The short version
- Every survey we found shows AI use for travel rising year on year.
- The levels differ a lot, from 8% to 56%, because they ask different questions of different people.
- We found no reliable public figure for how many hotel bookings AI assistants influence. These numbers are about planning, not bookings.
| Figure | Who asked whom | When | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 52% of British travellers use AI tools to help plan travel, up from 40%. ChatGPT was the most used tool (35%). 47% used AI mainly for inspiration and ideas. | MMGY Travel Intelligence, 2026 Portrait of European Travellers: travellers in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The coverage we read doesn't state the sample size. | Published June 2026 | Hospitality Net |
| 56% of US leisure travellers used AI for planning, booking or help at their destination on at least one trip in the past 12 months, up from 43% six months earlier. | Phocuswright, The AI Surge: 1,570 US leisure travellers, online survey. | Surveyed February 2026, published March 2026 | Phocuswright |
| 8% of UK adults used AI for holiday ideas, up from 4% a year earlier. Among 25 to 34-year-olds it was 18%. | Abta Holiday Habits 2025-26: 2,001 UK adults, a nationally representative sample. | Surveyed July to August 2025 | Abta |
Why the numbers differ
- Different questions. "Used AI to help plan travel", "used AI for planning, booking or help at the destination" and "used AI for holiday ideas" are three different things.
- Different people. One survey covers UK travellers, one US leisure travellers, one all UK adults, including people who don't travel.
- Different dates. The Abta fieldwork is from summer 2025. Use of AI in travel appears to be changing quickly, so a 2025 figure will be lower than a 2026 one.
The direction is the same in all three: up. We wouldn't quote any one of them as "the" figure, and we'd be sceptical of a site that does without saying what it measures.
What the numbers don't tell you
- Whether a traveller who used AI to plan then booked a particular hotel, or booked direct.
- How often an assistant names a particular hotel. That varies by hotel, question and day, which is why Presence Pro asks each question more than once.
- How different assistants compare for hotels. The surveys above ask about "AI tools" in general.
A note on who is saying this
Presence Pro sells a service in this area. We've chosen the figures that we could trace to a named study with a described sample, and we've said where details were missing. Please read the sources yourself.
What this means for a hotel
More guests ask an assistant before they book, and an assistant builds its answers from information a hotel can fix. See how assistants choose hotels, work through the checklist, or request a free snapshot.
We update this page when we find a better source or a newer survey. If you know of one, tell us.