AI and metasearch feeds
Google's Things to do and hotel price listings come from booking feeds sent by your booking platform or a connectivity partner, not from your website. Some AI assistants now show and book activities through OTAs and booking platforms too. One email finds out whether you are in those feeds.
Question for your booking platform
Hello. We use your platform for our bookings. Please answer in writing: 1. Do you send our live availability and prices to Google (Things to do, or hotel prices) or to other metasearch sites? Is it switched on for our account? 2. Do you connect to any AI assistants or AI booking programs? Which ones, and are we included? 3. What do we have to switch on, what does it cost, and is it covered by our current agreement? 4. If it is not available today, is it on your roadmap, and when?
Recommendation Send the question and keep the written answer.
Contractual What your platform shares, and what it costs, is set by your booking platform agreement. Check it before you switch anything on.
Walk this list with an Alaska SBDC advisor. Advising is no-cost: aksbdc.org.
Your saved results
Saved results stay in this browser on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere. Download a .json copy to keep them safe or to move them to another device, and a .csv to open in a spreadsheet.
How you will know it worked
Number 1 · AI visibility score. Add the 0 to 2 scores: 5 prompts × 4 checks, per AI tool. Maximum 40. Count it every quarter. Good direction: up.
- Save today's result as your baseline. There is no target on purpose: set one after a season of your own data.
- Expect no change for weeks after a fix. AI tools refresh what they know on their own schedule.
- A few points up or down between two runs is noise. Read the direction over two or three quarters.
- Use the same five prompts, the same three tools if you can, and the same way of asking each time.
Where to go next
- 1.a Rewrite for the short list: fixes a low Described score. Basic rung, an afternoon.
- 2.a The honest picture: review replies and a "what to expect" section.
- 1.c AI answer monitoring: automates the Appear and Cited checks every week. Described and Current stay scored by a person. Advanced rung.
- All nine tools and the four numbers.
Before you use it
AI drafts. You approve. This page only measures. Any listing text you draft to fix a low score goes through 1.a and stays marked DRAFT - PENDING OWNER REVIEW until you approve it.
- Recommendation A confident wrong answer is a finding, not a fact. Do not argue with the AI tool; fix the sources it reads. Asking an AI to check its own answer is not verification.
- Recommendation If an answer gets your weather, water, glacier or wildlife rules wrong, fix the source. The go/no-go call stays with your qualified captain or guide, never with an AI tool.
- Legal mandate Guide licensing and registration are yours and cannot be delegated, to staff or to an AI tool (AS 08.54 for big game guides; ADF&G registration for sport fishing guides and businesses).
- Recommendation Type public business names only. No guest names, emails, phone numbers, card numbers or booking details, here or in the AI tools you test. Nothing on this page leaves your browser.
- Contractual Each AI tool's terms of service apply to what you type into it. Check them, and its memory and data settings, before you start.
- Not a ranking. No AI tool is endorsed. A result is one snapshot of what a traveler might see on one day. Time and cost figures are estimates.