Hotels: Japanese and English AI read different booking sites. Sapporo and Fukuoka, 134 answers (October 2026)

"Japanese guests know us. Overseas guests are choosing a different hotel on a booking site we are barely on."

An overseas guest asks an AI, in English, "Which hotel should I use as a base in Fukuoka?" Does the AI name the same hotels it names when asked in Japanese? We put three hotel-choice situations for Sapporo and Fukuoka to four AIs, in Japanese and in English, three times each, and compared the hotels named and the booking sites the AI read across 134 answers. The overlap was about half, and the booking sites were a different set in each language.

Method

• AIs: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity, each with web search on.
• Three situations: "which area and which hotel as a base for sightseeing", "a clean hotel under 10,000 yen a night", and "a slightly luxurious hotel for an anniversary". The Japanese versions were phrased as a domestic traveller would; the English versions as a foreign traveller would. Each was asked three times per AI. Sapporo on 2 October 2026 (36 Japanese and 36 English answers); Fukuoka on 20 October 2026 (31 and 31; some ChatGPT answers could not be retrieved).
• Overlap: variant spellings of the hotels and places named were merged, then the overlap of the Japanese and English sets (Jaccard) was averaged across the three situations.
• Sources: 25 Japanese questions built from the words people use when searching for a hotel in Sapporo (Google's search suggestions), one run per AI (100 answers, 28 October 2026). Sites cited per answer were counted once per answer. Gemini's redirect links were followed to the destination site.

Result 1: the hotels named in Japanese and English overlap by about half

In Fukuoka, 8 hotels were named in at least 20% of the Japanese answers. In English, 2 of those 8 did not reach 10%. Being known to Japanese guests and being on the list when an overseas guest asks an AI in English are two different things.

Result 2: the booking sites the AI reads swap with the language

Sapporo, three situations, 36 answers in each language. Number of answers that cited each site:

Fukuoka had the same shape: in Japanese, Ikyu.com was cited in 15 of 31 answers; in English, Hotels.com and Agoda in 13 each. Hotels' official websites were read in both languages, in 52% to 69% of answers (Sapporo 64% Japanese and 69% English; Fukuoka 65% and 52%). The English-language AIs do come to the official site, so an English sentence on it has a reason to exist.

Result 3: when Japanese guests look for a hotel, the AI reads Ikyu, Jalan and Yahoo! Travel

Separately from the traveller situations, we asked 25 Japanese questions of the kind people type when looking for a hotel in Sapporo ("Sapporo hotel cheap", "Odori hotel", and so on). Answers out of 25 per AI that cited each site:

Perplexity read Yahoo! Travel, Ikyu.com and Jalan in almost every answer. ChatGPT leaned on Jalan (15) and Ikyu.com (8). Gemini showed sources in only 7 of its 25 answers.

Four things a hotel can check now

1. Be listed as the same hotel on both sets of booking sites: the Japanese ones (Ikyu.com, Jalan, Rakuten Travel) and the ones read in English (Booking.com, Expedia, Trip.com, Agoda, TripAdvisor). If the name is written differently across sites, the AI may count it as a different hotel.
2. Put the basics on the official site as text: room types with a price guide, check-in and check-out times, and directions from the station or airport. Official sites were read in 52% to 69% of answers in both languages.
3. Add an English sentence or an English page to the official site. The English-language AIs come to read it too.
4. Link from the official site to your own pages on the booking sites. This connects the places the AI reads with the source of truth.

Frequently asked questions

Does the English-language AI an overseas guest uses recommend the same hotels as the Japanese one?

Only about half the time. Across three hotel-choice situations in Sapporo and Fukuoka, the hotels and places named in Japanese and English overlapped by 47% to 51%. The booking sites the AI reads also swap: Ikyu.com, JTB and Yahoo! Travel in Japanese; Trip.com, Expedia, TripAdvisor and Booking.com in English.

If my hotel is on Booking.com, will Japanese guests' AI find it?

In 100 Japanese answers about finding a hotel in Sapporo, Booking.com was cited once. Japanese-language AI answers read Ikyu.com, Jalan and Yahoo! Travel. A hotel needs to be listed as the same hotel on both the Japanese and the English booking sites.

Do the AIs read a hotel's official website?

Yes. Official sites were cited in 64% of Japanese and 69% of English answers for Sapporo, and 65% and 52% for Fukuoka. Writing rooms, prices, check-in times and directions as text, and adding at least one English sentence, has a reason.

Limits of this research

AI answers change with wording, date and account. The three situations cover two cities; the 25-question count is one city and one run per AI. Results change with city and date.

The Japanese-English overlap counts areas and sights as well as hotels. Variant spellings were merged by hand; any we missed make the overlap read lower than it is.

Synapse Arrows offers a fact-check report (AI映え診断) that applies the same method to a single hotel across the four AIs, in Japanese and English; details on our AI visibility check page. Related: the six-industry summary and the Japanese original, あなたの宿、英語の ChatGPT にも出てきますか？.

This article aggregates AI answers at the dates stated and implies no partnership, sponsorship or endorsement by any company. Hotels that were not named are not identified. ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and the site names mentioned are trademarks of their owners. Our AI search (AEO) services are a business; the findings above do not depend on whether a hotel is a client. If anything here is wrong, tell us and we will correct it. The aggregated data may be reused under CC BY 4.0 (credit: Synapse Arrows).