AI bots are a hit across the hotel biz, and if they feel creepy, you’re not alone: Study
A recent study from Texas A&M reveals that hotel booking chatbots are causing discomfort among users. The research indicates that inaccuracies, deceptive behavior, and intrusiveness contribute to this negative perception. Inaccuracy was found to be the most significant factor affecting user experience and bookings.
- ▪The study surveyed 340 adults in the UK who used chatbots for hotel bookings.
- ▪Inaccuracy was identified as the primary reason for users feeling unsettled, with a negative response over four times stronger than other issues.
- ▪Deceptive behavior and intrusiveness were also noted as contributing factors to the creep factor of chatbots.
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| Original publisher | Digital Trends |
| Canonical URL | https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/ai-bots-are-a-hit-across-the-hotel-biz-and-if-they-feel-creepy-youre-not-alone-study/ |
| Publication time | Mon, 25 May 2026 15:27:12 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-25T15:32:38.197Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-25T15:32:38.197Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | mfNMhUOpb_ud |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
If you have ever tried to book a hotel online and found yourself unsettled by the AI chatbot trying to help you, science has your back. New study from Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences confirms that hotel booking chatbots are genuinely creeping people out, and it is actually hurting bookings. What is giving hotel chatbots their creep factor? Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock Researchers surveyed 340 adults in the UK who had used chatbots to book hotels and found three main culprits behind the ick factor: inaccuracy, deceptive behavior, and intrusiveness. Inaccuracy was by far the biggest offender, triggering a negative response more than four times stronger than the other flaws.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Digital Trends.
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