30 September 2026
Where does AI send wedding couples and event planners? Six destinations, three assistants
We asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude where to hold weddings and corporate events in six destinations across Europe and the US. They named 230 different venues. Outside a few famous names, the shortlist was wide open.
Weddings, conferences and corporate events are the most valuable bookings a hotel or venue takes, and more couples, PAs and agencies now start their shortlist by asking an AI assistant. So we asked the assistants what planners ask, in six destinations on both sides of the Atlantic: Lake Como, Provence, Napa Valley, Barcelona, Lisbon and Chicago.
What we asked
Twelve questions, written the way couples and planners ask, from the markets that book these places: "We're planning a wedding for 80 guests on Lake Como in 2028 and want the ceremony, dinner and rooms for guests in one place. Which venues should we shortlist?", "Which Barcelona hotels can host a conference for 150 delegates with breakout rooms and bedrooms for everyone?", "Which downtown Chicago hotels can host a two-day sales meeting for 80 people?". Some were asked in German, as a German planner would. Each went to ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude with web search on: 36 answers in all.
The shortlist is wide open
For leisure questions, a few well-known hotels usually dominate: in our St Andrews study, three hotels took most of the answers. Event and wedding questions look very different. Each answer named about eight venues, but the assistants rarely agreed on them:
| Destination | Different venues named | Named in 3+ of 6 answers | Named most often |
|---|---|---|---|
| Napa Valley, US | 64 | 4 | Carneros Resort and Spa (4) |
| Chicago, US | 42 | 0 | Four hotels, 2 each |
| Provence, France | 32 | 1 | Coquillade Provence (4) |
| Barcelona, Spain | 31 | 3 | Hotel Arts, W Barcelona, InterContinental (3 each) |
| Lisbon and Cascais, Portugal | 31 | 1 | Fortaleza do Guincho (3) |
| Lake Como, Italy | 30 | 4 | Villa d’Este, Grand Hotel Tremezzo (6 each) |
Six answers per destination: one wedding question and one event question, each asked once on ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude with web search on, on 30 September 2026. Counted when an answer recommended the venue; different spellings of the same venue merged.
In Chicago, not one venue was recommended in more than two of the six answers. Napa Valley produced 64 different venues from six answers, and in Provence and Lisbon a single venue stood out while dozens of others appeared once. Lake Como was the exception: Villa d'Este and Grand Hotel Tremezzo appeared in every answer, the kind of fame the assistants reliably reach for.
For most venues that's good news: outside a few famous names, the shortlist isn't locked. It's decided answer by answer, by what the assistant can find and match to the planner's brief.
What the assistants read
The websites cited most were the venues' own: marriott.com, ihg.com, hilton.com, fourseasons.com and hyatt.com led the list, followed by individual venue sites such as villadeste.com and coquillade.fr. For event questions the assistants also read Cvent, the meetings platform; for weddings, tourism boards such as visitnapavalley.com and specialist wedding planners' sites.
- ChatGPT cited about four sources per answer, mostly hotel and venue websites.
- Claude cited the most, about five per answer, including Cvent and tourism boards.
- Gemini answered from what it already knew and cited no sources at all for these questions.
The big hotel groups have one advantage: their websites list meeting rooms, capacities and packages in a consistent format. Independent venues can match that on their own site.
What this means for a venue
- Put the facts on your own website, as text. Capacity per room and layout, number of bedrooms, packages with "from" prices, exclusive-use terms. Your own site is the source assistants read most.
- Be listed where planners and AI look: the meetings and wedding platforms that serve your market, and your tourism board.
- Check every assistant. Gemini relies on what it already knows, so being described on well-known sites matters more there.
- Measure the groups you want. A venue can be strong for weddings and invisible for conferences.
How we measured
Twelve questions (one wedding and one event question per destination) asked once on each assistant through their APIs with web search on, on 30 September 2026. We counted a venue when the answer recommended it and merged different spellings of the same venue. It's a snapshot, not a ranking of venue quality, and a repeat would name different venues, which is part of the finding.
Want to see what the assistants tell couples and planners about your venue? Choose Weddings, Conferences or Corporate events as target groups and your report shows your score, who wins each group and why. Start with the free check.
Questions
Do AI assistants recommend big hotel chains for events?
Often, partly because chain websites state meeting capacities and packages clearly. But in every destination we tested, the assistants named at least 30 different venues, including many independents.
Which websites do AI assistants read for wedding venues?
Mostly the venues' own websites, plus tourism boards, wedding planners' sites and wedding directories. Facts that only appear in a PDF brochure are easy to miss.
Does Gemini use web sources for venue questions?
In our test, Gemini cited no sources for these questions and answered from what it already knew, so being described consistently across well-known sites matters for Gemini.
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