Gemini, Google’s chatbot, can now use Extensions that allow it to integrate responses to users with information retrieved from other services, such as Google Flights and Hotels. We therefore tried to organize a week’s stay for the next summer holidays using Gemini’s chat, also to understand if and how useful his advice could be to save something.
Google Extensions for Gemini arrive in Italy. Integrations with documents, emails, maps and flight and hotel searches
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The tests involved trips to the Azores, Sicily and Paris for different numbers of people and with different requests, for example two- and three-star hotels and B&Bs. The results, although with differences based on the destination, can largely be summarized by the test carried out for Paris and which we are going to illustrate.
Things to know before letting AI organize a holiday
We approached the tests as people who were not familiar with technology but who knew about these capabilities of Gemini.
Chatting very freely, as if we were talking to a friend about the trip to organize and adding details along the way, can lead to imprecise answers or forgetting the model, for example the holiday period.
It is therefore advisable to immediately present Gemini with a short but sufficiently clear scenario with the details of the holiday you want to take. This tip applies to all uses of chatbots, and not just to Gemini: the clearer and more orderly the request is, the better the response obtained.
Gemini, organize my trip and stay in Paris!
For our Parisian holiday we posed this scenario to Gemini in this way: “I have to organize a holiday in Paris from June 8th to June 15th. We are two adults and a 13 year old child. The flight must depart from Milan and must also consider the return. I prefer cheap flights. The hotel in Paris must be a three star.”
Using the Google Flights and Google Hotel Extensions, Gemini then started searching for flights and hotels, respecting our requests and showing a list with travel and accommodation options accompanied by the prices for each proposal.
In the more specific list of flights, Gemini showed a link to the Paris Pass, a tourist offer that allows you to visit the city’s attractions at an advantageous price. But the link (even wrong) is that of a well-known translator. In the use of Extensions we have often seen Gemini do this. But in any case the information on the Paris Pass can be useful.
Finally, Gemini has produced a new list of hotels with images too.
Having everything we needed, we started with the choice of flight. Among those proposed, the Wizz Air route seemed the most convenient and with a suitable departure time to be able to immediately enjoy part of the holiday in Paris.
However, only the outward flight is present in the list, indicated for three people and with a price of “156 euros return”. Which is a little ambiguous because it seems incredibly low.
Then we remembered that in the previous list, again regarding flights, Gemini had talked about cost per person.
However, you still have to click on the flight and find out how things are on Google Flights. By interacting with the site, after having actually chosen the flight proposed by Gemini, Google Flights also suggests the return that we decide to accept. However, the screen shown to us is incredible, because from the way it is written it seems that the Milan-Paris round trip for three people costs a total of 151 euros.
However, we choose to proceed with the booking by purchasing tickets directly on the Wizz Air company website. Next to the “Continue” button we are shown a cost of 156 euros. Again without indicating that it is actually a price per person.
Things, obviously, are very different from those initially proposed by Gemini and then by Google Flights because, at the end of the purchase process on the Wizz Air website, the price for the Milan-Paris round trip for two adults and a child is 461.67 euros.
A little disappointed and thinking of returning later on the flight, we try to choose the place of our stay. That B&B with a view of the Eiffel Tower at 152 euros per night immediately catches your attention. Studio apartment, balcony and restaurant with terrace. It looks like a really nice setup.
By clicking on the link provided by Gemini we land on a Google Travel page where we can see some photos of the B&B and book the room.
However, both by clicking on “Book a room” and “Visit the site”, the links take us to an error page on the B&B Hotels site.
We liked the property, so we decided to look for it directly on B&B Hotels. We find it and decide to book for 7 nights for 2 adults and a child. The cost is 963.05 euros. Slightly lower than the 152 euros per night indicated by Google.
Prices “outside” Gemini
Trying to search for the same solutions on the Internet, therefore also relying on offers for the same flights and the same B&B, we found that booking the return tickets has the same price, while the B&B through Booking.com has a period of lower booking (8-13 June) and costs 1,484 euros.
Even though Gemini initially gave us a broken B&B Hotels link, the direct reference to the site actually saved us money by covering even more nights, i.e. the ones we requested.
Can Gemini help organize holidays?
The other tests gave similar results for the correct indication of flights and hotels, with some difficulties with the final information. For example, for the Azores the flight included a stopover with arrival in Lisbon during the night. We needed temporary accommodation for the next morning’s flight but Gemini was unable to give us information on the maximum check-in time in the chosen Portuguese hotel: information that we found on the facility’s website.
For the trip to Sicily, we chose Ganzirri and here we were given the wrong solution. Gemini initially told us that he couldn’t find flights to Ganzirri, but then we made him understand that it was enough to land us at an airport near him, and he indicated the Reggio Calabria airport. But he didn’t tell us anything about the ferry. When we pointed this out to him he told us that we don’t need a ferry to go from Reggio to Ganzirri.
Evidently for Gemini the bridge over the strait is a done deal.
Overall, Gemini can be a tool to have a sufficiently clear picture of the organization of your holidays. However, for more complex trips it needs to break in its mechanisms a little more.
Worse than him is Google Flights which, in our opinion, provides information that is easily misinterpretable and which instead should be provided with greater clarity.
