AI-generated responses are becoming more common, whether travelers know it or not.
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Responding to angry customers is one of the hardest parts of her job, Natasha said.
Finding the right words, conveying the appropriate level of contrition – especially when it’s not the hotel’s fault (read: rain complaints) – is a tedious and time-consuming process, said the director of a five-star resort, who asked that CNBC does not use his real name to protect the resort’s name.
But now it has a secret weapon: generative AI.
Natasha pastes a traveler’s complaint into ChatGPT and asks the chatbot to write a response.
She said a task that would easily take an hour is done “in two seconds.”
For all its flaws, ChatGPT “does a great job” responding to customer complaints, Natasha said.
“One [response] It was much better than I would have done,” she said. But “it has to be verified… you have to read it.”
The answers tend to be “schmaltzy” and loaded with adjectives, she said. Still, they “hit the ‘We’re sorry, we wish we had done something, we’ll do better’ kind of thing.”
They also address any complaints mentioned by a traveler.
“It’s difficult to write these letters; you have to read it line by line,” she said. “You wouldn’t be doing the person justice if you didn’t respond to everything on the list… AI does that very well.”
But best of all, artificial intelligence is not defensive like humans, said Natasha.
“AI takes all the emotion out of it. Maybe people were idiots—–,” she said. “Does not matter.”
Responding to negative comments online is even more difficult, Natasha said, since they are so public.
Additionally, research shows that companies that don’t respond to online reviews – even positive ones – can damage their brand’s reputation.
In a ranking of US hotel chains by their “online reputation”, technology company SOCi found that a key driver of low scores was “ghosting” – that is, the lack of response to traveler reviews.
The need to constantly monitor and respond to online feedback is partly why using generative AI for “reputation management” is worth an estimated $1.3 billion to the travel industry, according to a report 2023 published by travel market research firm Skift.
Not only can great language models crawl sites where travel reviews appear — from TripAdvisor to Yelp to Reddit — they can also help companies “respond to reviews, especially negative ones,” says the report titled “Impact of AI” generative in travel”.
About 45% of hotels already use reputation or review management software, he said.
A screenshot of a discussion about using ChatGPT to write reviews on the Airhosts Forum, a website for Airbnb hosts.
CNBC
But short-term rental owners also use AI for these purposes, said Luca Zambello, CEO of short-term rental property management platform Jurny.
“The short-term rental/Airbnb industry was an early adopter,” he said. “In the next five years, I would say it will probably be adopted by the vast majority of the industry.”
He said responding to comments is time-consuming, which is one of the reasons his company offers this service.
“Most of our users love it,” he said. “It’s really obvious to companies once they see how good it is.”
Using AI to write penitent responses is a taboo topic in the travel industry, which prides itself on personalized service. Conventional wisdom has also long held that apologies should “come from the heart.”
I want people to think I’m sitting there, toiling away at their letters.
Natasha
Director of a five-star resort
When asked if she wants travelers to know that she uses AI to respond to emails and negative reviews, Natasha said, “Of course not. I want people to think I’m sitting there, toiling away on their letters.”
One company that recognizes the use of AI to handle customer complaints is travel booking platform Voyagu, which stores past customer communications to help travel advisors with future interactions, a company representative said.
“Travel advisors always respond to customers themselves, but Voyagu’s AI system tracks all communications – written and verbal – and suggests a better way to respond,” she said.
Brad Birnbaum, CEO of AI-based customer service company Kustomer, said technology of this kind is being used “not just in hospitality, but in fact in all forms of customer support.”
His company, which counts Priceline, Hopper and AvantStay as clients, uses AI to help customer service agents appear more professional, he said.
“We’re going to take really rough text and convert it into elegant text, into empathetic text,” he said.
Birnbaum said customers likely don’t know that their interactions with agents are generated or enhanced by AI.
“And I don’t think they would care,” he said. “In fact, I think they will probably welcome an agent system because they will get a better, faster response.”
Michael Friedman, CEO of family-owned vacation rental company Simple Life Hospitality, said his company doesn’t use AI to respond to customers.
“We’ve never written an email with AI,” he said. “There is still a personal element to ‘tone of voice’ that I believe AI lacks. … I believe there is nothing better than the human touch.”
Wanping Aw, managing director of Japanese travel agency Tokudaw, said she never thought about using AI to respond to customer complaints. But after learning that other travel companies do it, she decided to test ChatGPT with a real-life problem she recently faced.
She typed: “Our guests are traveling to Mount Fuji. Their bus engine has started to smoke. They are scared and anxious to know what will happen to their itinerary. What should we do?”
The result? “VERY AMAZING!” she told CNBC in an email. “ChatGPT suggested exactly what we did!”
The chatbot provided a six-step plan that included evacuating travelers and arranging alternative transportation.
Text showing the apology letter that ChatGPT generated for Wanping Aw.
“Actually, it’s better,” she said. “ChatGPT provided a good solution – better than my expectations – and also a great apology letter that I wouldn’t have been able to write in such stressful situations.”
