Handing your whole holiday over to a chatbot? Most people aren't there yet. A new survey of 3,250 travellers across eight countries — France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US — found that only 44% would be comfortable letting artificial intelligence plan their itinerary from start to finish.
The poll, run by hospitality software company Mews, shows a clear gap between how we use AI now and what the industry imagines. When it comes to practical, low-stakes tasks, travellers are already sold: 63% use AI to track hotel rates, and 56% rely on it for real-time translation. In other words, people want AI to save them money and hassle in the moment, not to make the creative calls about where to go and what to see.
The data question is even more revealing. Hotels are increasingly keen to use AI to personalise stays, but travellers draw a sharp line over where that information comes from. Only 43% are okay with AI using their online browsing behaviour, and just 34% would accept data scraped from their social media. Yet the same people are far more generous when the data is information they've chosen to share: 61% are happy for hotels to use stated preferences, and 56% don't mind past stay history being used. The message is simple — tell us what you're doing with our data, and ask us first.
Attitudes also differ noticeably by country. Italian travellers are the most bullish about AI's role in travel over the next five years, at 51% optimism against a 39% average, while Spaniards report the most positive overall attitude towards the technology at 58%. Northern Europeans, by contrast, appear more cautious — a useful signal for anyone wondering why their hotel app experience feels different depending on where they're staying.
Mews' Chief Product and Technology Officer Josef Starýchfojtů framed it as a hospitality problem rather than a tech one: hotels need to know whether a guest wants a task done for them or wants to be involved, and getting that wrong makes even good AI feel intrusive. His pitch is that technology should absorb the repetitive admin — the rate checks, the confirmations, the faff — so hotel staff have more time for actual guests.
For travellers, the takeaway is reassuring rather than alarming. AI isn't about to take over trip planning against your will; it's settling into a supporting role. Use it to watch prices before you book, to translate a menu or a train announcement, and to nudge your hotel about the things you've already told it you like. The itinerary — and the joy of arguing about it over dinner — is still yours.
