Responding to angry customers is one of the hardest parts of her job, Natasha said.
Finding the right words, conveying the right level of grief — especially when it’s not the hotel’s fault (read: complaining about rain) — is a tedious and time-consuming process, said the manager of a five-star resort, who asked CNBC if he doesn’t use her real name to protect the resort name.
But now he has a secret weapon: genetic artificial intelligence.
Natasha pastes a traveler’s complaint into ChatGPT and asks the chatbot to write a response.
She said a task that would easily take her an hour is done “in two seconds.”
‘Very good work’
For all its faults, ChatGPT “does a very good job” of responding to customer complaints, Natasha said.
“A [response] it was much better than what I would have done,” he said. But “must check…must read”.
The responses tend to be “visceral” and loaded with adjectives, he said. However, “they hit the ‘We’re sorry, we wish we could have done something, we’ll do better’ spots.”
They also deal with any complaint raised by a traveler.
“It’s hard to write these letters; you have to go line by line,” he said. “You wouldn’t be doing the person justice if you didn’t answer everything on the list… AI does that very well.”
But best of all, AI is not defensive like humans, Natasha said.
“Artificial intelligence takes away all emotion. Maybe humans were ass—–,” he said. “I do not care”.
The danger of “ghosts”.
Responding to negative online reviews is even more difficult, Natasha said, because they are so public.
Additionally, research shows that companies that don’t respond to online reviews—even positive ones—can damage their brand reputation.
In a ranking of US hotel chains based on their ‘online reputation’, technology firm SOCi found that one factor leading to low scores was ‘fantasy’ – meaning failure to respond to traveler reviews.
The need to constantly monitor and respond to online comments is partly why the use of genetic artificial intelligence for “reputation management” is estimated to be worth $1.3 billion to the travel industry, according to a 2023 report published by travel market research firm Skift.
Not only can big language models track websites where travel reviews appear — from TripAdvisor to Yelp to Reddit — they can also help companies “respond to reviews, especially negative ones,” the report, titled “The impact of Generative AI on travel“, he says.
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 site for Airbnb hosts.
CNBC
But short-term rental owners are using AI for these purposes as well, said Luca Zambello, CEO of the short-term rental property management platform Jurny.
“The short-term rental/Airbnb industry was an early adopter,” he said. “Within the next five years, I’d say it will probably be adopted by the vast majority of the industry.”
He said responding to reviews is time-consuming, which is one of the reasons his company provides this service.
“The majority of our users absolutely love it,” he said. “It’s really mind-boggling to companies when they see how good it is.”
An open secret
Using artificial intelligence to write repentance responses is a taboo subject in the travel industry, which prides itself on personal service. Conventional wisdom, too, has long held that an apology should “come from the heart.”
I want people to think I’m just sitting there getting worked up over their letter.
Natasha
Manager of a five star resort
When asked if she wants travelers to know she uses AI to respond to negative emails and reviews, Natasha said, “Definitely not. I want people to think I’m sitting there agonizing over their letter.”
One company that acknowledges using AI to deal with customer complaints is the travel booking platform Voyaguwhich stores past customer communications to help travel advisors with future interactions, a company spokesperson said.
“Travel advisors always respond to customers themselves, but Voyagu’s AI system monitors all communication — written and spoken — and suggests a better way to respond,” he said.
Brad Birnbaum, CEO of the AI-powered customer service company Customerhe said this kind of technology is being used “not just for hosting, but really all forms of customer support.”
His company, which counts Priceline, Hopper and AvantStay as clients, uses AI to help customer service agents sound more professional, he said.
“We’re going to take text that’s really raw and turn it into elegant text, empathetic text,” he said.
Birnbaum said customers are likely unaware that their interactions with agents are either created or enhanced by artificial intelligence.
“And I don’t think they would care,” he said. “In fact, I think they probably welcome an agent system because they’ll get a better response faster.”
Discovering it more
Michael Friedman, CEO of the family-owned vacation rental company Simple Life Hospitalityhe said his company does not use artificial intelligence to respond to customers.
“We never write emails with AI,” he said. “There’s still a personal element to ‘tone of voice’ that I think AI is missing. … I believe there is nothing better than the human touch.”
Wanping Aw, CEO of Japan Travel Agency Tokudaw, said he had never considered using artificial intelligence to respond to customer complaints. But after learning that other travel companies are too, he decided to test ChatGPT with a real problem he recently faced.
He wrote: “Our guests are traveling to Mt.Fuji. Their bus engine just started smoking. They are scared and anxious to know what will happen to their itinerary. What should we do?”
The result? “QUITE EXCITING!” he told CNBC via 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 ChatGPT created for Wanping Aw.
“It’s actually better,” he said. “ChatGPT provided a good solution – better than my expectations – and also a wonderful apology letter that I could not have written under such stressful situations.”