Tripadvisor AI summaries give glowing reviews to dangerous hotels
6 hours ago
- #AI Ethics
- #Consumer Protection
- #Travel Safety
- Tripadvisor's AI summaries are downplaying serious issues like food poisoning, sexual harassment, and hygiene failures at hotels.
- Investigation reveals AI summaries for hotels such as Riu Palace Santa Maria describe them positively despite numerous reports of illness and poor conditions.
- Guests at Riu Palace reported raw chicken, flies in food, and food poisoning, with legal action involving over 412 holidaymakers and seven deaths since 2023.
- Tripadvisor's AI tool Ollie incorrectly stated food poisoning was 'quite unlikely' at Riu Palace, contradicting guest reviews.
- AI summaries for other hotels like Garza Blanca and Occidental Caribe also omitted serious health and safety concerns from recent reviews.
- At Kaia Coracesium in Turkey, AI summarized service as 'friendly' despite multiple reports of sexual harassment from staff.
- Tripadvisor claims its AI summaries aim for transparency and are based on recent reviews, but Which? found inconsistencies in highlighting negative feedback.
- Google's AI summaries for the same hotels more accurately warn of issues like 'potential for illness' compared to Tripadvisor's.
- Which? advises travelers to scroll past AI summaries and check real guest reviews, especially one-star ratings, for safety information.