llms.txt for hotels: what it is and how to write one

llms.txt is a small plain-text file that sits at the root of your site and tells AI crawlers, in words, what your hotel is and where the pages worth reading are. It won’t rank you on its own — but it removes guesswork, and when a model is deciding whether it understands you well enough to recommend you, less guesswork helps.

What it’s for

Your website is built for people, so the important facts are scattered across menus, images and marketing copy. An AI crawler has to reconstruct the essentials from all that. llms.txt hands them over directly: who you are, where you are, what kind of property you run, and the handful of pages that answer the questions guests actually ask. It’s the difference between letting a visitor wander the building and giving them a one-page map at the door.

Where it lives

Put it at yourhotel.com/llms.txt, alongside robots.txt. It’s a plain UTF-8 file in light Markdown — a title, a short summary in a blockquote, then a few sections. No special hosting or tooling required; you can upload it like any other static file.

A template you can copy

Start from something like this and swap in your own details:

# The Old Harbour Hotel

> The Old Harbour Hotel is an independent 24-room boutique hotel on the
> waterfront in Whitby, North Yorkshire. Sea-view rooms, a seafood
> restaurant, and a ten-minute walk to the abbey. Direct booking only.

## Key pages
- Rooms and rates: /rooms
- Restaurant: /restaurant
- Location and how to reach us: /location
- Frequently asked questions: /faq

## Good to know
- Check-in 3pm, check-out 11am. Dog-friendly ground-floor rooms.
- Nearest station: Whitby (8 min walk). Free on-site parking.

## Contact
Book direct at /book or call +44 1947 000000.

Getting it right

Keep the summary factual and specific — location, category, size, what makes you distinct — not marketing adjectives. List only pages that genuinely answer questions; a tidy short list beats a link dump. Make sure every fact matches what’s on your site, your Hotel schema, and your Booking and Google profiles, because contradictions undo the whole point. Update it when the facts change.

Where it fits in the bigger picture

llms.txt is one piece of Answer Engine Optimisation. On its own it’s a small, sensible tidy-up; combined with readable pages, correct schema and consistent listings, it helps the engines describe — and recommend — you accurately. The get-recommended guide covers the rest.

Frequently asked questions

Is llms.txt required?

No — it's a proposed convention, not a rule the engines enforce. But it's cheap to add, it can't hurt, and it makes your site easier for AI crawlers to summarise correctly. Think of it as a courtesy that also happens to help you.

Where does llms.txt go?

At the root of your domain, so it's reachable at yourhotel.com/llms.txt — the same place robots.txt lives. It's a plain UTF-8 text file written in light Markdown.

Does llms.txt replace schema markup?

No, they do different jobs. Schema is structured data embedded in your pages for machines to parse; llms.txt is a human-readable map of what your site is and which pages matter. Use both — they reinforce each other.