BERLIN: Having a tough time figuring out your holiday plans? Don't know where to go, what to do and when?
Instead of clicking aimlessly around the internet, you can ask your artificial intelligence-powered chatbot of choice or turn to chatbots specialised in tourism and travel planning such as Guidegeek.com, Kayak.ai, Mindtrip.ai or Usevacay.com.
Kayak has five tips for how best to use the bots.
Be specific rather than vague
The more precise the prompt, the more helpful the answer. Do not just write: "Plan a trip to the south of France for me."
Instead, say: "Help me plan a road trip through the south of France. I am interested in local cuisine and art, I want to explore as many cities as possible and avoid places with too many tourists."
Set limits and requirements
Booking platforms have various filters and sliders you can click and move. How many stars should the hotel have? Should meals be included? Chatbots do not have those options.
But you can and should set limits and requirements in your prompts. For example, you could ask for a boutique hotel in a specific Berlin neighbourhood that includes breakfast, has a bathtub in the bathroom and costs under €200 (RM918) per night.
Get tips on things like air fares
Maybe you don't want to book air travel right away but just want to know when flights are cheapest? Then you could ask: When are flights to Tenerife particularly cheap? Or: Show me a table with price data for flights from Berlin to Istanbul during the week for August.
Always ask follow-up questions
With chatbots you can always have a dialogue. If the answer to a prompt is not satisfactory, you can and should follow up. For example with the price table for Istanbul flights: Are connecting flights listed but you only want direct flights? Then say so.
Important to know: AI can be a useful helper but it can make mistakes. You should not trust it blindly, and if necessary also use a search engine or ask the chatbot to justify its answer: Why did you recommend that? Why are flights particularly cheap in that period?
And do not forget: Never enter any personal data or other sensitive information. – dpa
