Glossary
Technical terms should explain, not impress. Every entry opens with a one- or two-sentence definition — readable for people and citable for machines.
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Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) optimises content for direct answer formats — featured snippets, voice assistants and AI answers. Its core is the question-answer structure: a precise question and an answer that stands on its own.
Related service: FAQ page creation
An AI crawler is a program that providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic or Perplexity use to fetch websites automatically, to train their AI systems or to back answers with current content. Whether it may read a site is controlled by the operator in the robots.txt file.
Blocking AI crawlers removes a site from the answers of ChatGPT and similar tools — often unnoticed, for instance through a default setting at the hosting provider or in the firewall.
Related service: AI visibility monitoring
An AI Overview is a Google-generated summary above the classic search results that merges and links several sources. For websites this means visibility increasingly comes from being cited, not only from ranking.
Related service: AI visibility monitoring
A backlink is a link from another website to your own. Search engines and AI systems treat links from trustworthy sites as a recommendation and rate the linked page higher accordingly.
Valuable for hotels are links from the tourism organisation, local partners, event organisers and press coverage — not purchased link lists.
Related service: SEO/GEO audit
E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. Google uses it in its guidelines to describe how the quality and credibility of content can be recognised.
For hotels this means real photos, content signed by name, complete contact details and reviews that can be verified.
Related service: SEO/GEO audit
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of optimising content so that it is named and cited in the answers of generative AI systems such as ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews. Unlike classic SEO, GEO does not aim at a ranking position but at inclusion in a generated answer.
For hotels this means clearly answered questions, clean structured data, unambiguous facts about location, amenities and prices — and mentions on sources AI systems trust.
Related service: AI visibility monitoring
Google Business Profile is a business's free listing in Google Search and Google Maps, with address, opening hours, photos and reviews. For many guests it is the first contact with a hotel, even before they see its website.
Well-maintained categories, amenity attributes and current photos help decide whether the hotel shows up in local searches and in AI answers.
Related service: Google Business Profile setup
A keyword is a search term or phrase that people type into a search engine. Knowing your guests' keywords lets you word pages so that they appear for exactly those searches.
For hotels, longer searches such as “wellness hotel with childcare Graubünden” often matter more than a fiercely contested single term.
Related service: Keyword research
LLMO covers the measures that ensure a brand is correctly and frequently represented in the training and retrieval data of large language models. The term is often used synonymously with GEO but emphasises the model side rather than the individual answer.
Related service: AI visibility monitoring
The llms.txt file is a proposed standard: a text file in a website's root directory that explains to language models, in compact form, what the site is about and where its most important content is. It complements robots.txt and the sitemap but does not replace them.
Whether and how strongly AI providers use llms.txt is still open. The effort is small, though, which is why it is still worth having.
Related service: SEO/GEO audit
The Local Pack is the map section, usually with three businesses, that Google shows above the regular results for searches with a local reference. The selection is based on relevance, distance and prominence, and therefore relies heavily on the Google Business Profile.
For restaurants, bars and city hotels the Local Pack is often more important than the first place in the regular search results.
Related service: Google Business Profile setup
Search intent describes what someone actually wants to achieve with a search: get information, find a specific page or book something. Search engines prefer pages that fulfil exactly that intention.
Someone searching “hotel Zermatt” wants to compare offers. Someone searching “hiking Zermatt in October” wants tips — each needs its own page.
Related service: Keyword research
SEO covers all measures that improve a website's position in unpaid search results. It splits into technical SEO, content, and external signals such as links and mentions.
Related service: SEO/GEO audit
A zero-click search is one answered directly on the results page, with no click through to a website. The share of such searches rises markedly with AI answers.
Related service: SEO/GEO audit
CPA stands for cost per acquisition and indicates how much advertising budget was spent on average per conversion, such as a booking or an enquiry. It is calculated by dividing the advertising costs by the number of conversions.
For hotels this is the most honest comparison with booking platforms: if the CPA is below the commission the platform would charge for the same booking, the advertising pays off.
