The answer would be no, which is what I expected, because not only was I browsing information available on different websites, but my brain was constantly comparing options and making choices based on my travel experiences. Following some previous examples of using ChatGPT for travel planning (Beebom.com 2023, Halpern 2023), I experiment with two different generative AI models – ChatGPT (version 3.5) and Bard powered by Google. I see the characteristics and limitations of both AI models.
This year, I decide to make early plans for the coming holiday season before the price of flights and hotels skyrockets. Ever since I took on the role of “planner” for assignments and later at work, I know that I am good at making travel plans for myself and people who travel with me. My plans always make sure to include the major tourist attractions, shopping spots, nice restaurants, and cozy stays within the agreed budget. However, my perfectionism often slows me down when making such plans. For example, as well as looking at distances to attractions, I would also look at safety information before deciding where to stay. Reading through low-star reviews to have a realistic expectation of the hotel is another habit of mine. I wonder if I could be assisted by generative AI, having learnt about many applications of this technology in the class.
Since the default version of ChatGPT-3.5 has very limited access to data after 2021, I also went to Bard for real-time answers. Since I already know that our destination is Prague, I typed in the first prompt – “I am planning to visit Prague. Tell me more about the city and what I can do there when I visit with some friends in early November 2023.”
I have already noticed that Bard, powered by Google Search, provides images and links to websites for each tourist attraction recommendation. It also searched for me some information about early November events. This is different from ChatGPT’s text-to-text (only) mode. I find the direct links very useful.
My next step is to plan our travel itinerary. The prompt for Bard and ChatGPT is – “Create an Itinerary for a 5-day trip to Prague. Make sure to include the most beautiful yet safe places for girls to explore. We expect a moderate amount of things to do and we are very interested in visiting nice cafes and vintage shops”. As I expected, Bard provides images and links, presumably from Google products such as the search engine and maps. The itinerary that Bard provides is rather basic, not mentioning much about the things that we show our interest in (visiting nice cafes and vintage shops) from the prompt. ChatGPT, however, clearly knows that this is our main interest while visiting Prague.
For ChatGPT, a follow-up question asks for the names of cafes and shops it would recommend, and the result is very different from Bard’s recommendation. I asked ChatGPT and Bard about their criteria for finding these cafes and shops and they gave similar answers about ratings, locations, and variety of choice. ChatGPT seems to pay more attention to letting us taste the local flavor.
Since I think accommodation and flights are much more expensive compared to other expenses in a trip, I moved directly to asking about accommodation and flight information.
“For accommodation, we are looking for options of no more than €50 per person per night for 4 of us. Keep the itinerary in mind and make sure it’s not too far from the things we want to do. You can also show me some low-star rating reviews for my reference along with any of your recommendations”.
It was at this point that the limitations of both AIs were made very clear in answering my questions: ChatGPT got the price wrong (Bard was relatively right about the price per person per night), presumably due to the AI’s limited access to 2023 data, and its recommendations are very limited to hostels. When I asked why they didn’t list women-only hostels as one of the top options, given that I mentioned “safe for girls” in the itinerary-generating prompt, and why they didn’t list any Booking.com properties, both AIs said that 1) they didn’t catch the importance of recommending women-only or female-friendly places to stay, 2) they were trying to keep their recommendations simple without providing a long list of properties from travel platforms like Booking.com, and 3) they wanted to encourage me to prioritize our preferences when choosing places to stay.
I asked both AIs a follow-up question to regenerate their answers and this time base their recommendations on information from Booking.com. The results were a little disappointing for me, as some to hostels and hotels were repeated (as if they were the only places these AIs knew in Prague). To my surprise, ChatGPT clearly still remembers the set budget range ≤ €50 per person per night, and Bard seems to have forgotten it completely.
For the flights, ChatGPT’s answer is very different from Bard’s as I provide the exact dates of our planned trip. Unlike Bard, who uses Google Flights to show me the exact screenshots, ChatGPT can only give a very rough estimate, such as “on average, you can expect to pay around €100-€200 for a one-way ticket”.
