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WORKGROUP 7 OUTPUT

Digital readiness: When someone else controls the domain

Your digital readiness still matters. Take the questions to the brand, corporate team or provider with authority to act.

AI readiness

Overview

Not controlling the domain or CMS changes who can make website changes; it does not make the assessment irrelevant. This route retains all assessment questions and makes the responsible party explicit. The assessment must distinguish what your property can act on from what needs a conversation with corporate or an outsourced provider.

01

Step

Identify who can answer and act

Bring the responsible brand or agency’s web and IT team into the session, alongside your marketing, revenue/distribution and leadership counterparts. HR may be needed for current contacts and employee listings. Ask each team only for capabilities it can explain with concrete evidence.

Record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed for every relevant answer, and Property only for capabilities genuinely controlled locally. If control is unknown, record Not established. If the responsible party has not supplied enough evidence, keep the question unscored and visible as a gap; do not score it zero.

02

Step

Questions for your brand or vendor

Ask the responsible party the following questions about your business. Ask for the system or channel, frequency, actual steps, responsible role and a concrete instance. These are the complete digital questions; they have not been replaced by a shorter vendor checklist.

Trustworthiness · 3 questions

DIG-01 · Responsible brand/vendor

If someone searched your business name right now, would they find one page with your address, phone number and hours — all matching exactly across your site, Google, and social profiles?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing / Front Office

Reports to: Trustworthiness · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-02 · Responsible brand/vendor

Does your website run on a secure, up-to-date connection (the padlock / HTTPS) with no browser warnings on any key page?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: IT / Web

Reports to: Trustworthiness · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-41 · Responsible brand/vendor

Is that contact information actually kept current — verified and updated when someone leaves or changes roles — or could it still point to someone who hasn't worked there in years?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Leadership / HR

Reports to: Trustworthiness · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Trustworthiness / AI Readiness (AEO) · 1 questions

DIG-03 · Responsible brand/vendor

If a guest asked an AI assistant to book directly with you, would they complete that booking with you — or get routed to a third-party site instead?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Revenue / Marketing

Reports to: Trustworthiness / AI Readiness (AEO) · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Expertise · 2 questions

DIG-04 · Responsible brand/vendor

Can you point to a page that clearly names who founded or leads the business, with real photos and backgrounds — not just a stock 'Our Team' graphic?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing / Leadership

Reports to: Expertise · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-05 · Responsible brand/vendor

Does your site explain, in your own words, why a guest should trust your expertise over a competitor's — not just list amenities?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing

Reports to: Expertise · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Experience · 2 questions

DIG-06 · Responsible brand/vendor

Do you have guest stories or testimonials online that name a real, checkable guest or event — not just a star rating?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing

Reports to: Experience · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-07 · Responsible brand/vendor

If an AI assistant were asked 'has anyone actually stayed here, and what was it like,' could it find a specific, detailed account on your own site to answer from?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing

Reports to: Experience · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Authoritativeness · 2 questions

DIG-08 · Responsible brand/vendor

Has your business, or anyone on your leadership team, been mentioned or quoted by a reputable outside source — press, industry publication, podcast — in the last year?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Leadership / Marketing

Reports to: Authoritativeness · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-09 · Responsible brand/vendor

Do other reputable websites (not directories you paid for) link to or reference yours?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing

Reports to: Authoritativeness · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

AI Readiness (AEO) · 7 questions

DIG-10 · Responsible brand/vendor

If an AI assistant answered a question about your business today — address, amenities, pricing, policies — are you confident it would be accurate, or could it be pulling outdated or third-party information?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing / Leadership

Reports to: AI Readiness (AEO) · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-16 · Responsible brand/vendor

Does your website use structured data (schema markup) at all, or is it relying purely on visible page text for AI and search to read?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: IT / Web

Reports to: AI Readiness (AEO) · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-17 · Responsible brand/vendor

Is that structured data on every page that needs it — rooms, offers, policies, reviews — or only on the homepage?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: IT / Web

Reports to: AI Readiness (AEO) · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-18 · Responsible brand/vendor