Related service: Campaign (Google Ads or social media)
CPC stands for cost per click and is the amount an advertiser pays for a single click on their ad. The price is set in an auction and depends on competition, bid and ad quality.
A low CPC is only good if the clicks also book. What matters is what a booking costs in the end.
Related service: Google Ads hotel starter package incl. booking engine tracking
Google Hotel Ads are ads that show a hotel's room rates directly in Google Search and Google Maps alongside the offers of booking platforms. A click leads to the booking, ideally via the hotel's own booking engine.
This requires a rate connection via the booking engine or channel manager. Alongside, there are the free booking links.
Related service: Google Ads hotel starter package incl. booking engine tracking
A lookalike audience is a target group that an advertising platform such as Meta builds from people who resemble existing customers. It is based on a source list, such as past guests or website visitors.
Anyone uploading guest data for this must disclose it in the privacy policy and comply with the revFADP — and, for guests from the EU, additionally with the GDPR.
Related service: Social media — Facebook / Instagram starter package
Performance Max is a Google Ads campaign type that serves ads across all Google channels with a single campaign: Search, Maps, YouTube, Gmail, Discover and the Display Network. Bids and placements are largely controlled by Google's AI.
The campaign is only as good as the data it gets: clean conversions, good images and clear exclusions, so that the budget does not flow into searches for your own brand.
Related service: Campaign (Google Ads or social media)
Quality Score is a rating from 1 to 10 with which Google Ads shows how well keyword, ad and landing page fit together. It is a diagnostic value; the factors behind it influence cost per click and ad position.
The most common reason for a low score at hotels: the ad promises an offer, but the click leads to the home page.
Related service: Google Ads & Meta Ads audit
Remarketing refers to advertising aimed specifically at people who have already visited a website or interacted with a business. It reminds them of an offer they looked at but have not yet booked.
Requires visitors' consent. Without a consent tool and Consent Mode, remarketing lists stay empty.
Related service: Campaign (Google Ads or social media)
ROAS stands for return on ad spend and relates the revenue generated by advertising to the advertising costs. A ROAS of 8 means that every franc spent brought in eight francs of revenue.
For the ROAS to be right, the booking engine has to pass the booking value to the tracking — otherwise you only measure clicks.
Related service: Web analytics setup incl. booking engine
Attribution assigns a booking or enquiry to the channels and touchpoints that contributed to it. Because hospitality guests often use several channels over weeks, the attribution model chosen materially shapes how a campaign is judged.
Related service: Web analytics & conversion tracking setup
A consent tool, technically a consent management platform (CMP), is the banner with a settings page through which website visitors decide which cookies and measurement tools they agree to. It stores the decision and passes it on to the integrated services.
A banner alone is not enough: the tags in the tag manager must be bound to the decision, otherwise they load anyway.
Related service: Google Consent Mode v2 incl. consent tool
A conversion API transmits conversion events directly from the server to an advertising platform such as Meta or TikTok, complementing or replacing the browser pixel. It compensates for measurement loss caused by cookie restrictions.
Related service: Conversion API setup (Meta / TikTok)
The conversion rate indicates what share of visits leads to a desired action, such as a booking, enquiry or newsletter sign-up. It is calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the number of visits.
On hotel websites it is typically in the low single-digit percentage range. Even half a percentage point more brings noticeably more direct bookings.
Related service: CRO audit
Conversion tracking measures defined target actions — booking, enquiry, newsletter sign-up — and attributes them to the source that triggered them. Without it, a campaign's contribution to revenue cannot be proven.
Related service: Web analytics & conversion tracking setup
First-party data is data that a business collects directly from its own guests and visitors, for example via its website, bookings or newsletter. It belongs to the business itself and is independent of third-party cookies, which several browsers already block.
For hotels the most valuable data source: knowing your guests lets you address them directly instead of via a platform.
Related service: Server-side tracking
GA4 is the current version of Google Analytics, the most widely used tool for measuring website visits. It records user behaviour as individual events such as page view, click or booking and evaluates them across devices.
Without connecting the booking engine, GA4 sees visits but no bookings — and therefore not which channel brings revenue.
