Interesting review of Naples suite hotel on booking.com—-AI generated?

very formulaic - I think you're right

I wonder if it is owner generated via a made up guest

You're right, Lola. 'Real' people generally don't write reviews in, what I call, "Ad Speak", which this definitely is. I ran it through AI text detector https://www.zerogpt.com and it came up as 100% AI/GPT generated.

There is another review that, translated, also sounds suspiciously like "Ad Speak."
2 in a row from a Giovanna.
No TA reviews
2 useless google reviews
1 on Hotels.com that's suspect
Given that, 15 is sort of a baffling amount of booking.com reviews?
Suspicious amount of "Exceptional" ratings all around (but that's just IMHO)

I did not consider that it might be owner-generated. Now THAT would lead me to reject this property. I will keep searching.

I think people are way too paranoid about AI generated language. If it even is AI (and you don't know that for sure), it doesn't mean the review is not legitimate. It's possible the person is not a good writer and wanted some help because they enjoyed their stay. Or it's possible that's how the person writes. Regardless, do what you do with all places–look at all the reviews and see if this matches what others say.

Generally, most reviews are a few sentences. This one seems excessive and for that reason I wouldn’t give it much weight as I compared other choices and reviews.

I won’t select any lodging that has less than approximately 30 reviews on Booking.com. I saw in the past a set of reviews that showed me that friends/relatives were staying at each other’s locations to try to get the listings going. They were all in a very small town, and the reviewers names and descriptions compared to the owners names and little profiles made it pretty obvious that this is what they did to launch their lodgings.

This really shakes my confidence in booking dot com reviews (previously I had found their reviews generally pretty credible, though of course subject to the usual nonsense posted by people simply ranting). Extremely disappointing.

I cannot even find a listing for ATARooms Suites on Tripadvisor. Just booking.com, Expedia, and Hotels.com.

An interesting thing about Tripadvisor is that they actually have AI-generated “summaries” of the reviews of some hotels. Like this one in Venice I picked at random:

Hotel Rialto enjoys a coveted position right next to the iconic Rialto Bridge, which guests find exceptionally convenient for exploring the city and its attractions. While the hotel's rooms receive mixed reviews for their size and modernity, the authentic Venetian atmosphere and cleanliness are widely commended.

Visitors often appreciate the picturesque canal views and the warm, accommodating service provided by the staff, though opinions on the hotel's value and the extent of amenities vary. Despite some calls for updates, many travelers enjoy the unique charm and strategic location that Hotel Rialto offers.

Here is another, this one iin Naples:

Grand Hotel Santa Lucia earns rave reviews for its elegant ambiance and prime seafront location, with guests frequently lauding the comfortable and clean rooms that offer charming views. While some have found the rooms to be on the smaller side or lacking brightness, the hotel's overall cleanliness and the friendly, professional service provided by the staff are consistently praised.

The amenities, especially the jacuzzi and the sumptuous breakfast, add to the hotel's appeal, although opinions on value for money do vary.

These are clearly labeled as such with the statement. “This summary was created by AI, based on recent reviews.” Where the AI summary is included, it appears above the first review. But not all listings have this. I wonder if they ask the hotel before adding it. The Naples one is from Grand Hotel Santa Lucia, which is a TA “Travelers Choice” hotel.

After reading a few of these, it was pretty easy to recognize the AI style in the ATA Rooms review. And Mardee, it is not that I am necessarily paranoid about AI, but if this one is owner-generated (as it appears to be) that makes it a “fake review” and I do not want to reward that bad behavior.

So it may be AI generated, the question becomes, WHY? As was pointed out in the very beginning of the original post, it came from Georgia not in the USA, which makes English the posters second language at best. Since AI is now available to anyone with a few bucks to spare, he may well have simply used AI to compose a recommendation in what is to him a foreign language. It's also possible that AI was used at the other end of the line to do the translation from Georgian to English.

I always take reviews with a grain of salt since I have seen some places we have stayed at and know to be very nice given reviews that run from good the Black Hole of Calcutta.

I look at the unregulated internet as a great convenience for traveling but when I look at its dark side, I wish it had not been invented. Ai is the internet raised to a power. In both cases, the first liar doesn't have a chance.

AI-generated content is about as easy to recognize as the writing style used in the emails you receive from the attorney representing the estate of your long lost relative whom you've never heard of, who died in a far away land sitting on millions of dollars with no will...

Booking dot com - and any business that cares about its reputation - should be very careful here. I've used booking dot com more than a little for many years. One reason is that the reviews there appear credible (allowing for the usual online rants from cranky folks). Maybe that's changing - companies get greedy and it's tempting for them to compromise their principals if they think they can squeeze out better financial results.

But allowing any kind of AI-generated content like that runs a huge reputational risk, and one that may never be recoverable (once trust is lost, it's very hard to re-establish). I for one will be much more wary (and less inclined to use the company at all) seeing stuff like this.

I am going with a person and not AI. I think this is a travel type writer, probably rented a room and placed the review with the owner's knowledge. All the owner had to do was return the payment to the writer and paid a fee for the review to be written.

If I approached an owner and said I can give you this review on Booking and all we have to do is just let me place a reservation on Booking, you pay the Booking fee, pay me a fee for writing this review and return my room rental. There you go. A review by a paid legit (on the surface) Booking person. Booking has no idea that a deal was made at the hotel between the owner and a travel writer who posed as a real guest.

Looks like a loophole Booking needs to plug with hotel owners. I would guess this writer is making a nice little living doing this under different names on Booking. My theory anyway.

I don’t think any travel writer worth the name would call the view of Garibaldi Square in Naples “ charming”.
And the mixing of pros and cons in one sentence seems to be a hallmark of AI written reviews. Look at the other ones Lola posted—- admitted to be AI.

Maybe someone did receive payment for posting this review but I’d say they had “help” in writing it.

I guess it doesn't really matter who wrote it, a human or AI. The fact remains, if we believe a human doesn't have the talent (?) to write in this manner, than there is some shortfall in Booking's review process. Unless it is found and fixed, Booking will be no better than Trip Advisor in the future. That's too bad because many people rely on real customers offering reviews. Might be worth asking Booking to investigate any examples. I am sure they would appreciate the notification.

I guess it doesn't really matter who wrote it, a human or AI.

That review is definitely "ad speak" and was written by a professional writer of some type. As one with university training in writing using the English language, I (and many others) can write that way. But, as a normal reviewer of anything, do we? If you believe that, I've a bridge I'd like to sell.

@Threadwear,
Something you said caught my attention--Booking.com being no better than Trip Advisor. Do you find Trip Advisor unreliable?

I am not Threadwear but I certainly do.

I used to be a frequent user of Tripadvisor when I thought that most of the reviews were genuine. Certainly the couple of hundred that I wrote were, and I had some TA recognition. Since most of the reviews now, or at least vey many of them, are reviewed for money or completely made up I never even look at TA anymore, and I certainly don't waste my time writing there anymore.

Agree to a large degree with Nigel, above. While there are certainly lots of helpful, sincere (and honest) folks on TA, there's also a lot of dishonest, manipulative, controlling, and spammy commercial nonsense there - and that's not just because they don't crack down on a few bad actors. It's in the DNA of the site and its owners' agenda (monetizing YOU).

TA is a very mixed bag but certainly not anywhere near what I'd consider reliable and trustworthy. Especially the "reviews" (but not limited to just what appear to be reviews).

Nigel and David, thank you both. I appreciate your candor and your insight. I used to write a lot of TA reviews—honestly and uncompensated. I had no idea it has become so monetized.