Does your structured data cover the full set of facts a guest or an AI assistant would actually need — pricing, amenities, cancellation policy, accessibility — or just the basics like name and address?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: IT / Web / Marketing

Reports to: AI Readiness (AEO) · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-24 · Responsible brand/vendor

If a guest books after an AI assistant recommended you, would you know that's why they booked — or would it just look like ordinary website traffic?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Revenue / Marketing

Reports to: AI Readiness (AEO) · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-25 · Responsible brand/vendor

Do you have a distinctive offering — a special floor, a signature program, a members-only amenity — that only exists in a PDF, an old press release, or a scanned brochure, rather than as real text on a live page?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing / Web

Reports to: AI Readiness (AEO) · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-26 · Responsible brand/vendor

If you handed someone every PDF and press release on your website, would they find facts about your business that aren't published anywhere else — facts AI can't reliably read out of a PDF?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing / Web

Reports to: AI Readiness (AEO) · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

AI Readiness (AEO) / Sovereignty · 1 questions

DIG-11 · Responsible brand/vendor

Does your business publish its own facts in a form AI systems can read directly — ideally in one place covering every core entity (rooms, offers, policies, locations) — or does AI have to guess by scraping your web pages?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: IT / Marketing

Reports to: AI Readiness (AEO) / Sovereignty · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Sovereignty / Consistency · 5 questions

DIG-12 · Responsible brand/vendor

If two different AI assistants were asked to describe your business today, do you know whether they'd say the same thing?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing

Reports to: Sovereignty / Consistency · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-21 · Responsible brand/vendor

If your business facts change tomorrow — a price, a policy, an amenity — how long before that change is reflected everywhere AI and search look?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing / Revenue

Reports to: Sovereignty / Consistency · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-33 · Responsible brand/vendor

If you compared every page on your site that mentions the same fact — a rate, a policy, a fee — would you be confident they all say exactly the same thing?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing / Web

Reports to: Sovereignty / Consistency · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-42 · Responsible brand/vendor

Have you done a full review of your highest-priority facts — name, address, phone — across every channel they appear, not just your own website and main social profiles?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing

Reports to: Sovereignty / Consistency · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-43 · Responsible brand/vendor

Does that review include LinkedIn — both current employees whose profiles list your business, and former employees whose profiles still do?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing / HR

Reports to: Sovereignty / Consistency · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Governance / AI Readiness (AEO) · 1 questions

DIG-13 · Responsible brand/vendor

Is there anyone responsible for checking what AI tools say about your business, and is that a one-time check or something done on a regular schedule?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Leadership

Reports to: Governance / AI Readiness (AEO) · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Technical Foundations · 4 questions

DIG-14 · Responsible brand/vendor

When did you last confirm that AI crawlers — not just Google's search bot — can actually access and read your website?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: IT / Web

Reports to: Technical Foundations · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-15 · Responsible brand/vendor

Do you know how fast your key pages load, and would that pass a basic technical health check?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: IT / Web

Reports to: Technical Foundations · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-22 · Responsible brand/vendor

Do you know which AI bots and search crawlers have actually visited your site in the last 30 days?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: IT / Web

Reports to: Technical Foundations · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-23 · Responsible brand/vendor

Could a language selector, age gate, location picker, or cookie banner be stopping a crawler from ever reaching your real content?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: IT / Web

Reports to: Technical Foundations · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Content Architecture · 2 questions

DIG-19 · Responsible brand/vendor

Do you have dedicated 'hub' pages for each core part of your business — for example Accommodations, Amenities, Dining, Meetings & Events, Offers, Pet-Friendly, Local Area — or is that information scattered across the site?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing / Web

Reports to: Content Architecture · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-20 · Responsible brand/vendor

Do your related content pages actually link back to those hub pages, so a reader (or an AI crawler) can find the full picture from any entry point?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing / Web

Reports to: Content Architecture · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Direct Booking Integrity · 5 questions

