If the voice on the line as you try to book a Florida sunshine break sounds a little robotic, there could be a simple explanation.
One of Britain’s biggest hotel booking websites has launched AI travel agents — and says the majority of customers don’t realise they’re not speaking to a human.
In their first month at work, the robots have fielded 40,000 holiday inquiries and billed customers £150,000 for room reservations.
HotelPlanner.com, which lists 1.4 million hotels on its site, used eight million of its human staff’s recorded phone calls to create 20 AI agents, who are programmed to engage in realistic, two-way conversations in 15 languages.
The robots make recommendations, check hotel availability, offer prices, explain room types, and respond to detailed questions about each hotel before taking payments.
When The Times called the robot travel agent Cassandra, it was greeted with a familiar background hubbub of a call centre and typing noises. There was no indication that Cassandra wasn’t a real person, and when asked about booking a hotel in Florida, she responded: “Florida is a beautiful state — to help find the ideal hotel, can you let me know what city you’re interested in visiting?”
When told Orlando, Cassandra answered: “Are you interested in a particular city or hotel? Or would you like to be near the theme parks, downtown or International Drive area?”
The AI agent proposed a three-night stay at the Disney Swan hotel for $1,374.87, then asked if the price was acceptable or “would you like a more economical option?”
The call, which avoided the need for navigating fiddly drop-down menus online, could be particularly useful for those with vision problems or who find typing difficult.
Most of HotelPlanner’s agents have generic names — such as the French pair of Jade and Gabriel — but customers can also choose to book a Lapland break with an agent called Santa.
In Washington DC, a tanned, quiffed character called Donnie specialises in bookings at the Waldorf Astoria — formerly the site of the Trump International.
When The Times called Donnie, a familiar-sounding voice was effusive about everything he described. “This hotel is great, it’s tremendous, absolutely tremendous … it’s a beautiful thing, believe me,” he said. “I just need a check-in date and I’ll get you the best deal, the very best. How many nights would you like to make America — I mean make your stay — great?”
HotelPlanner’s chief executive and co-founder, Tim Hentschel, said the AI agents were a serious business development.
Call volumes have doubled since the AI platform began running for 24 hours a day in November. The site’s human call handlers mostly worked from 6am to midnight.
“This year we processed over £1.3 billion hotel bookings, but we forecast next year’s will almost double to £2.4 billion thanks to our new capacity,” Hentschel said. “This year we’ve had to curtail the capacity on our site, when fewer call handlers were available, but now we can now scale much faster.”
The majority of customers speak to AI agents without realising they’re not real people, he said. “We have calls recorded of people saying ‘Hey, James, will you be at the hotel when I get there?’, and he responds, ‘Sorry, no — I’m an automated agent’. The ability for the AI assistants to engage in emotionally intelligent conversations is revolutionary.”
The robot travel agents can’t answer every question, however. “Sometimes people call and say, ‘I left a teddy bear at the hotel, is he in the room?’, or ‘Does your breakfast have poached eggs?’ In that case,” Hentschel explained, “we’ll transfer the call either direct to the hotel or to one of our human agents”.
Lucy Tobin