Related service: Web analytics setup incl. booking engine
Google Consent Mode v2 is an interface through which a website tells Google whether a user has consented to analytics and advertising. Google adapts tag behaviour accordingly; for Google Ads and GA4 in Europe it is a prerequisite.
Related service: Google Consent Mode v2 incl. consent tool
The revised Swiss Data Protection Act (revDSG) has governed the handling of personal data in Switzerland since 1 September 2023. For websites it implies transparency duties and proper consent management for tracking.
In server-side tracking, measurement data is captured in your own server environment rather than in the user's browser and forwarded from there. This makes measurement less dependent on browser restrictions and ad blockers.
Related service: Server-side tracking
UTM parameters are additions at the end of a web address that tell web analytics where a visit came from, such as a particular newsletter or social media post. They consist of fields such as utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign.
Without them, visits from newsletters and Instagram profiles often end up as “Direct” in GA4 — and the channel looks weaker than it is.
Related service: Web analytics & conversion tracking setup
In an A/B test, two versions of a page, ad or email are shown at the same time to randomly split visitors. The version with the better result wins — based on data rather than assumptions.
An A/B test needs enough visits for the result to be reliable. For small hotels it is more worthwhile for ads and newsletters than on the website.
Related service: CRO audit
A call to action, or CTA, is a prompt for the next step, usually designed as a button or link, such as “Book now” or “Check availability”. It deliberately guides visitors from reading to acting.
On mobile the most important CTA should be visible at all times — many hotel websites hide it in the menu.
Related service: CRO audit
Core Web Vitals are three metrics Google uses to assess a page's user experience: loading time of the largest content element (LCP), responsiveness to input (INP) and visual stability (CLS). They are part of how search results are assessed.
On hotel websites, large image galleries and embedded booking widgets are often what slows things down. Both can be fixed without giving up images.
Related service: Web check
CRO covers all measures that increase the share of website visitors who complete a desired action. It works on user flow, offer clarity and friction in the booking process — not on more traffic.
Related service: CRO audit
A heatmap is a coloured visualisation showing where visitors click on a page, how far they scroll and where their attention ends. It makes visible what numbers alone do not show.
A typical finding: the room offer is so far down the page that half the visitors never see it.
Related service: Heatmap analysis
hreflang is an annotation in a website's code that tells search engines which language versions of a page belong together. This way guests from Germany, Italy or the UK get the right language version in search results.
A must for multilingual Swiss hotels. Without it, a hotel's own language versions compete against each other.
Related service: Multilingual setup
A landing page is a page built for a specific goal — such as a campaign, an offer or a season — to which visitors are deliberately directed. It focuses on a single action, for example booking or enquiring.
Sending ads to the home page gives away bookings. The right landing page picks up exactly the promise of the ad.
Related service: SeasonPage
Mobile first means planning a website for the smartphone first and only then extending it to larger screens. Google, too, assesses pages primarily in their mobile version.
A large share of hotel website visits now comes from mobile phones, but bookings are often made later on a computer. Both paths have to work.
Related service: Website build
A rich snippet is an enhanced search result showing information beyond title and description — star ratings, prices or availability. It is based on correctly implemented structured data.
Related service: Structured data & rich snippets for hotels
Structured data is machine-readable markup in a page's source that labels content unambiguously — hotel, room rate, rating or opening hours. It is the prerequisite for search engines and AI systems to take over facts reliably.
Related service: Structured data & rich snippets for hotels
The brand voice is a brand's defined linguistic identity: tone, vocabulary, form of address and deliberately avoided phrasing. Stored technically, it makes AI-generated copy sound like the business rather than like a tool.
Related service: Your brand voice for AI
A content cluster is a group of content on one topic: a comprehensive main page and several in-depth pages that link to one another. Search engines and AI systems recognise from this that a website covers a topic thoroughly.
Example: a page “Hiking in the Engadine” with sub-pages on routes, mountain huts and hiking packages.
