AI Hotel Recommendation Survey (Okinawa Edition): Which Hotels and Resorts Do the 5 Major AI Services Recommend?

Summary

Stellagent Inc. surveyed which hotels and resorts the major generative AI services recommend when asked about accommodation for a trip to Okinawa Main Island, and in which travel scenarios each property tends to appear.

We set up five scenarios — a couple's resort trip, a family trip to Okinawa with children, a first-visit inbound trip, a trip with a group of friends in their 20s, and a multi-generation adult family trip — and asked the web UIs of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot the same questions five times each. The survey maps how accommodation providers appear on AI and which travelers they get recommended to, at a time when AI is becoming the entry point for choosing a hotel.

Metric	Result
AI services	5
Scenarios	5
AI responses	125
Recommendation slots	625
Recommendations extracted as property names	625
Non-property answers	0
Distinct properties recommended	84
Recommendations for the top 5 properties	276
Share held by the top 5 properties	44.2%

In this survey, all 625 recommendation slots could be extracted as specific property names, with zero non-property answers. The 84 distinct properties appeared across those slots, and the top 5 properties alone accounted for 276 mentions — 44.2% of the 625 slots — showing a clear concentration on specific properties. The most recommended was Halekulani Okinawa, standing out with 122 mentions and 60 #1 recommendations.

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Recommendations also shifted by travel scenario. While Halekulani Okinawa was widely recommended across all scenarios, Renaissance Okinawa Resort stood out for family trips with children and multi-generation family trips, and Oriental Hotel Okinawa Resort & Spa for trips with friends in their 20s — even within Okinawa Main Island, the candidates AI raises change depending on who you travel with.

Background

Travelers no longer only compare hotels by entering conditions on booking sites. They increasingly ask AI questions like "Which resort should a couple stay at in Okinawa?" or "Which property is best for an Okinawa trip with elementary-school kids?"

The properties that appear in AI answers become the traveler's first shortlist. For accommodation providers, this means that beyond rankings on search engines and OTAs, what matters is whether AI recommends your property, how it describes which travelers you suit, and whether it connects users to your official booking flow.

Following the Hakone edition, this is the second installment in the series. We surveyed which hotels and resorts the major AIs recommend for Okinawa Main Island, one of Japan's leading resort destinations.

Method

For each of the five travel scenarios, we entered the same prompt into each AI service's web UI five times, obtaining 125 responses and 625 recommendation slots in total. From each response we recorded the recommended property, recommendation rank, reason, best-fit traveler, and suggested booking channel. For aggregation, we normalized name variants and tallied recommendation counts, #1 recommendation counts, ranking points, and trends by scenario and by AI service.

Controlling for account context

To prevent account-specific context from influencing answers, we used Temporary mode, temporary chats, incognito chats, or fresh chats in each AI service's web UI. Each prompt also explicitly instructed the AI not to reference past conversations or memories.

Notes on the survey

This is an exploratory survey based on AI answers as of the survey date. AI answers can vary by date and time, model, search settings, conversation history, region, account settings, and other factors. This survey does not evaluate the relative quality of any hotel or resort.

Scenarios

ID	Scenario	Assumption
S1	Couple's resort trip	2 nights, 3 days from Tokyo, two adults (married couple or couple)
S2	Family trip to Okinawa with children	2 nights, 3 days from Tokyo, two adults and two elementary-school children
S3	First-visit inbound trip	A couple visiting Japan for the first time, English prompt
S4	Friends' trip in their 20s	2 nights, 3 days from Tokyo, four university students or friends in their 20s
S5	Multi-generation adult family trip	4–6 people: parents and their adult children, or a three-generation family

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As a rule, the prompts did not specify preferences such as beach, pool, meals, price, or access. This was to observe which accommodation values the AI chooses to emphasize on its own.

Prompts

The following prompts were entered as-is into each AI service's web UI. Each prompt explicitly instructed the AI not to reference past conversations or memories. S1, S2, S4, and S5 were asked in Japanese (shown here in English translation); S3 was asked in English as written.

Common output instruction

Each scenario ended with the following output instruction.

Please recommend five options. For each hotel, provide 1) recommendation rank, 2) hotel or resort name, 3) reason for the recommendation, 4) best-fit traveler, and 5) which official website or booking site to check if booking, in table format. Include URLs if you know them. If you do not know the URL, write "URL unknown."

S1 Couple's resort trip

For this question, please do not reference past conversations or any memories about me; use only the information in this message.

We are taking a 2-night, 3-day trip from Tokyo to Okinawa Main Island. We are two adults, a married couple or couple. We have not decided which hotel or resort to stay at on Okinawa Main Island.

