Planning and booking a trip through ChatGPT? In many articles on the internet, you read positive stories about ChatGPT’s convenience in planning and booking your trip. But is it really that convenient? And do you really get the results you hope for, or do you end up getting cheated? In this blog, I share my experiences when planning and booking a trip with ChatGPT. Read my findings now!
For my short research, I decided to choose a place where I have travelled before and thus have experiences. Because I do want to be able to see immediately if the results match my requirements. My trip will be along the east coast of Australia.
My prompt: Make a travel plan for me for the east coast of Australia for a 2-week round trip. In this, include hotels with an average price range and also give me fun tours to do in the area.

Many popular spots, few unique experiences
What immediately stands out to me is that the suggested destinations are Sydney, Byron Bay, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast & Noosa, Airlie Beach & Whitsundays, and Cairns & Great Barrier Reef. These are the most well-known and popular spots on the east coast. So, ChatGPT provides a very general selection with little surprise. As a traveler, you would, of course, also want to visit some lesser-known places to have a more unique experience. Think, for example, of destinations like Port Douglas, Magnetic Island, Daintree, or Mackay. You can, of course, ask for more unique locations, but that means you’ve already realized that these are the most popular ones.
Overpriced accommodation
Something that immediately stands out to me is that ChatGPT doesn’t fully listen to my request. For Sydney, it recommends Rydges Sydney Central, which is a beautiful hotel in Sydney CBD, but not in the mid-range price category that I asked for. It costs 258 euro (432 AUD) per night, which, in my opinion, falls into the higher-end segment. When I re-enter my query and adjust it to: “Create a two-week east coast Australia travel itinerary for me, including hotels in a lower price range but with a good location, and suggest fun tours in the area,” instead of a hotel, I get a budget hostel as a recommendation. That, again, does not align with my request.
In the next part of my research, I asked the following question: Where can I book this trip?
Many organisations rated poorly
ChatGPT provided me with a clear overview that included flights, accommodations, tours, and transportation. However, one thing immediately stood out: the travel agencies and companies recommended by ChatGPT tend to have poor reviews on online review platforms. This means the system does not automatically take traveler experiences into account but instead seems to rely on an algorithm that prioritizes a company’s popularity and website ranking. When booking a trip, you naturally want to see the best-rated providers first. So, you can’t blindly trust the suggested results.
No personal touch
Another important observation is that the results are not showing a personal touch. Where can you find those hidden gems that are less popular but absolutely worth visiting? And why does ChatGPT recommend that particular hotel in Sydney? A good location is nice, of course, but is the room clean, and is the staff friendly? Of course, you can ask follow-up questions, but in that time you might as well check the website yourself or read a blog where you can find a much more personal experience. The information feels very detached and doesn’t convince me to book that specific hotel or tour.
No local guides or organizations
What also stands out to me is that no local organizations are mentioned at all. The companies and organizations that appear are all big names, likely already familiar to most people. But where is that one small business offering a truly unique tour and receiving great reviews from travelers? The selection is very limited and doesn’t seem to go beyond the major names. Especially in this day and age, it’s important to continue supporting local businesses. For me, this is yet another reason not to plan my trip this way and instead book my journey myself.
You’re missing out on the travel anticipation
Okay, this point might be very personal, but I think many other readers might relate to it as well. When planning and booking a trip through an AI-driven system, you really miss out on the excitement of trip planning. Since you’re immediately presented with a ready-made itinerary, you don’t have to figure much out yourself, and that’s exactly where the problem lies for me. Where has the joy of trip planning gone? When putting together your trip the old-fashioned way, you could already daydream about that perfect hotel you found or that unique tour you worked hard to discover online. In my opinion, the entire excitement and anticipation of trip planning disappears when you create a trip using ChatGPT.
A greater risk than searching and booking yourself
When consulting ChatGPT to put together a round trip, you have a higher risk of coming across websites that are not affiliated with industry associations. This brings a greater risk with booking a trip when something unexpected happens at your travel destination and you have to cancel the trip. It is therefore always smart to carefully check the websites you visit through ChatGPT, as well as through search engines such as Google or Bing, whether they are affiliated with the well-known industry associations.
My advice for booking trips in Australia
But how should you plan and book an Australian trip in 2025? From my own experience, I can advise you to always do thorough research. Compare different travel agencies and, most importantly, check the reviews of those agencies. A great website where you can read reviews from other travelers is Trustpilot.
However, don’t just rely on these; also focus on the travel experiences of other travelers by exploring travel blogs. Personally, I often read travel blogs to get inspired. The great thing about travel blogs is that there’s always a real person behind them, whom you can even reach out to if you want to learn more about a destination or accommodation.
We can recommended the following travel companies to plan a new trip in Australia:
- Renting a car in Australia, we can highly recommended DiscoverCars. They score 4.5 out of 5 stars on Google reviews out of more than 36000 reviews. Search for your rental car in Australia now
- Booking tours in Australia: we can recommended GetYourGuide. They score 4 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot out of more than 39000 reviews. Search for your tours in Australia now
- Booking your hotels in Australia: we still a big fan of Booking.com. We never had some bad experience with Booking.com. Search for your accommodation in Australia now