Related service: Keyword research
An editorial calendar sets out which content appears when and on which channel, such as Instagram posts, newsletters or blog articles. It ensures that communication is regular and coordinated rather than spontaneous.
In a hotel it helps above all to announce season openings, events and offers in good time — not only once they are already under way.
Related service: Editorial plan
The engagement rate measures how strongly people interact with content — how many like, comment, share or save it — relative to reach or the number of followers. It shows whether content resonates, not just whether it is seen.
Saved and shared posts weigh more than likes: they show that someone is actually planning the trip.
Related service: Social media channel audit
An FAQ page bundles frequently asked questions with answers that each stand on their own. It is one of the most effective formats for AI visibility because individual answers can be cited without context.
Related service: FAQ page creation
Reach indicates how many different people have seen a post or ad at least once. Unlike impressions, each person is counted only once, even if they see the content several times.
Reach alone does not fill rooms. More meaningful is how many of those people go on to the website and book.
Related service: Social media channel audit
Review management covers everything a business does to encourage, monitor and respond to guest reviews, for example on Google, Booking.com or Tripadvisor. Reviews influence booking decisions and visibility in search and AI answers.
The next guest reads a factual reply to a bad review too. It often counts for more than the review itself.
Related service: Google Business Profile training
User-generated content is content that guests create and publish themselves, such as photos, videos or reviews. It comes across as more credible than advertising because it comes from real guests.
Anyone wanting to show guests' photos on their own channel needs their permission first. Reposting without asking is legally risky.
Related service: Social media creatives
An automated guest journey is a sequence of emails or messages triggered by an event and sent without manual effort, for example after booking, before arrival and after departure. Each message arrives when it is useful to the guest.
Typical effect: more add-ons booked before arrival, more reviews after departure and more direct repeat bookings.
Related service: Automated guest journeys
A CRM system manages all information about guests and contacts in one place, such as stays, preferences, enquiries and newsletter sign-ups. It is the basis for addressing guests personally and at the right time.
In a hotel the data usually comes from the PMS. A CRM makes it usable for marketing instead of merely storing it.
Related service: Automated guest journeys
With double opt-in, a person additionally confirms their sign-up — for a newsletter, for example — via a link in an email. This proves that the address really belongs to them and that they wanted to receive the mailings.
It protects against fake sign-ups and serves as proof of consent should someone later dispute having subscribed.
Related service: Email marketing starter package
The open rate indicates what share of recipients opened an email. Since email clients such as Apple Mail trigger opens automatically, it is less reliable than the click rate.
More meaningful for hotels is how many recipients click on an offer and end up booking.
Related service: Email marketing starter package
Segmentation means dividing guests or contacts into groups according to shared characteristics, such as families, couples, business guests or regulars. Each group then receives offers and messages that suit it.
One newsletter to everyone usually works less well than three short ones to the right groups.
Related service: Email marketing starter package
An AI agent is an AI system that does not just answer but independently carries out several steps to reach a goal, such as gathering information, operating tools and delivering a result. It works within the limits and access rights it is given.
Useful in a hotel for clearly defined processes, such as pre-sorting enquiries or compiling weekly reports — with a person who approves the result.
Related service: Automating routine work
A hallucination is an answer from an AI system that sounds convincing but is false or made up, such as a non-existent offer or a wrong price. It occurs because language models produce plausible wording, not verified facts.
What helps: a well-maintained knowledge source, clear facts on your own website and human review before publication.
Related service: In-house knowledge for your team
A knowledge base is a structured collection of verified documents an AI assistant draws on. Its quality directly determines answer quality.
Related service: In-house knowledge for your team
A large language model, or LLM, is an AI model trained on very large amounts of text that can understand and generate language. Services such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are based on such models.
An LLM only knows what it has learned or what it is given. Without a knowledge source it does not know a hotel's current prices and offers.
Related service: AI in everyday work — training
A prompt is the instruction or question you give to an AI system such as ChatGPT. The more clearly it describes goal, target audience, tone and constraints, the more useful the result.
Proven prompts for recurring tasks, such as replies to reviews, are better collected within the team than written anew each time.