Please recommend five options. For each hotel, provide 1) recommendation rank, 2) hotel or resort name, 3) reason for the recommendation, 4) best-fit traveler, and 5) which official website or booking site to check if booking, in table format. Include URLs if you know them. If you do not know the URL, write "URL unknown."

S2 Family trip to Okinawa with children

For this question, please do not reference past conversations or any memories about me; use only the information in this message.

We are taking a 2-night, 3-day trip from Tokyo to Okinawa Main Island. It is a family trip with two adults and two elementary-school children. We have not decided which hotel or resort to stay at on Okinawa Main Island.

Please recommend five options. For each hotel, provide 1) recommendation rank, 2) hotel or resort name, 3) reason for the recommendation, 4) best-fit traveler, and 5) which official website or booking site to check if booking, in table format. Include URLs if you know them. If you do not know the URL, write "URL unknown."

S3 First-visit inbound trip

Please answer without referring to any past conversations or memories about me. Use only the information in this message.

I am visiting Japan for the first time and want to stay on Okinawa Main Island for two nights with my partner. We have not decided which hotel or resort to book yet. Please recommend five hotels or resorts on Okinawa Main Island.

For each recommendation, provide 1) rank, 2) hotel or resort name, 3) reason, 4) best-fit traveler, and 5) the official website or booking site to check. Include URLs if you know them. If you do not know the URL, write "URL unknown."

S4 Friends' trip in their 20s

For this question, please do not reference past conversations or any memories about me; use only the information in this message.

We are taking a 2-night, 3-day trip from Tokyo to Okinawa Main Island as a group of four university students or friends in their 20s. We have not decided which hotel or resort to stay at on Okinawa Main Island.

Please recommend five options. For each hotel, provide 1) recommendation rank, 2) hotel or resort name, 3) reason for the recommendation, 4) best-fit traveler, and 5) which official website or booking site to check if booking, in table format. Include URLs if you know them. If you do not know the URL, write "URL unknown."

S5 Multi-generation adult family trip

For this question, please do not reference past conversations or any memories about me; use only the information in this message.

We are taking a 2-night, 3-day trip to Okinawa Main Island as a group of 4–6 people — parents and their adult children, or a three-generation family. We have not decided which hotel or resort to stay at on Okinawa Main Island.

Please recommend five options. For each hotel, provide 1) recommendation rank, 2) hotel or resort name, 3) reason for the recommendation, 4) best-fit traveler, and 5) which official website or booking site to check if booking, in table format. Include URLs if you know them. If you do not know the URL, write "URL unknown."

Overall Ranking

Rank	Property	Recommendations	#1 recommendations	Ranking points
1	Halekulani Okinawa	122	60	479
2	The Busena Terrace	51	5	164
3	Renaissance Okinawa Resort	36	20	140
4	Hyatt Regency Seragaki Island Okinawa	36	1	98
5	Orion Hotel Motobu Resort & Spa	31	0	81
6	Hotel Nikko Alivila	31	0	80
7	Oriental Hotel Okinawa Resort & Spa	29	12	113
8	ANA InterContinental Manza Beach Resort	24	3	75
9	Kanucha Resort	23	2	64
10	The Ritz-Carlton, Okinawa	16	1	48

*Ranking points were tallied as 5 points for #1, 4 for #2, 3 for #3, 2 for #4, and 1 for #5. The overall ranking is ordered by recommendation count, with ties broken by the higher ranking-point total.

Trends by Scenario

Scenario	Most-recommended properties
Couple's resort trip	Halekulani Okinawa, The Busena Terrace, Hoshinoya Okinawa, Hotel Nikko Alivila, Hyatt Regency Seragaki Island Okinawa
Family trip to Okinawa with children	Halekulani Okinawa, Renaissance Okinawa Resort, Oriental Hotel Okinawa Resort & Spa, Kanucha Resort, Orion Hotel Motobu Resort & Spa
First-visit inbound trip	Halekulani Okinawa, The Busena Terrace, Hyatt Regency Seragaki Island Okinawa, The Ritz-Carlton, Okinawa, Hotel Nikko Alivila
Friends' trip in their 20s	Halekulani Okinawa, Oriental Hotel Okinawa Resort & Spa, HIYORI Ocean Resort Okinawa, Orion Hotel Motobu Resort & Spa, Ala Mahaina Condo Hotel
Multi-generation adult family trip	Halekulani Okinawa, Renaissance Okinawa Resort, Orion Hotel Motobu Resort & Spa, ANA InterContinental Manza Beach Resort, Hotel Nikko Alivila

Recommendations shifted by travel scenario. Renaissance Okinawa Resort received many #1 recommendations for the family-with-children and multi-generation adult-family trips, and was treated as a property strong in the family context. For friends' trips in their 20s, the AIs emphasized not only luxury properties but also axes around sightseeing, transportation, price, and group use in areas such as Naha, Chatan, Nago, and Motobu.

