When vacationers browse TripAdvisor, they will see an AI abstract on the prime of the web page for the lodge they’re viewing.
Whereas these summaries could seem to be a fast and simple approach to supply details about a property, typically scrolling right down to visitor opinions can inform a special story, based on a latest research by British client advocacy group Which?.
A “clear” lodge with a historical past of meals poisoning
TripAdvisor’s AI abstract describes the 5-star all-inclusive Riu Palace Santa Maria in Cape Verde as having “spacious rooms,” a “various restaurant” with “rave opinions,” cleanliness summed up as “good,” and “a favourite with many vacationers.”
Nonetheless, latest opinions on TripAdvisor paint a really completely different image.
Visitors at Riu Palace reported “hygiene circumstances have been very poor”, “primary cleansing and hygiene requirements weren’t adopted” and the meals was “horrible, bland, harmful and inedible”.
One visitor mentioned he was served uncooked rooster. One individual shared a photograph of flies and birds on their buffet meals, whereas one other discovered a “grilled carcass of a rat by the dwelling space” throughout a “nightmarish” vacation. One visitor, whose complete household grew to become sick, wrote: “This place can damage your vacation and take your life.”
When? In March of this yr, there have been 102 mentions of meals poisoning at Riu Palace.
The resort acquired 32 one- and two-star opinions from December 2025 to April 2026 alone, and 14 of them mentioned not less than one member suffered extreme signs from some sort of meals poisoning. This yr, many individuals have been hospitalized, some returned residence early, and one visitor died.
The lodge is at the moment dealing with a category motion lawsuit on behalf of not less than 412 vacationers who say they fell sick after staying there, and 7 deaths have been reported since 2023.
TripAdvisor’s different AI software, an interactive journey planning bot referred to as Ollie, additionally did not alert vacationers to poor hygiene. Requested immediately concerning the threat of meals poisoning at Riu Palace, Olly mentioned the prospect of meals poisoning was “fairly low” and mentioned the resort had a “good popularity for prime hygiene requirements”.
AI summaries downplay severe points
When? When requested concerning the AI Overview, TripAdvisor mentioned the corporate prioritizes “transparency and equity” and that the Overview “surfaces a wide range of suggestions, each constructive and damaging, from the neighborhood associated to listings.”
TripAdvisor additionally says “Which one?” The AI chat assistant software Ollie is “extracted from chosen opinions primarily based on element and recency, and matched by language and context,” it mentioned, including that it’s a “product in improvement” and that it’s at the moment actively investigating a number of examples supplied by client advocates the place opinions didn’t match.
Riu Palace was not the one such lodge. We found that TripAdvisor’s AI overview was lacking important studies of meals poisoning.
A number of friends who stayed at Cancun’s Garza Blanca Resort over the previous 12 months have additionally written opinions saying they’ve gotten sick, together with from marriage ceremony events. However TripAdvisor’s AI abstract shines once more, describing “impeccable cleanliness” and including that its restaurant choices “earn constructive suggestions.”
One other instance is the Western Caribbean Islands of the Dominican Republic. A latest reviewer referred to as it a “catastrophe and insecurity place” as of March 2026. One other reviewer referred to as it “the worst place possible.”
One visitor mentioned the room smelled like sewage and half of the 68 marriage ceremony attendees he traveled with fell sick. Guests in January reported that your complete lodge smelled of mould. A number of friends mentioned they did not have working water, however one visitor was showering with bottled water.
In distinction, the AI evaluate abstract speaks of the lodge’s “considerable” facilities, with solely obscure nods about “inconsistent” cleanliness and “upkeep points.”
AI describes sexual harassment as “neglect of responsibility”
There are different risks that TripAdvisor’s AI overview does not share. At Caia Colacium on Turkey’s Antalya coast, a number of reviewers who visited final summer time wrote that they felt unsafe after repeated sexual harassment from male lodge workers, together with inappropriate jokes and gestures, in addition to repeated requests to attach on social media.
Two completely different friends reported that male workers adopted their daughters and demanded their social media particulars. In a single incident, a restaurant worker adopted her up the steps to a room, the reviewer mentioned.
Tripadvisor AI opinions summarize the service as “pleasant”. The closest factor to those severe allegations is “missteps (on responsibility) cited by a small variety of people.”
AI makes opinions “simpler to grasp”
This means that the corporate’s AI system can establish and reference these claims, recognizing that issues raised by even a minority of reviewers could also be worthy of inclusion within the abstract.
Nonetheless, questions stay as to why such references don’t seem constantly and, after they do, why they’re worded in ways in which decrease their significance.
“We use large-scale language fashions and pure language processing to learn latest opinions, establish the most typical themes, and translate these themes into brief, plain English summaries,” TripAdvisor mentioned in an announcement.The aim is to “not solely make the content material of TripAdvisor opinions and opinions as simple to grasp as doable, but additionally to seize and spotlight a variety of constructive and damaging opinions with out biasing anyone sentiment.”
It mentioned, “Which one?” The abstract is up to date month-to-month and is “primarily based on opinions from the previous 12 months on the time of every replace,” and opinions are handled equally no matter score, highlighting these talked about most frequently by reviewers.
For comparability, which one? We checked out competing platforms’ approaches to AI summaries for inns. Google has significantly better management over the context of its AI overview. Google’s overview of Riu Palace warned of “doable illness” and warned of “illness outbreak” and “concern for birds in buffet space.”
The patron advocate additionally in contrast Google’s AI abstract to TripAdvisor for Britannia inns, the lowest-rated chain in Which?’s lodge analysis over 10 years.
Concerning London’s Britannia Worldwide Lodge, Google precisely shared that the lodge is “incessantly rated as one of many worst lodge chains within the UK,” additional highlighting the “filthy” surroundings and “horrible” service from visitor opinions. In line with TripAdvisor’s personal description of the lodge, friends “generally reward the clear rooms” and describe the environment as “inviting.”
“There isn’t any must blindly belief AI-generated content material.”
In response to this investigation, a TripAdvisor spokesperson mentioned: “Our AI summaries are designed to take care of the integrity and transparency TripAdvisor has been trusted by tens of millions of vacationers for over 25 years.
“They supply a snapshot primarily based on a considerable amount of user-generated content material and are clearly not supposed to switch particular person opinions. Customers can simply click on to see traveler quotes behind every evaluate component or entry all opinions on that record, eliminating the necessity to blindly belief AI-generated content material.”
Rory Borland, ‘Which?’ Editor Journey acknowledges that customers can fact-check summaries by evaluating them to precise opinions, however says, “This ignores the truth that[TripAdvisor]made the choice to push these summaries to the highest of the web page. Not surfacing vital security data is unacceptable and may very well be life-threatening.”
Borland advises customers to scroll via these summaries and take a look at visitor opinions, particularly 1-star rankings and opinions from different websites, to make sure their subsequent keep is a secure one.