DIG-27 · Responsible brand/vendor

Does every room type and rate plan on your site link straight through to a live, bookable reservation — not a 'call to book' notice or a redirect to a third-party site?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Revenue / IT

Reports to: Direct Booking Integrity · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-28 · Responsible brand/vendor

If your inventory or pricing changes in your reservation system today, how long before your website's booking links reflect that — same day, or whenever someone remembers to update the site?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Revenue / IT

Reports to: Direct Booking Integrity · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-30 · Responsible brand/vendor

Does every bookable entity on your property — every room type, package, and experience — have its own working direct booking path, or only your flagship rooms?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Revenue

Reports to: Direct Booking Integrity · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-31 · Responsible brand/vendor

If someone clicked 'book now' on every single page of your site today, would every one of those links actually lead to a real, current reservation — not a dead link or stale inventory?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: IT / Web

Reports to: Direct Booking Integrity · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

DIG-32 · Responsible brand/vendor

Of the bookings you count as 'direct' today, are you 100% certain none of them actually originated from an OTA or metasearch click — not just landed on your site, but started there?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Revenue / Finance

Reports to: Direct Booking Integrity · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Trustworthiness / Direct Booking Integrity · 1 questions

DIG-29 · Responsible brand/vendor

If you searched your own hotel's name plus 'book now' online, are you confident the top results lead guests to your real reservation system — not a lookalike site or a reseller charging a markup?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: IT / Marketing

Reports to: Trustworthiness / Direct Booking Integrity · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Freshness · 1 questions

DIG-34 · Responsible brand/vendor

Does anything near your prices, hours, or policies tell a reader when that information was last confirmed true — or is everything undated?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing / Web

Reports to: Freshness · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Completeness (Negative Space) · 1 questions

DIG-35 · Responsible brand/vendor

For the questions guests ask most often that you'd have to answer 'no' to — no pool, no pets over a certain size, no early check-in — is that 'no' actually published somewhere, or does your site just stay silent on it?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing / Front Office

Reports to: Completeness (Negative Space) · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Third-Party Corroboration · 1 questions

DIG-36 · Responsible brand/vendor

For the facts that matter most about your business, would an independent source — press, a booking platform, a government listing — say the same thing you say about yourself?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing

Reports to: Third-Party Corroboration · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Structured / Prose Consistency · 1 questions

DIG-37 · Responsible brand/vendor

If you checked your structured data against your visible page text for the same fact — check-in time, price, an amenity — would the two actually agree with each other?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: IT / Web

Reports to: Structured / Prose Consistency · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Information Gain · 1 questions

DIG-38 · Responsible brand/vendor

Is there anything on your site that only your business could truthfully say — a specific number, a named partnership, a dated result — or could every sentence be copy-pasted onto a competitor's site unchanged?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Marketing

Reports to: Information Gain · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Accountability · 1 questions

DIG-39 · Responsible brand/vendor

For the facts a guest could be genuinely harmed or disputed by — allergen handling, accessibility, cancellation exceptions — is there a specific person or policy behind that claim, or is it just an anonymous 'we'?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Leadership / Marketing

Reports to: Accountability · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

Trustworthiness / Expertise · 1 questions

DIG-40 · Responsible brand/vendor

Can a guest find real names and direct contact information for the people behind your business — ownership, service leads, customer support — not just a generic 'info@' address?

Ask the responsible brand/vendor counterpart for: Leadership / Marketing

Reports to: Trustworthiness / Expertise · Digital readiness

Control: record Corporate, Outsourced or Mixed; identify any part the Property still controls. Request concrete evidence from the team with access. Unknown is not zero.

03

Step

Separate evidence from unanswered questions

Keep unsupported answers unscored and visible as gaps. Record which questions the responsible party answered, which still need evidence, and who has authority to act on each finding.

AI readiness

A simple self-audit without full access

You can still check what a guest or AI assistant can see publicly: whether your hotel is found and described accurately, whether important facts agree across visible sources, and whether a direct booking path works. This gives you a useful evidence snapshot to discuss with the team that controls the domain, without pretending you can inspect or change the underlying website setup. Follow the simple self-audit steps in this guide.