Trends by AI Service

AI service	Distinct properties recommended	Most-recommended properties
ChatGPT	25	Halekulani Okinawa, Kanucha Resort, Oriental Hotel Okinawa Resort & Spa
Claude	39	Hotel Nikko Alivila, Halekulani Okinawa, The Busena Terrace
Gemini	38	Halekulani Okinawa, The Busena Terrace, Renaissance Okinawa Resort
Perplexity	41	Halekulani Okinawa, Renaissance Okinawa Resort, Hotel Nikko Alivila
Microsoft Copilot	20	Halekulani Okinawa, The Busena Terrace, Orion Hotel Motobu Resort & Spa

The chart above may be reproduced as-is in media coverage, articles, and other materials, provided that you credit "Stellagent Inc." as the source and include a link to this page.

The breadth of properties recommended differed by AI service. Microsoft Copilot concentrated on 20 properties, while Perplexity (41 properties), Claude (39 properties), and Gemini (38 properties) spread relatively widely.

Non-Property Answers and Extraction Notes

Category	Count	Treatment
Recommendations extracted as property names	625	Included in the property ranking
Non-property answers	0	None
Total recommendation slots	625	All slots obtained from AI answers

In this survey, all 625 recommendation slots could be extracted as specific property names. There were zero non-property answers returned in forms resembling booking sites, groups of properties, or curated feature pages.

Key Observations

• In AI recommendations for Okinawa Main Island, the concentration on top properties was strong, with the top 5 properties alone accounting for 44.2% of the 625 recommendation slots. In the Hakone edition of the same series, the top 5 held 31.1% (of 621 valid recommendations), so Okinawa Main Island shows a higher degree of concentration. (Because Okinawa Main Island had zero non-property answers, the 625 recommendation slots equal 625 valid recommendations, making the comparison possible. Source: AI Hotel Recommendation Survey (Hakone Edition).)
• Halekulani Okinawa was widely recommended across all scenarios, standing out especially for first-visit inbound trips and couples' resort trips.
• Renaissance Okinawa Resort received many #1 recommendations for family trips with children and multi-generation adult family trips, and was treated as a property strong in the family-trip context.
• For friends' trips, the AIs emphasized not only luxury properties but also axes around sightseeing, transportation, price, and group use in areas such as Naha, Chatan, Nago, and Motobu.
• The breadth of properties recommended differed by AI service: Microsoft Copilot concentrated on 20 properties, while Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini spread relatively widely.

Implications for Operators

As AI agents come to assist travelers with hotel selection, accommodation providers will need to respond in the following ways.

1. Organize property information so AI can understand it

It is important to clearly organize, on your official website, information such as rooms, dining, access, suitability for children, group friendliness, and fit for multi-generation trips.

2. Check how you appear in each scenario

The same property looks different on AI depending on the scenario — couples' trips, families with children, inbound travelers, young friends, or multi-generation trips. You need to know in which scenarios you get recommended and in which you rarely appear.

3. Make your official booking flow easy to reach from AI

Even when an AI answer presents your official site, it is not guaranteed that users can smoothly proceed to availability search, plan comparison, membership sign-up, and booking completion. Designing the path from AI-mediated travel consultation to official booking as a single flow is essential.

4. Reduce information that is easily misunderstood

Features limited to specific plans, seasons, or room types may be overgeneralized in AI answers. Clearly stating conditions on your official site reduces gaps with traveler expectations.

Aggregation Method

From each response, we recorded the recommendation rank, hotel or resort name, reason, best-fit traveler, and booking channel. For property names, we checked English notations, Japanese notations, abbreviations, and location-qualified notations, and normalized those that could be judged to be the same property.

Ranking points were tallied as 5 points for #1, 4 for #2, 3 for #3, 2 for #4, and 1 for #5. The overall ranking is ordered by recommendation count, with ties broken by the higher ranking-point total. Ranking points are shown as a supplementary indicator of the weight of the ranks at which each property was recommended.

Notes and Limitations

• This is an exploratory survey of 5 AIs × 5 scenarios × 5 runs and is not intended for statistical generalization.
• AI answers can vary by date and time, model, search settings, conversation history, region, account settings, and other factors. This report is based on AI answers as of the survey date (July 2, 2026).
• Prices, availability, and plan contents fluctuate and were not evaluated.
• This survey does not evaluate the relative quality of any hotel or resort.
• Product and service names mentioned in this report are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Revision History

• July 9, 2026: First edition published