A Rochdale-based cruise specialist agent landed a booking worth £16,000 from a new customer more than 200 miles away in London, thanks to ChatGPT.
Andy Sharples from Cruise and Travel Holidays, part of the Midcounties Co-operative group, said the enquiry for a seven-night Mediterranean cruise for a family of five came in late on a Friday afternoon from an American woman living in London.
“I asked how she found me and she said via ChatGPT,” Andy told Travel Gossip.
“She didn’t say exactly what she put into her search, but I assumed it was something like, ‘find me a travel agent specialising in cruise who offers a personal service’. She said her search returned 20 agents and she researched them all and said she decided to call me because I ‘seem to offer a very personal service’.
“I do get people ringing and saying, ‘Your reviews are fantastic,’ so I’m assuming that’s where ChatGPT picked it up from.” He said he assumed ChatGPT has scrolled his Google reviews as he’s not on Trustpilot or any other review sites.
The customer’s enquiry was for a seven-night Mediterranean cruise on MSC World Europa, travelling within a three-week window in August.
“Initially, the family of five requested two interconnecting balcony cabins. However, after discussing options, the booking evolved into two Yacht Club suites – one for the parents and one for the children, who are in their late teens.
“After I priced up the booking with my client joining the cruise at Genoa, it totalled £16,000 for the week,” he added. “And MSC commission is good.”
Andy said his business relies almost entirely on repeat clients and organic enquiries. “I haven’t done any paid advertising since before COVID,” he said. “I’ve just built it up slowly over the years and I’ve got a very good repeat base. My average booking value sits at around £6,500. And in the last two years, my sales have been between £600,000 and £700,000 a year.”
Several other agents told Travel Gossip they had received enquiries and/or bookings from ChatGPT in recent weeks.
One said a customer had failed to find what she wanted online, so she’d asked the artificial intelligence chatbot to recommend a local travel agent instead; another said he’d just closed a booking for a client who came into his store after finding him on ChatGPT.
One agent, based in the Canary Islands, landed a Grand Prix booking after the clients used ChatGPT to search for FI packages in Qatar, and they were recommended. “We’ve been to this event for the last two years, our personal knowledge about the event converted the quote request into a booking,” said the agent.
Agents have also noticed clients double-checking their itineraries and prices on ChatGPT before booking.
When Travel Gossip asked the AI bot how it selects agents it recommends, it said it searches a ‘mix of trusted, verifiable directories, including ABTA, AITO, Advantage and TTNG’, together with customer review sites such as Trustpilot, Google Business Reviews, Feefo and Which? Travel. It said it also looks for mentions of agents in the UK travel press and consumer publications.