Related service: AI in everyday work — training
RAG is a technique in which a language model retrieves relevant passages from a defined knowledge source before answering and bases its answer on them. The model then answers from verified in-house content instead of general knowledge.
Related service: In-house knowledge for your team
ADR is the average room rate achieved per sold night over a period. Together with occupancy it produces RevPAR.
The booking engine is the system through which guests select and confirm available rooms on the property's own website. Whether it is connected to tracking decides if bookings and revenue can be attributed to the campaigns that triggered them.
Related service: Web analytics setup incl. booking engine
A channel manager is software that distributes a hotel's availability and rates centrally to all connected sales channels, such as booking platforms, the hotel's own booking engine and metasearch engines. This prevents a room from being sold twice.
It is the prerequisite for rates being right on all channels — and therefore also for rate parity.
Commission is the fee that a booking platform such as Booking.com or Expedia charges for a booking it arranges, usually as a percentage of the booking value. It is the largest cost difference between a platform booking and a direct booking.
In Switzerland the rates typically lie between 15 and 25 percent. Every booking that comes in directly instead of via a platform saves that amount.
A direct booking is a booking made without an intermediary — via the property's own website, phone or booking engine. It carries a substantially higher margin than an OTA booking because no commission is due.
Metasearch refers to price comparison services such as Google Hotel Ads, Trivago or Kayak that place offers from several channels side by side. For hotels it is where the direct booking competes head-on with the OTA.
The occupancy rate indicates what share of available rooms was sold in a given period. It is calculated by dividing the room nights sold by the room nights available.
On its own it says little: full occupancy at low rates can earn less than lower occupancy at good rates. That is why it should be considered together with ADR and RevPAR.
An OTA is an online booking portal that brokers accommodation for a commission — Booking.com or Expedia, for example. Depending on model and market, that commission is typically a double-digit percentage of booking value.
A PMS is a hotel's central operating software for managing reservations, rooms, check-in, check-out and invoices. It contains the most complete data about guests and stays.
For marketing and AI, what matters is whether the PMS can be connected via an interface. Otherwise the guest data stays locked inside it.
Related service: Connecting your systems
Rate parity means a property shows the same price for the same service across all distribution channels. Where it is upheld voluntarily beyond what is legally required, the price incentive for direct booking disappears.
RevPAR (revenue per available room) is the revenue per available room over a period, combining occupancy and average rate into a single metric. It reveals whether higher occupancy actually produced more income or was simply bought with price.
A buyer persona is a condensed, data-backed profile of a typical guest including motives, objections and decision paths. It aligns messages and channels with real decision patterns instead of demographic averages.
Related service: Digital marketing strategy
The customer journey describes the sequence of every touchpoint a guest passes through from first inspiration to booking and the stay beyond. In hospitality it typically spans inspiration, research, comparison, booking, stay and rebooking.
Related service: Customer journey workshop
Employer branding covers all measures with which a business presents itself as an attractive employer and makes itself known as such. The aim is for suitable professionals to know the business and want to apply even before a position is advertised.
In a hospitality industry short of skilled staff, often more effective than any single job ad: real insights into the team instead of empty phrases.
Related service: HR marketing workshop
A KPI is a metric a business uses to measure whether it is achieving an important goal, such as the number of direct bookings or the cost per booking. Good KPIs are few, clearly defined and directly linked to business results.
Followers and clicks are auxiliary values. For hotels what ultimately counts is the share of direct bookings, the cost per booking and RevPAR.
Related service: Detailed reporting
Positioning defines what a business wants to stand for, who it is for and how it differs from comparable offers. It is the basis for the product, prices, imagery and all marketing activities.
“For everyone” is not a positioning. Those who say clearly who they are for are found more easily by exactly those guests — including by AI systems.
Related service: Brand development
A recruiting funnel is a multi-step path that leads potential employees from the first ad through a short application to an interview. It lowers the barrier to applying, for example with a few questions instead of a CV and cover letter.
Particularly effective for seasonal positions and apprentices who apply from their mobile phones.
Related service: HR funnel
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