My experiment stops here because I have already asked about all the key questions in making a travel plan – how to get there, what to do, and where to stay. As a person trying to add value by making such plans, my human brain work probably only starts here, and I would not rest until I had narrowed down my options for flights, accommodation and food. It is more than clear that these two AI models could not be of much help to me in comparing the choices – since our preferences are unknown to them, and they can probably never “understand” every single requirement that a human would consider important, especially when some of the preferences are hidden and/or culturally specific (such as the connection between “all girls” and “safety”). What I do find is mostly about the differences between how ChatGPT and Bard construct their answers: ChatGPT understands my question better and uses naturalized language to make recommendations, whereas Bard can provide real-time information and illustrate its answers by inserting images and links. This means that even if my question is not fully answered by ChatGPT, which it is quite often in this experiment, our conversation will continue, and the model would make sure to include what I mentioned earlier (e.g. the budget) in its answers. Compared to Bard, which is more like an advanced version of Google Search, in that it can automatically tell me what to look at when I suggest my questions, ChatGPT does more than just respond to each individual question. This ability makes ChatGPT stand out for being more intelligent.
Here are my conclusions:
- Use Bard to get real-time answers and direct links when you are thinking about booking flights and looking for restaurant suggestions.
- Use ChatGPT to brainstorm for inspiration, such as what to do when visiting a new place. This can be achieved through natural, conversational questions and answers. For ChatGPT in particular, the model is all about giving ideas that can be used regardless of time.
- Avoid asking ChatGPT and Bard to give you a list of all the nice places to stay and eat, because that is not how they work. What they can list as names for people to choose from is very limited, and you still have to keep telling them your preferences in order for them to prioritize the list for you, and it usually doesn’t work out the way you want because they can’t really tell the difference between a “good, but…” and a “nice to have” (or maybe it’s just me being picky).
In the end, it’s fun to play with the AI models and get some recommendations on attractions, cafes, and vintage shops from them, but I’m afraid that I still have to make my own plans for Prague and will also be looking for recommendations from specialized platforms like Tripadvisor, Instagram, and Xiaohongshu.
References
Beebom.com (2023). How to Use ChatGPT for Travel Planning. Accessed 2 October 2023, https://beebom.com/how-use-chatgpt-travel-planning/.
Halpern, A. (2023). I Let ChatGPT Plan My Vacation—Here’s What It Got Right and Oh-So Wrong. Accessed 2 October 2023, https://www.cntraveler.com/story/i-let-chatgpt-plan-my-vacation.
Thank you for this breakdown of your experience with both ChatGPT and Bard in the context of travel planning. It was really insightful. From your analysis and my personal experience as well, it’s clear that ChatGPT, despite its limitations in real-time data access, offers a more personalized conversational experience. It can generate responses that feel more attuned to a user’s individual needs, whereas Bard, with its integration into the Google Workspace, comes across as a highly functional tool, but perhaps less of a “companion” in conversations.
It’s interesting to reflect also on how these AI models were created. ChatGPT has been OpenAI’s main product, designed to imitate human conversation, while Bard, being an extension of Google’s ecosystem, naturally feels like an advanced, integrated search tool.
On a personal note, I tried using ChatGPT for trip planning myself and faced similar limitations. However, I did stumble upon the possibility of integrating Kayak through a plugin in the paid version of ChatGPT, which presents a possibility to further explore and try out it for the goal of travel planning.
In conclusion, while both models have their strengths and weaknesses, it is certain that they are both helpful but do not reach the potential for a thorough and extensive analysis. Thanks again for sharing your observations.
From your experience, it is evident that ChatGPT can provide objective and relatively long-lasting information, such as listing tourist attractions and suggesting route plans. However, when it comes to subjective or real-time information, ChatGPT may not be as competent. For instance, providing subjective information like restaurant recommendations and real-time data such as hotel or flight prices is not within ChatGPT’s strong suit. In other words, ChatGPT’s effectiveness or capability is relatively weaker when dealing with subjective and time-sensitive information. Is this interpretation correct?
Thank you for sharing your findings from using both Chatgpt and Bard with us. I agree with you that ChatGPT is not the right tool to ask for pricing or any other information that requires internet access. Bard is indeed a good replacement to use looking for pricing. And of course yourself, you know what you want to see, what interests you and where the hidden gems are (e.g. because of social media).
There are few things that chatgpt is still very useful in this case.
First you can already write down the places where you want to go (e.g. food places, attractions, etc.). Then with the information that you have, you could ask chatgpt how to plan these activities out in the week.
Giving input for your chatgpt is very useful. because sometimes you may not know how to plan your days out, but chatgpt can help you with it.