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Homepage Blueprint — Lodging Business

The homepage is the identity anchor for any lodging business — hotels, motels, hostels, bed and breakfasts, resorts, and vacation rentals. It tells AI systems who you are, where you are, what your property offers, and when guests can check in. This blueprint provides the complete JSON-LD graph your homepage needs.

View Prompt View JSON

What this page needs

The homepage is where AI systems look first to understand your lodging property. It must declare your identity, location, star rating, check-in/check-out times, and amenities. Without this structured data, AI may list your property but lack the details to recommend it over competitors.

Property identity. The LodgingBusiness node declares your name, star rating, price range, phone number, and social profiles. This is the canonical record AI uses to identify your property.
Physical location. A complete PostalAddress and GeoCoordinates let AI systems answer "hotels near me" queries and plot your location on maps.
Check-in and check-out. The checkinTime and checkoutTime properties help AI answer practical travel questions without the guest needing to visit your site.
WebSite and WebPage. These nodes anchor your site graph and connect the homepage to the business entity, giving AI a root-level reference for every other page.

Why these fields matter to AI

Each field in the template below serves a specific role in how AI systems discover, classify, and recommend your business.

Researched and tested by Minnesota AI

LodgingBusiness

name: Non-negotiable. AI cannot cite or recommend an unnamed entity.
url: AI needs a stable URL to route users and attribute recommendations.
telephone: AI won't recommend a local business it can't confirm is reachable. Phone is the primary trust signal for location-based queries.
address: AI uses address to confirm the business is real and located where it claims. Required for all near-me and city-specific queries.
geo: AI uses geo to place you on a map and answer proximity queries. Without coordinates AI relies on address parsing alone, which is less reliable.
priceRange: AI filters local recommendations by budget. One of the most common qualifiers in location-based queries.
sameAs: AI cross-references sameAs links to confirm the business exists outside its own domain. Google Business Profile is the strongest signal.
image: AI won't recommend a physical location it can't visually confirm exists. Image is a trust signal for brick-and-mortar businesses.
checkinTimeconditional: AI answers arrival and booking queries using check-in time. Without it AI cannot help guests plan their stay.Only required for Hotel and LodgingBusiness subtypes. If your business is not a lodging establishment this field is not applicable.
checkoutTimeconditional: AI answers departure planning queries using check-out time. Required for lodging recommendations.Only required for Hotel and LodgingBusiness subtypes. If your business is not a lodging establishment this field is not applicable.
starRatingconditional: AI uses star rating to filter lodging recommendations by quality tier. A key booking decision signal.Only required for Hotel and LodgingBusiness subtypes. If your business is not a lodging establishment this field is not applicable.
amenityFeatureconditional: AI filters recommendations by amenity. Users ask about specific features — without structured data AI cannot confirm what you offer.Recommended for Hotel, LodgingBusiness, and fitness/recreation businesses. If your business type does not have notable amenities this field is not applicable.

WebSite

@id: All other schema nodes reference this ID. Without it the graph is disconnected.

Use This Prompt to Implement Your Schema

Copy this prompt and paste it into Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or any AI coding tool. It will ask for your business details and generate ready-to-use JSON-LD schema for your page.

You are implementing AIFDS-compliant JSON-LD structured data for a Lodging Business Homepage page.

AIFDS (AI-Friendly Data Structure) is a schema framework built on research into which
structured data fields AI systems actually read, parse, and use when deciding whether
to cite a page. Documentation at aifds.org.

Before generating any code, ask me for the following information in a single numbered list.
Do not generate schema until I have answered every required field.

REQUIRED — do not proceed without these:
1. Amenity
2. Checkin time
3. Checkout time
4. City
5. Domain
6. Faq answer
7. Faq question
8. Handle
9. Hero image
10. Homepage title
11. Latitude
12. Listing
13. Logo
14. Longitude
15. Maps cid
16. Page
17. Phone number
18. Price range
19. Property name
20. Star rating
21. State
22. Street address
23. Zip

OPTIONAL — ask for these but proceed if I skip them:
1. checkinTime
2. checkoutTime
3. starRating
4. amenityFeature

Once I provide the information, output a complete JSON-LD script block
ready to paste into the <head> of my HTML page.

