Hospitality marketing technology specialist Cendyn has unveiled a generative engine optimization (GEO) analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) monitoring platform.
The solution, called Wayfinder, will help hotels gain, boost and measure visibility across platforms such as Gemini, ChatGPT and Perplexity.
The technology is built into Cendyn’s content management system and runs simulated prompts across AI platforms to test GEO health, hotel information accuracy and discoverability.
Kevin Duncan, EVP of product for the company, said Wayfinder is a “health scorecard” for how properties are being searched on AI platforms.
“It will identify where you need to update information, fix FAQs, or address anything affecting your searchability on the open AI network.”
Nicki Graham, CMO of Cendyn described the tool as a “big stepping stone—preparing [for] the booking channel that’s coming.”
She added that while the company has been helping hotels with GEO, the Wayfinder will enable them to carry out the work themselves. Graham also said that going forward the tool will make recommendations and enable hotels to easily make changes on their websites.
On the current direct versus intermediaries debate, Michael Bennett, who took over as president and CEO of Cendyn in late 2025, said there’s an opportunity to help hoteliers get ahead to avoid “OTA 2.0.”
“We’ll see significant slippage in direct business, particular for smaller hotels and markets like Europe, with its large independent makeup,” he said: “ I genuinely worry about that. We have to help hotels get ahead of this now, or your 30% OTA contribution today is going to climb.”
Duncan said the technology is the first of several steps towards an AI platform.
“We have multiple moving components at Cendyn—CRM, CMS, booking engine—and Wayfinder starts to couple those together. It sets the tone for how we address AI within products and how hotels get surfaced on OpenAI, whether through their booking engine or website.”
Duncan said a content hub is being developed to hold imagery, hotel FAQs and other information that can be used across the CRM and booking engine. The hub will also act as a single source of truth for hotel content.
“Wayfinder is the linchpin that lets us understand, at the hotel level, how successfully they’re being presented on the OpenAI network.”
He said that across Cendyn, AI is enabling the company to develop and scale products rapidly and drive efficiency internally and externally.
“Items like Wayfinder would have taken months to release in the past; we're now releasing products within weeks.”
Bennett added that Cendyn is making “huge investments to double down” on AI and that the company has seen multi-percentage-point increases in direct bookings where it has been applied across marketing products so far.
He also said while everyone should be experimenting with AI, hoteliers are saying they don’t have the time or resources to tackle AI on their own.
“They're worried about token costs getting out of control, security risks, network vulnerabilities,” Bennett said. “There’s a nervousness, and they'd rather rely on us to build, deliver and support. I think you'll see hoteliers lean in more on the back-of-house side, within their own ecosystem, where they have more direct control.”