Which Minneapolis hotels do ChatGPT and other AI assistants name?

What ChatGPT and other assistants named for Minneapolis hotels

Our data On October 14 we asked ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot six questions a traveler looking for a hotel in Minneapolis might ask. All 24 answers came back, and together they named 58 different hotels. 29 of those were named only once, and 6 were named by all four assistants.

A small group of names came up again and again. Hewing Hotel was named in 11 of 24 answers, Hotel Ivy and The Lofton Hotel in 10 each, and The Normandy Inn in 9, all four by every assistant. Canopy by Hilton Minneapolis Mill District (6) and Elliot Park Hotel (5) were the other two named by all four. Behind them came a long list of branded chain hotels, many named by only one or two assistants: Hampton Inn & Suites Minneapolis/Downtown was named 6 times, but only by ChatGPT and Copilot; Radisson RED Minneapolis Downtown 6 times, but only by Gemini and Google AI Mode. This is one run per question, so read the counts as a snapshot, not a ranking.

The assistants gave lists of very different length. Copilot named 47 hotels across its 6 answers, against 38 for ChatGPT, 37 for Google AI Mode and 29 for Gemini.

The question changed the field

For the budget question, the answers moved out of downtown. The four answers named 19 different hotels, including several in suburbs such as Bloomington, Golden Valley, Roseville and Minnetonka; three of Gemini's four names were outside the city. The Normandy Inn was the only hotel named by three assistants here. For the family question with young children and pets, no hotel was named by more than two of the four.

The question about boutique alternatives to Marriott produced the longest answers, 21 different names. Hewing Hotel was in all four, Hotel Ivy, The Chambers Hotel and Canopy by Hilton in three. Copilot also named Marriott itself and two Marriott-branded hotels. ChatGPT's list included a coffee shop and a restaurant, and in the question about a room for tonight it named two booking websites alongside the hotels. A traveler reading these answers gets a mix of hotels and other things.

Google AI Mode answered with Google Maps places

Our data 4 of Google AI Mode's 6 answers came as Google Maps places: 21 hotels in total. Their average rating was 4.2 stars, and only 19% of them had 4.5 stars or more. The median number of reviews was 1,600, and the hotel with the fewest still had 245.

That does not show that reviews are the reason a hotel was shown. It records the ratings and review counts for these places in this run: stars were moderate and review counts were high.

Where the names come from: websites cited for Minneapolis hotels

Our data ChatGPT and Copilot attached source links to all 6 of their answers. Gemini and Google AI Mode attached none, so the cited websites below come from ChatGPT and Copilot only.

The most-cited website was tripadvisor.com (9 of 24 answers), followed by booking.com (5). Expedia, the review site hotelierschoice.com and minneapolis.org, the city's official visitor site, were cited 3 times each, and the chain sites marriott.com and choicehotels.com twice. For the family and pets question, ChatGPT cited a family travel site and two pet travel sites, including bringfido.com. A single hotel's own website was cited only rarely, for example hewinghotel.com in the boutique question.

The cited sources in these answers were largely review sites and booking platforms, plus Google Maps listings for AI Mode.

Where Minneapolis hotels are usually listed (advice): Google Business Profile (it feeds Google Maps and Google's hotel results), Tripadvisor, Booking.com, Expedia and Hotels.com, and the visitor listings at minneapolis.org. If you take pets, a pet travel directory such as BringFido is worth a check. For branded hotels, the brand's own site carries much of the description, so check what it says about your property.

How travelers ask about Minneapolis hotels

Our six questions covered a general downtown recommendation, a family with young children and pets, budget hotels that are clean and safe, guest reviews and safety ratings, a room for tonight near downtown, and boutique alternatives to Marriott. Travelers often ask with an event, a landmark or a need in mind. Questions worth testing for your own hotel, written the way people type them:

• "Hotel within walking distance of U.S. Bank Stadium with parking"
• "Minneapolis hotel with an indoor pool for kids in winter"
• "Hotel connected to the skyway near the Minneapolis Convention Center"
• "Quiet hotel near the University of Minnesota for a campus visit"
• "Pet-friendly hotel near MSP airport with a free shuttle"

Use your own neighborhood, the venues near you and the guests you actually host. A question with no place in it can return hotels in another city.

The same six-question test was run for neighboring businesses too, for example restaurants in Atlanta and wedding venues in Nashville.

What a hotel can check about how AI assistants name it

Advice: these checks are practical and you can do them yourself. None of them can promise a mention; they make the facts about your hotel easier to find and harder to get wrong.

1. Put your policies on the site as text. Pet fee and weight limits, cribs and rollaway beds, connecting rooms, pool hours, parking cost, check-in and check-out times. Families and pet owners ask for exactly these details, and a policy hidden in a booking widget is hard for anyone to read.
2. Describe the location in concrete terms. Neighborhood, walking minutes to the venues guests come for, skyway access, distance to the light rail and the airport. "Central location" answers fewer questions than "six minutes on foot to Target Center".
3. Keep your OTA listings consistent. Name, address, amenities, photos and room types should match on Booking.com, Expedia, Tripadvisor and your own site. In this run, these platforms were among the most-cited sources.
4. Make direct booking easy to find. A "room for tonight" question was answered with booking platforms and hotels. Check that the booking button on your site works on a phone and shows today's availability without extra steps.
5. Complete your Google listing and answer reviews. 4 of 6 Google AI Mode answers in this run came as Maps places. Check the amenities, photos, check-in times and that recent reviews, good and bad, have a reply where one is useful.
6. Say plainly what kind of hotel you are. If you are independent or boutique, say so in the first lines of your site, with the neighborhood: "independent 60-room hotel in the North Loop". A question about alternatives to a big brand needs that fact to be easy to find.
7. State safety facts, not adjectives. Travelers asked for clean and safe hotels. A 24-hour front desk, keycard access to floors, the year of your last renovation and your cleaning routine are facts a reader can use; "safe and clean" alone is not.

How to check if ChatGPT names your own hotel

Write five or six questions your guests would ask, with Minneapolis or your neighborhood in them, and ask several assistants the same questions. Note who is named and which websites are cited, then repeat in a few weeks, because the answers change. CheckAI checks your own customer questions across the same four assistants and shows the names and the cited websites for each answer; a first check on ChatGPT and Google AI Mode is free.