The Five-Star Illusion: How AI and Fake Reviews Are Warping the Way We Travel
The supposed promise of the internet is simple: an endless trove of information, guiding us toward the best experiences the world has to offer. Need a restaurant recommendation in Paris? A cozy café in Lisbon? A must-visit gelateria in Rome? With a few taps, thousands of reviews appear, offering a neatly ranked list of the ‘so-called’ best spots in town.
Last summer, I put my faith in this system. I embarked on a dream trip—a study abroad program in Ireland followed by three and a half months of travel across Europe. Like countless other travelers, I turned to the digital world to plan my itinerary. Before setting foot in a new city, I’d do my due diligence: scrolling through Google reviews, checking TripAdvisor rankings, and skimming Yelp for hidden gems. Each search promised to lead me to the top-rated, can’t-miss places.
But as I hopped from country to country, wandering through the historic streets of Rome, the sun-drenched beaches of the Amalfi Coast, and the bustling avenues of Barcelona—I started to notice something strange. Nearly every restaurant in the busiest tourist districts had a near-perfect five-star rating. The “top-rated” spots, packed with travelers clutching their phones and following their GPS to their next meal, often turned out to be underwhelming, overpriced, and, in some cases, outright tourist traps.
Meanwhile, some of the best meals I had, the kind that linger in your memory long after the trip is over—came from places that barely had an online presence. The tiny taverna in a tucked-away alley in Athens, where an old Greek couple served grilled octopus and ouzo with a smile. The hole-in-the-wall pizza shop in Naples, recommended by a local who scoffed at the idea of waiting two hours in line for a more famous, review-saturated alternative. The café in Lisbon that served the best pastel de nata I had ever tasted, but had barely 50 reviews on Google.
The Growing Problem of AI-Generated Reviews
At first, I brushed it off as an odd coincidence. But the pattern repeated itself in city after city. And then I realized: the entire system of online reviews, the one we’ve been trained to trust, was starting to collapse under its own weight.
With the rise of artificial intelligence, fake reviews have become nearly indistinguishable from real ones. AI-generated content can churn out convincing, human-like praise in seconds, flooding platforms with glowing recommendations for businesses that may not have earned them. Meanwhile, paid promotions and sponsored rankings push certain restaurants and hotels to the top, regardless of quality.
A study published in PNAS found that only about half of consumers can reliably distinguish between AI-generated and human-written reviews. This growing challenge is not just theoretical—real-world consequences are already emerging. Balázs Kovács, a professor of organizational behavior at Yale School of Management, has tracked the evolution of online restaurant reviews since the early 2000s. Initially, user-generated content was rooted in genuine experiences, but today, AI-powered tools can fabricate persuasive, long-form reviews from just a few simple prompts. As Kovács notes, “These tools are sophisticated and sound almost human-like”.
As a result, consumers are navigating an internet where the truth is increasingly difficult to find. And for travelers, this means that the restaurants, cafés, and hotels that genuinely deserve recognition are often buried beneath an avalanche of manufactured praise.
Why Word-of-Mouth is Making a Comeback
As I learned firsthand, the best recommendations didn’t come from a five-star rating or a carefully curated “Best Restaurants in Paris” list. They came from real people I trusted—a local bartender, a friend of a friend who had lived in Madrid, a fellow traveler I met at a hostel in Berlin.
It’s why we are coming out with NowYouKnow to push back against the AI-generated noise, and to cut the BS. Instead of relying on anonymous reviews that may or may not be real, we are shifting the focus back to word-of-mouth recommendations from people you actually know. The idea is simple: rather than sifting through thousands of questionable reviews, you only see recommendations from your friends and their friends. No sponsored posts. No AI-generated filler. Just honest, firsthand insights from a trusted network.
Because at the end of the day, a friend’s word is worth more than a thousand five-star reviews. And in an era where digital trust is fading, that’s exactly what we need to find our way back to real, authentic experiences.