Output requirements:
- Valid JSON-LD wrapped in <script type="application/ld+json"> tags
- schema.org vocabulary only
- Every AIFDS-required field for this industry and page type included
- Include this data attribute on the script tag: data-aifds="aifds.org Lodging Business Homepage"
- No placeholder text — omit missing optional fields rather than fill with examples
- After the code block, list any optional fields skipped that would strengthen AI citation

Generated schema follows the AIFDS framework. Fields were selected based on research into AI crawler behavior. View the research at minnesota.ai

Template — fill in your values

Copy the template below and replace every YOUR_* value with your own data. This block belongs in a <script type="application/ld+json"> tag in the <head> of your homepage.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@graph": [
    {
      "@type": "LodgingBusiness",
      "@id": "https://YOUR_DOMAIN.com/#property",
      "name": "YOUR_PROPERTY_NAME",
      "url": "https://YOUR_DOMAIN.com",
      "logo": "https://YOUR_DOMAIN.com/YOUR_LOGO.png",
      "image": "https://YOUR_DOMAIN.com/YOUR_HERO_IMAGE.jpg",
      "telephone": "YOUR_PHONE_NUMBER",
      "starRating": {
        "@type": "Rating",
        "ratingValue": "YOUR_STAR_RATING"
      },
      "priceRange": "YOUR_PRICE_RANGE",
      "checkinTime": "YOUR_CHECKIN_TIME",
      "checkoutTime": "YOUR_CHECKOUT_TIME",
      "address": {
        "@type": "PostalAddress",
        "streetAddress": "YOUR_STREET_ADDRESS",
        "addressLocality": "YOUR_CITY",
        "addressRegion": "YOUR_STATE",
        "postalCode": "YOUR_ZIP",
        "addressCountry": "US"
      },
      "geo": {
        "@type": "GeoCoordinates",
        "latitude": "YOUR_LATITUDE",
        "longitude": "YOUR_LONGITUDE"
      },
      "amenityFeature": [
        {
          "@type": "LocationFeatureSpecification",
          "name": "YOUR_AMENITY_1",
          "value": true
        },
        {
          "@type": "LocationFeatureSpecification",
          "name": "YOUR_AMENITY_2",
          "value": true
        }
      ],
      "sameAs": [
        "https://www.instagram.com/YOUR_HANDLE",
        "https://www.facebook.com/YOUR_PAGE",
        "https://www.tripadvisor.com/YOUR_LISTING",
        "https://www.google.com/maps?cid=YOUR_MAPS_CID"
      ]
    },
    {
      "@type": "WebSite",
      "@id": "https://YOUR_DOMAIN.com/#website",
      "name": "YOUR_PROPERTY_NAME",
      "url": "https://YOUR_DOMAIN.com"
    },
    {
      "@type": "WebPage",
      "@id": "https://YOUR_DOMAIN.com/#webpage",
      "url": "https://YOUR_DOMAIN.com/",
      "name": "YOUR_HOMEPAGE_TITLE",
      "isPartOf": {
        "@id": "https://YOUR_DOMAIN.com/#website"
      },
      "about": {
        "@id": "https://YOUR_DOMAIN.com/#property"
      }
    },
    {
      "@type": "FAQPage",
      "mainEntity": [
        {
          "@type": "Question",
          "name": "YOUR_FAQ_QUESTION_1",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "YOUR_FAQ_ANSWER_1"
          }
        },
        {
          "@type": "Question",
          "name": "YOUR_FAQ_QUESTION_2",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "YOUR_FAQ_ANSWER_2"
          }
        },
        {
          "@type": "Question",
          "name": "YOUR_FAQ_QUESTION_3",
          "acceptedAnswer": {
            "@type": "Answer",
            "text": "YOUR_FAQ_ANSWER_3"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Frequently asked questions

When should I use LodgingBusiness instead of Hotel?

LodgingBusiness is the parent type for all lodging properties in Schema.org. Use it when your property does not fit a more specific subtype like Hotel, Motel, Hostel, or BedAndBreakfast. If a specific subtype matches your property, use that instead for better AI classification.

What format should check-in and check-out times use?

Use ISO 8601 time format: "15:00:00" for 3:00 PM check-in, "11:00:00" for 11:00 AM check-out. This standardized format lets AI parse your times accurately and answer guest questions like "what time is check-in?"

Should I include amenities on the homepage or only on a dedicated amenities page?

Include your key amenities on both. The homepage should list your top amenities using amenityFeature so AI can quickly match your property to queries like "hotel with pool" or "lodging with free parking." The dedicated amenities page can provide the complete list.