Checking AI-written travel details before sending

You can't spot a wrong detail by reading for sense. AI errors read perfectly well. You have to compare the text with the source, one fact at a time.

Why the errors look right

An AI answer that states something false as if it were fact is called a hallucination¹. Chatbots can slip believable falsehoods into their text¹.

The reason goes back to how these models are built. Many are first taught to predict the next word². A date that fits the sentence is as natural to the model as a date that's correct. The tool isn't lying. It can't feel the difference.

So the usual signs of a mistake, such as awkward wording, may be missing. Your check has to work without them.

What goes wrong most

These are the places to look. They aren't a statistic. They're simply the facts that matter most and that a tool can silently change.

• Dates. Swapped day and month, a shifted day, or a wrong weekday.
• Times. Mixed clock styles, or a time with no place attached.
• Names. Misspelt surnames, a swapped first and last name, a dropped middle name.
• Places. Similar city, airport or hotel names. Wrong country.
• Reference numbers. A transposed character. A booking is found by its record locator³, so one wrong character can point to nothing.
• Added facts. Opening hours, tips, attractions or "typical" prices the tool offered unprompted.
• Dropped facts. A leg of the trip or a traveller quietly left out.

The routine

1. Open the source. The booking record, supplier confirmation or your notes. Put it beside the draft, not behind it.
2. Read the draft line by line. For each fact, find it in the source. Tick it.
3. Check what's missing. Count travellers, nights and legs in the source, then in the draft.
4. Hunt for additions. Anything in the draft with no match in the source gets deleted or confirmed from a reliable page.
5. Search for placeholders. Look for the square brackets or capital letters you used to mark unknowns.
6. Read names and numbers aloud. Character by character. It's slower and it works.
7. Get a second pair of eyes on big trips. Someone else reads the draft with only the source in hand.

Make the tool easier to check

You can reduce the work before the draft arrives.

• Ask it to use only the facts you paste in.
• Ask it to put dates in one format and say which.
• Ask it to list every fact it used, in a short table next to the message. You then compare a clean list, not a paragraph.
• Ask it to mark anything it was unsure about.

These requests don't make the tool reliable. They make its mistakes easier for you to see.

What the check can't fix

Some questions can't be settled by comparing against your own records. Entry requirements, insurance terms, health advice and safety warnings come from official sources and suppliers, and change over time. Don't paraphrase them from a draft. Link to or name the official source and let the client read it there.

Keep a record

Save the checked version and the source side by side with the booking. If a client or supplier disputes a detail later, you can see what was sent and what it was checked against. A short note, such as "checked against supplier confirmation, initials, date", is enough.

When to skip the tool

If a message is two lines long and almost all facts, typing it yourself can be quicker than checking a draft. The tool earns its place on longer, wording-heavy messages, not on a confirmation with six numbers in it.