Nicolas Sitter
AGENTIC|

What AI searches when asked for hotels in Shanghai

Before answering a hotel question with web search, an AI assistant rewrites it into one or more searches. These are the searches it actually ran for 11 traveller prompts about Shanghai, captured week after week, not autocomplete suggestions.

ChatGPT
195
answers, 1.1 searches each, May 2026 to Nov 2026

Explore by prompt

Percentages are shares of answers. Grok and Gemini were captured on an earlier prompt set, so most current prompts only have ChatGPT.

Best hotels
Luxury
Budget
Families
Couples
Business
Solo
Amenity
Neighbourhood or landmark
Prompt
“best hotels in Shanghai”
Answers captured
19
Searches per answer
1.1
Searched the prompt as written
16%
Captured
4 May 2026 to 2 Nov 2026

The searches ChatGPT ran

Most frequent first. “×3” means the same search appeared in three separate answers.

  1. best luxury hotels Shanghai×2
  2. best hotels Shanghai luxury×2
  3. best hotels in Shanghai×2
  4. best hotels in Shanghai 2026 luxury boutique hotel guide reviews×1
  5. best hotels in Shanghai China luxury Bund Jing'an Pudong 2026×1
  6. best hotels in Shanghai 2026 luxury neighborhoods travel guide×1
  7. best luxury hotels Shanghai The Bund Pudong×1
  8. best luxury hotels in Shanghai top hotels×1
  9. best luxury hotels Shanghai 2026×1
  10. best hotels Shanghai×1
  11. best hotels Shanghai neighborhoods×1
  12. best hotels in Shanghai luxury hotels Shanghai recommendations×1
  13. best hotels in Shanghai 5 star luxury Shanghai hotels Bund Pudong hotels Shanghai top hotels×1
  14. best luxury hotels Shanghai 2025×1
  15. The Sukhothai Shanghai address official website×1

Showing 15 of 18 distinct searches.

Words it added to the prompt

luxury74%202621%bund16%pudong16%guide11%neighborhoods11%top11%20255%55%address5%boutique5%capella5%china5%jian5%jing5%li5%list5%official5%peninsula5%recommendations5%

Places and names it added

Bund Pudong11%

Hotel topics in what it added

All Shanghai prompts together

Share of answers whose searches added each topic, counting only words that were not already in the prompt.

What a Shanghai hotel page can cover

The topics ChatGPT adds most often here, with what a page can do about each. These are editorial suggestions drawn from the searches, not a measured ranking effect.

  1. A year24% of answers

    Say what is current: this year’s renovations, prices and openings, with dates on the page.

  2. Best / top24% of answers

    The engine is looking for lists. Being on the editorial and booking-site lists matters as much as your own page.

  3. Hotel class or style23% of answers

    State your class and style plainly (five-star, boutique, historic) in text and in schema.

  4. Neighbourhood and location16% of answers

    Name your neighbourhood and what is walkable from it, in words, not only on a map.

  5. Who it is for13% of answers

    Say who the hotel suits (families, couples, business) and why, with specifics.

Which hotels get named? The answers behind these searches are tracked in the AI Hotel Landscape for Shanghai.

How the searches were captured and cleaned, and what is left out: method and limits. ChatGPT data runs to Nov 2026.