Tripadvisor AI Summaries Fail to Warn of Food Poisoning, Sexual Harassment at Hotels

Tripadvisor's new AI-powered review summaries are masking serious safety issues at hotels, according to a Which? investigation. The summaries, placed at the top of hotel pages, condense guest feedback but omit reports of food poisoning, sexual harassment, and hygiene failures. The watchdog found several examples where AI summaries gave glowing recommendations while recent reviews told a very different story.

Key Findings

• Riu Palace Santa Maria (Cape Verde): AI summary calls it 'spotless' with 'rave reviews' for dining. Yet 102 mentions of food poisoning were found, with 32 one- and two-star reviews between Dec 2025 and Apr 2026. 14 mention serious illness, multiple hospitalizations, and one death. The hotel faces a group legal action representing at least 412 holidaymakers, with seven deaths since 2023.
• Garza Blanca (Cancun): AI summary praises 'immaculate cleanliness'. Recent reviews report multiple guests falling ill, including a wedding party.
• Occidental Caribe (Dominican Republic): AI summary notes 'abundant' amenities and only 'inconsistent' cleanliness. Reviews describe sewage smells, mold, no running water (guests showered with bottled water), and half a 68-person wedding party falling ill.
• Kaia Coracesium (Turkey): AI summary describes sexual harassment from staff as 'lapses in service'. Reviewers reported repeated harassment, including staff following daughters to request contact.

Tripadvisor's interactive planning bot, Ollie, also failed. When asked about food poisoning risk at Riu Palace, Ollie replied it was 'quite unlikely' and the resort had a 'strong reputation for high hygiene standards'.

Tripadvisor responded that summaries 'surface a range of both positive and negative community feedback' and that Ollie 'draws from a selection of reviews based on detail and recency'. It said it is actively investigating the examples provided by Which?.

Which? checked in March 2026 and found 102 mentions of food poisoning at Riu Palace alone. The AI summaries are generated from a subset of reviews, but the criteria for selection appear to exclude the most critical ones.