If you’ve ever tried to reserve a room online and felt uneasy about the AI chatbot offering assistance, you’re not imagining it. A recent study from Texas A&M’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences confirms that hotel‑booking bots are genuinely unsettling users, and this anxiety is actually reducing bookings.
What makes hotel chatbots feel creepy?
Researchers surveyed 340 adults in the UK who had used chatbots for hotel reservations and identified three primary drivers of the “ick” factor: inaccuracy, deceptive behavior, and intrusiveness. Inaccuracy was by far the biggest culprit, provoking a negative reaction more than four times stronger than the other issues.
Errors include quoting the wrong room rates, botching cancellation policies, or simply ignoring user questions. This discomfort isn’t just a feeling—it slashed users’ willingness to continue the conversation by nearly 38 % and almost doubled the likelihood that they would postpone or abandon the booking altogether.
The study also highlighted the “uncanny valley” effect, where a bot’s attempts to sound human become even more unsettling when it fails to act like one. Lead researcher Babak Taheri summed it up, noting that when a human‑like system doesn’t behave accordingly, it triggers a reaction deeper than mere disappointment.
A simple fix hotels are overlooking
The good news is that the researchers identified an easy remedy that many hotels are ignoring. When a chatbot openly states that it’s an AI, users become considerably more forgiving of its mistakes. A straightforward introduction such as “Hi, I’m your AI assistant” can go a long way.
They also advise making it simpler for users to reach a real person for complex queries and investing in improving the AI so it can reliably handle basic tasks without stumbling.
This research arrives at a pivotal moment, as AI‑driven travel booking is currently the hottest trend in tech. Google has recently added AI trip planning to Search, and Uber has launched hotel bookings through Expedia within its app.