Why I won’t trust AI trip planners with my holiday

AI chatbots are far from reliable, and letting one plan my holiday would dampen my wanderlust and narrow my horizons.

Recently, it was revealed that Tripadvisor has started using AI to put together itineraries for travellers.

It has rolled out an AI trip builder that produces destination, hotel and activity recommendations based on the user’s preferences.

This seems like a recipe for disaster for many reasons. To start with, we’re not just talking about Tripadvisor – the platform has collaborated with data AI cloud company Snowflake on the project. Ever heard the phrase “too many cooks spoil the broth”? Or, in this case, the holiday, because travellers opting for this approach won’t just be placing their faith in Tripadvisor’s use of AI, but in Snowflake’s, too. In other words? More potential points of failure.

Rahul Todkar, Tripadvisor’s head of data and AI, recently tried to reassure travellers by pointing out that those using the AI trip builder will be able to get bespoke assistance via the website. Which sounds great, but this won’t come from a living, breathing human but from an AI chatbot.

Recent history is littered with incidents that prove AI chatbots are far from reliable.

Recent history is littered with incidents that prove AI chatbots are far from reliable. What’s more, don’t assume companies will take accountability if your travel planning chatbot screws up. In 2022 Air Canada’s chatbot mistakenly informed a customer they could retroactively apply for a last-minute funeral travel discount on their airfares, which turned out to be incorrect. The case went to court and Air Canada’s defence was the chatbot was at fault, not the company. The airline lost the case in 2024 (thank goodness) but the suggestion airlines or tour operators could potentially shift blame on to an AI-powered entity strikes me as slightly terrifying.

And it’s not hard to imagine endless other ways in which an over-reliance on AI could cause all manner of holiday-related disasters. Planning a holiday to St Petersburg, Florida? Enter “where is St Petersburg” into Google and the top result, generated by AI, is the St Petersburg in northwestern Russia. If you’re after the sun and surf Florida is famous for, you’ll be disappointed to be directed to this Russian city that we currently can’t travel to regardless of the weather. And, almost certainly, out of pocket if Air Canada’s “blame the bot” approach is championed by your AI-loving tour operator.

If you’re after the sun and surf Florida is famous for, you’ll be disappointed to be directed to this Russian city that we currently can’t travel to.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not averse to the use of tech, and most travellers will have benefited from the use of AI.

“Aside from serving personalised suggestions, AI is also making travel more efficient by playing a key role in streamlining parts of the customer journey,” says Nicholas Wyatt, head of travel and tourism research analysis at GlobalData. “For example, facial recognition is helping at passport control and in speeding up check-in processes.”

Lofty the room service robot at Ireland’s Aloft Dublin City hotel sports a natty tie. Picture: Supplied.

Which is great. But it’s worth considering that whether we’re talking about bespoke trip planning or streamlining travel processes, AI can only perform effectively when provided with substantial personal data, and in an era of ransomware attacks, malware infections and data breaches, I believe travel – the art of finding special places that make our hearts sing – should not be shaped by algorithms produced by computers demanding our data under potentially false pretences.

In summary? I’ll always be a fan of hi-tech holidays. I’ve lost count of the hotels where an intuitive robot has delivered extra water or tea bags to my room (a fun fact: Lofty the room service robot at Ireland’s Aloft Dublin City hotel sports a natty tie). But letting AI plan my holiday would dampen my wanderlust and narrow my horizons – and perhaps send me on a one-way flight to the wrong St Petersburg.

Originally published as Why I won’t trust AI trip planners with my holiday